Critique, Experience, and the Feeling of Powerlessness: A Self-Reflection

I completely get where you're coming from (I turn 38 this month, so we come from a similar timeline when you couldn't just google step by step how to draw x thing and so forth) and I do get it. My mother was a painter, something she didn't care to share any tips on. She was obsessed with attention of any sort and if that attention was on anything but her, it was bad. I got into art at a young age, probably ten or eleven, and I wanted to make cartoons. My mother constantly picked apart anything I made and it was incredibly destructive for my development and emotional well-being.

But the problem is that it wasn't constructive. It was just criticism. There were no suggestions, no support, nothing but "this is wrong and that looks bad" and so forth.

Praise has powerful benefits. A little praise from a follower can be enough to motivate me even when I just want to quit everything. But -constructive- criticism is so incredibly important, too. For me, that's hard to find. Ironically I've spent all day trying to find help on my own issue and my frustration with my current work and it's damn near impossible sometimes.

It doesn't help that the art community is truly ruthless and has been since the dawn of social media. The community acts as though everyone wants to support each other, but mostly it's half-assed interactions with the hope of directing the attention of people who are watching the interaction to your own work. "Oh I love your art, you should check out mine" sort of stuff. It's not sincere, most of the time. There are hidden gems, but undoubtedly the community is and likely always will be extraordinarily toxic by nature. I think this has a big impact on how vicious a lot of 'critique' can be. And then you have those without the education needed to properly offer critique who are just trying to be nice, give compliments, and don't offer much value beyond that (though I again would reference that praise is still important).

The competitive nature of the art industry is painfully destructive, and coupled with the jaded mentality of many of us who've been in the business way too long (aggressive but useful critique that is poisoned with callous undertones and "grow a backbone" mentality comes to mind) it's just a pit waiting for the next dreaming artist to be crushed in.

A sad fact, but one we can at least try to combat with kindness, wisdom, and understanding.

That's awesome! It's hard to find people like that. Funny enough I took some business management courses in college and the 'sandwich method' was the best thing I ever learned about. When I've worked in management in companies it's always been my go-to, and something I frequently recommend to everyone.

This post is a little too irrelevant and narcissistic, so -snip-

Mm, heavy stuff. I feel that...I think that's something all artists go through at one point or another (sometimes repeatedly...).
You can't know what you don't know...and just knowing isn't even enough. Most young artists are aware of the problems in their art, the differences between it and professional work...but they just haven't gotten hold of that 'x factor' that will help them actually make use of that awareness.

And when confronted with a critique from someone who doesn't understand what it's like to be in that position, who expects a mistake to just be immediately rectified (or to never have happened in the first place)...who wouldn't feel powerless?

Personally, however...I actually feel more powerless as I gain experience. ^^; Because eventually you get to a point where most people you run into just don't know how to help you anymore.

75% of art tutorials/advice is targeted towards learners and beginners, people who simply don't know things yet. So once you know things, suddenly the resources available to help you keep improving all but disappear. It's no longer enough to passively gather info and inspiration; you have to hunt down material that will teach you the finer and subtler points of your art, and pray that the people creating it know what they're talking about and how to explain it in a way you can understand. 'Cause, again, there aren't a lot of options.

And critique becomes a nightmare...most people will be nice, e.g. "I think it looks great; can't think of anything I would change!" But every one of those comments is like another nail in the coffin. ^^; They're sweet, but they aren't helpful. Worse yet, they imply that no one can even see what you're trying to accomplish, which can feel very isolating.

And then, there's that special population of commenters who seem to think "hm, I can't see any obvious flaws...so clearly the next best thing is to point out something I just don't like about this piece and present it as a flaw...!"
Or, they seize the opportunity to regurgitate the latest internet artist 'hot take' and pretend it'll be the answer to all your problems. Because if you aren't doing it, and you're unhappy with your art and not sure why...faulty logic leads to only one conclusion.

The worst part is, if you try to disagree with these people, you get painted as an ungrateful b!tch who was probably just fishing for compliments. And it makes total sense, unfortunately, because that's exactly what it looks like: when you leave the positive comments alone (because they aren't helpful) and only argue with people who give you advice (because it's BAD) and there isn't any good advice to prove otherwise, you just look like someone who can't handle critique.

The whole situation is tiring and discouraging, and after enough of these experiences, you just give up. I'm trying really hard to figure out what I still don't know and to teach it to myself, because I don't feel like I have any other options. I don't have any artists of my skill level to approach for advice, and going to the general public is just...well, see the above.
Occasionally I stumble across a good high-level tutorial while scrolling Twitter, but at all other times I really do feel pretty powerless.

I suppose I have a lot of conflicting opinions on critique, but I do like the approach your painting instructor took, namely explaining how to fix mistakes and the effect that the changes he suggested would have on the painting. In fact, I think that's one thing that's missing from a lot of critique, maybe from no fault on the critiquer's part. (Since critiquing is also a skill.)

For example, I've gotten critique like "I think your lines are too thick" or "your linework is more stiff than your sketches". These are things that I already knew ahead of time, so I could agree they were true. However, they left me with no new practical idea of how to fix the issue! In the end, I had to bumblelord my way into either better sense over time, or a teacher who explained some principle to click into place.

I've also gotten critique that turned out to be at least partially from a place of personal animus, and that's one type of critique I really dislike. IMO, critique should come from a place of wanting to help someone, rather than cut them down, make them do things your way, or make them feel unwelcome. That's one cutthroat part of the whole hobby shebang that I could really do without!

But critique from someone who knows what they're doing? They can instantly elevate your understanding, and that is incredibly valuable. I haven't had the experience of outgrowing beginner advice yet, but yeah

I think that's one of the reasons I don't usually ask for critique - I have no intention of changing the piece I'm showing my critics and the only thing I'd want out of it is an impression of my art skills in general so I know what direction to head in for the future. But if I don't respond to their particular criticisms and change that particular piece, I'll get paranoid about them thinking I'm being an ungrateful bitch who's ignoring their advice :'D

Yeah, I definitely felt powerless as a beginner. And I didn't need critique for that either; I could see the difference between my work and professional work without anyone pointing it out for me. Tutorials didn't help with the powerlessness either; for me it was less that I couldn't make my pics look right; I knew in theory I could make a faithful rendition of anything if I really wanted to, pixel by pixel.

It was that doing so would have to take herculean effort; combing through countless tutorials and references, editing and re-editing over and over again, perhaps spending months just for one image that didn't even have fancy shading or lighting. Imagine what I thought when I'd heard that even 1 minute of animation consisted of hundreds to thousand of images :'D

I felt like I wasn't getting any faster. When skilled artists say they can do it quickly after decades of practice, that just felt so long to me. Now that I'm older, a decades feels like nothing; I'm totally unfazed by the prospect that my comic will probably take a decade to complete

I totally feel less powerless now that I'm more experienced; I don't really feel the lack of resources because I just don't feel like I need any. As my art skills improved, so did my analytical abilities and if I feel like there's something off about my art, I can usually figure out why - if not immediately, then after sleeping on it a bit.

Maybe it's because I'm not in a rush to improve, or fix my art; if I actually kept track of things, I'd probably realize I actually take months to figure out what was wrong with my art, but it doesn't feel like a long time because my attention was elsewhere. I've got more things going on in my life now than I did as a kid; back then, I was pretty much always bored and didn't really have much to do except draw, so it was more frustrating when I couldn't turn around my failures immediately because I'm stuck in time with my failure with nothing else to occupy my attention XD

I totally feel you on the 'people thinking you're an ungrateful b!tch who was probably just fishing for compliments' think though :'D I've been on the other side too, where I've been trying to give advice to someone but it never seems to help, but I do try to actually figure out what the person was trying to go for and only dismiss them if they refuse to work with me and answer my attempts to clarify my understanding of their vision.

In general, I think critics need to realize that people's art problems aren't that easily solved; they've most certainly tried that 'obvious' solution you're about to suggest; and just because they've told you your suggestion didn't really help doesn't mean they never intended to listed to you to begin with. (I might not be one to talk though; it's not like I put in the effort to help many people these days, partly because I realize how labour intensive it is to properly listen and everything)

I know I've been fighting you in that other thread wrt (in)sincerity, but tbh I also can't bring myself to participate in 'support culture' XD I try not to give other people shit for doing it (I operate on the assumption that when people say they like their friends' work and think you should check it out, they do genuinely mean it), but I myself am a picky bastard and know for a fact that I will be acting insincerely if I proactively supported most people I talk to, and I myself don't like being 'supported' (I like people to interact with me because they feel like it, not because 'it's so hard being an artist these days so we artists need to stick together' or something :'D)

I don't think my general attitude towards critique has changed that much tbh; I can feel irritated about critique that doesn't really help with what I'm going for, but I actually consider critique to be somewhat of an ego boost, especially if it's unsolicited XD It's like 'wow, this person took time out of their day to engage with my work, without being asked!' Even if it's super negative and they say they hate my work in every way, I still kind of get a rush out of it (Unless their critique is moral rather than technical and they're saying I'm a terrible person for how I made the art, in which case it makes me very sad and I'll probably cry :'D)

That's not to say I've always taken criticism in stride though; I've definitely reacted defensively to criticism as a beginner (I think I responded to a solicited online critique with something like 'if i'm so bad then ...' (I honestly can't remember the rest of it but that's a turn of phrase I'd never use these days XD))

I've personally never understood that, I think both points of views are useful.

Wow, I'm the complete opposite of this lol

Yeah, I totally trust praise if it's given without my asking by strangers (and even sometimes people who know me), but if I ask for feedback and it's all positive I get a little skeptical XD Probably because I'm paranoid about sounding passive-aggressive all the time, so I worry that I've phrased my request in a way that sounds like I actually just want praise in the guise of looking for feedback :'D

Wait that actually makes sense now that you've explained it lol. I think most of the time, those people probably don't know what to look for to critique so they only see good in the work though.

@Scarlet_Cryptid You know what I learned to do? Stop asking for opinions from those who are unable to give constructive criticism. Not sure if you remember our convo's before, but you were the first to make me START to realize that way back on that one discord server (and I still am thankful for what all you pointed out for me!) After that, I only had more experiences that proved that notion right (well lol at least in my mind). If I didn't ask the right people, I ONLY got two types of responses, empty praise or empty criticism. Both left me feeling equally upset, guilty, ashamed, etc etc.

By this point in time, I have already established a small handful of people I trust to give insight I can utilize to better my craft, and I of course return the favors best I can from the knowledge I continue to gain over time.

So to think once more on your experiences you laid out for us, I think the same might apply to yours with your father? I mean hell I don't blame you one bit, but in my case that's the exact reason I never asked my family anything so far even after all these years - - I deep down somewhat feel I will resent the empty praise or critique I will get.

Oh wow, this sounds very similar to my dad. He is very information-based and doesn't really have any interests in arts, creativity, or writing. Being an engineer, he instilled in us that 1.) grades were important and 2.) we should be able to take criticism.

When I felt like I did well on an assignment, as you probably did with your lion picture, my dad would likely say something like "but why isn't it insert higher grade here? " I would typically feel dejected and might even be desuaded from showing my grades or even trying in class. I am naturally smart, and that isn't to toot my own horn or anything, but I didn't need to know how to study until college. With my dad' nice lil crictism I didn't develop the need to study. I was fine with basic grades.

Another thing he would critique is tennis. He would watch us closely and critique every little thing we did wrong. My dad was often away on business trips and would be be back on the weekends to watch us (siblings and I) play in tennis tournaments. We were not bad by any means. If we won it was acceptable, but every single error would feel like the end of the world. He would say "well you shouldn't have done x thing" or "you kept doing x thing and that's what brought your game down" or "this was too high level for you" etc etc.

With those experiences, my reception to criticism is about that much as dopamine. I have depression and ADHD, so that is literally none. (Not exactly how that works but I'll take the, erm, comparison). So, when someone tries to fix something in my writing, I'll become very defensive, narrow minded, and honest to god emotional. It is like "I made this on my own, I don't want people to JUDGE me". Criticism is different from judgement, I realize. Yet, with you dad and the lion picture, I relate with my father and tennis + school.

Sorry for rant, just my pov.