Fear of reviews

[blinkingkills]

Sometimes I will see threads talking asking for comics to review and i will be like hm maybe i should submit it for reviews but then I chicken out like a baby, because for some reason, critic of my comic scares the hell out of me.

I don't even know why this happens because throughout high school and college i was constantly getting art crit from teachers and professors and I never took it personally because its rightly not personal when people crit your work. there was no offense taken or meant from either party involved no matter how harsh it could get.

yet for some reason i feel a paralyzing fear when trying to decide whether i want to submit a comic for review, which has never happened to me before, so i was wondering, do you have that fear? and how do you get over it?

[KoreanTacos]

we all need some form of critique, sometimes they're helpful, sometimes they're only designed to hurt you. It's ultimately up to you how you choose to take criticism and how you can learn from it. I understand how you feel about receiving criticism no one likes to be told they did something wrong.

[garrenn]

Asking for a critique has been nothing but extremely helpful for my work so far. People on this site have been incredibly helpful, to the point that I've had people completely redraw panels for me to show me how they feel it should look. I mean, just look at the difference between my first page and my second and you'll see the improvement!

Page 1:

Page 2:

I know it can be difficult at times to take criticism for something you've been putting your heart into. I really do get that. However, if I'd never put myself out there asking for ways to improve my work, I never would have made such fast improvement.

[Michelle]

It's understandable to be nervous asking a forum of strangers for a review! It's more comfortable receiving critiques from teachers and classmates because oftentimes there's a relationship there and a certain level of trust between you. When you put yourself out there to random people on the internet, you oftentimes have no idea what you're in for, and that can be a little intimidating. Still, there's a value to having those critiques too; having a stranger's impression of your comic gives you a closer sense to what a new reader might feel about your work.

Still, it's totally ok to feel like you're not ready for critique yet. If you don't feel like your artwork is at a point yet where you want detailed feedback, there's nothing wrong with taking time to prepare your comic a bit more.

It might help to look through the kind of responses given in the various critique threads here. Everyone's got a different critique style, and not every style will suit every artist.

If it's any comfort, I think you've got some pretty nice work in your comics! Don't feel like people are going to come crap all over your work. There are artists here who are comparatively more novice in their skills and they've received very helpful, friendly crit, and you can certainly expect the same thing from folks here. :>

[shazzbaa]

There's a BIG difference imo between being accepting of thoughtful critique on your work, and crowd-sourcing critique from strangers on the internet.

Critique is very useful, but I don't think it's babyish or immature or fearful to be selective about the critique you seek out. Neil Gaiman's 8 Rules of Writing suggests that you show your work to people "whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is," which is a very simple description that I like a lot.

On the other hand, there's also a big difference between having a piece of artwork critiqued, and having a story that you've poured your soul into critiqued. "I don't care about your protagonist" is a lot harder to hear than "your perspective is off here."
I think this kind of feedback can be EXTREMELY useful, but it's also going to mean you need a lot of faith in your work, because sometimes people will be able to tell something could be fixed, but their ideas on how to fix it are wrong.... you have to be in a place where you can receive that kind of critique and carefully consider it, rather than losing faith in the thing you're making.

[punkarsenic]

ive taken a pass on a critique a lot of times because im scared of what ill hear - or scared that what i hear will stop me from making my comic, regardless of how negative it is. thats the main thing, i think, you have to find the confidence in what youre doing to take critique, say 'yeah thats true, ill work on that' and 'no thats bollocks, ill ignore that' (which happens sometimes, opinions and shit, i doubt most people on here are professors either) and carry on. even if they think your comics bad, and you think youre comics bad, you should be able to remind yourself why you want to do it, and keep improving as you go, until nobody can think its bad. i think that confidence comes from like, loads of self affirmation.

maybe youre so scared bc a webcomics a lot more personal than art for school? this is a story youve decided to tell by your own volition, and something you care about beyond getting a grade. its harder for that to be critiqued - also, i guess school critique usually comes after whatever youve made is done, but for a comic itll be continous, because youre always making more of it.

[jennula]

I usually pass on review offers mainly because the first chapter was drawn early 2015 and the other one early 2016. I'm currently working on the third chapter and it feels like I've upped my game a lot since the last two with pacing, panel placements etc that it feels a bit irrelevent to get critique on my older stuff (like, people will point out stuff I already know are so-so, and that it'll be fixed in the next chapter).

However, if I'm unsure of stuff, like dialogue, flow, etc, I'm usually asking for advice on that certain piece before I go live with a page, and I usually let people proof read the chapter =)

But yeah, I should probably be more brave and ask for reviews, but it IS pretty scary! I put so much of my free time on it, it's hard to not take it personal, I guess ^^; But also, you could miss out on an opportunity to get a really nice review and good exposure, I guess? :3

Speaking of, I got this nice review on my webcomic, and it made me so happy and really willing to keep going and make the comic even better <3

[infectedbloodcomics]

I'm one of those scary people who makes reviews 😂 But I also ask for reviews, so I can improve. Then again, nothing negative being said about my comics bothers me. It's like you said: it's about your work and it's not personal. I would suggest to find reviewers and check out both the comics reviewed and their reviews to those comics: if you find they are being helpful to the reviewed authors, you could then take a deep breath and sign up. Do you think that could work?

[kyupol]

There's always gonna be people who like it no matter how bad review is.

People just have different tastes. One man's junk is another man's treasure... And vice versa.

A review whether good or bad puts attention to your work. That's what matters