A lot of people don't know this, but there's two forms of critique or critism:
-
Constructive Which means this actually helps the artist
-
Destructive This is the most common kind of critism by far, and I've experienced both. My new general rule is, if I want your opinion, I'll ask; Not everyone with a keyboard knows art--they just know what they do and don't like. Likewise, I sometimes come across comics where I've been asked to "give the meanest criticism you can"; These people are clearly into being abused ("Some people want to abuse you/Other people want to be abused", from a song), or are delusional. They already believe the work is perfect and nothing bad can be found in it.
How to fix it while helping: While I think "Don't quit your day job". what I say is, "You clearly have skill with line and inking. I suggest you find reference photos for backgrounds, since you're are blank just a little too often. Your writing doesn't make sense in chapter two, so remember to do your research first!"
Generally, people like my critiques as they do acknowledge the flaws, but mainly in the most current pages. There's nothing, NOTHING artists hate more than finishing a piece, having asked for advice, and later being told it's flawed. By the time it's inked, it's very hard to fix it--or motivate yourself to. Lots of artists here have two jobs, school, and so on, and may but up work even they aren't proud of because, well, it moves the story forward.
Firstly, every single comic, has good and bad elements. The most RECENT pages are the ones you should critique--all the others are old and extremely few artists will fix an old page, especially when we don't get paid for this. You don't have to like them--but your job in critiquing it is to help, not tell them how much they suck. If you've been doing this--you deserve the replies you got. You need to work on your communication skills and have some compassion; After all, we often use personal events from our lives in the work.
Secondly, if you don't draw a comic, or draw at all, you're likely to not help at all. Just tell these people this and they'll move on--if help is what they want. Younger artists often use critiquing as a deluded way to gain fans. It never works. Ever.
In my comic, the first chapter looks like I was drunk when I drew it; In reality I was fighting a condition, newly discovered, called endometriosis, that could have killed me. Every moment of my day was consumed with pain. When I began the comic, it was after my uncle died, leaving his master novel unwritten. So dying or not, dammit, I was gonna draw my story. Maybe it won't look the best or exactly how I'd like, but when you're slowly dying, these things don't seem like big deals. Current chapters look much better, since I got the surgery that cured me.
In one case, I had someone like yourself who decided (Without my asking, encouragement, or permission) to critique my comic. I knew this was really a way to act cruel; She had an accident a few years before that destroyed her emotional and empathy centers in the brain. This means she has no emotions, and no caring toward anyone aside herself. This is called sociopathy and it means someone with it is highly dangerous; All serial killers have sociopathy.
She began by saying "It's the art. I hate your style."
This was on voice chat, so not missing a beat, I said, "Okay, fuck you."
"And--wait, wha?"
"If you don't like it," I said, "You're never going to like it. You're just one person, and I have a bunch of fans who DO like it. So why should I make changes and stuff to make it appeal to you , when the most important person who needs to like it is me? So fuck you, you don't have to read it, you don't have to like it. Other people do."
She was flabbergasted. She was prepared to tell me how she would have done it, and knowing what I did about her, I was not interested. I instead found it somewhat hilarious, and almost made a criique blog called It sucks because I'd do it differently; Fair and Honest Critiques. No one thought it was funny but me.
At another time, I had a friend doing this. They were making people VERY angry and feeling betrayed, as this person, a close friend they thought, was beyond mean. I instantly had a plan.
"Critique my comic," I wrote them, "Do your worst. Call it total shit if you want---because people will click the link and some will like it, others won't agree with you, and all you have to do. . .is play the bad guy."
They wrote back saying they were never doing another one again because they didn't want to be the villain. While others had complained and begged for months for them to stop, I was able to make it happen. . .by asking for it. The fact was we were good friends and that makes a critique hard to do--it didn't mean my comic was perfect.
It just meant they realized they weren't helping, but hurting, and either way. . .still helping the artists.
To date, I've never had a bad review, but that's only recently. As a teenager, I got them constantly, and all they served to do was make me cry, as they pointed out problems, while offering no solutions. If you're gonna give someone a piece of your mind?
Be sure to include the part on how to fix it. Mostly, these are young kids with unhappy homes (85% of children in the US are abused), and they need help, encouragement, friendship, and a boost; What they don't need is one more person telling them how much they suck. They hear it constantly.
So, the bad reactions your getting? Mean you're not giving them help to fix the answers, and you're doing this to younger folks. You don't have to lie, but you can do them the small service of teaching them. And if they need help and you can't provide it--don't leave a comment. Or send them my way!
