Have you ever received unfairly harsh criticism?

Yes I have. Several times. Some from the university professors I worked under, others from people on this forum. When I used Reddit, someone criticised my artwork and I still remember their words to this very day:

Yeah, but not with s—y drawings.

A guy once told me if I ever thought I could be a professional artist, I must be having delusions of grandeur.
(yeah, that aged like milk, I was doing pro work only a few years after that)

Oh, and another guy once said something like

"You know, I've always thought you're somebody who's trying really hard to make something deep and meaningful with difficult themes, but with all the skill and understanding of a children's writer."

Oh and this one guy who I told about my comic idea about magical knights who live in a modern sort of world, and he laughed patronisingly and said:

"Ohhh, honestly I'm really done with all these modern fantasy things, it's so overdone. I think you should make something with... steampowered airships. That would actually be original."
(ah yes.... steampunk... that's original!)

....Honestly in retrospect nearly every time somebody has said some crap like this to me, it's been a man who thought he was really clever and fancied himself a great writer. Not one of them has ever managed to go pro themselves or make any works of particular note because they all care too much about showing off how clever they are in their writing instead of using that cleverness to entertain the audience.

Actual critics tend to have been a lot more balanced and respectful. It's bitter and jealous writer dudes who think they're underappreciated geniuses and that a silly little girl like me who makes weeby comics ought to be in awe of them who I've found to be the most unpleasant. There's a difference between criticising somebody because you want to help them improve, and criticising them because you feel angry that they're doing well or having fun, or to feel powerful.

Yes. Unfair criticism is quite common. Since I was a child I have been taught that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me". You don't get what that phrase means until you grow up.

I have also been in dark places through my life almost dying several times. Each of them taught me that you can't really worry about what other people say about you and there is no point.

After my most valuable friend died I learned life is short and you should live each day like the last.

Considering how we only live once there is no point wasting our lives worrying about what others say about us.

I know it is easier said than done and you sound young so you have a long way to go in life.
Just don't let it get to you.
Remember words can't hurt us. Humans give words their meanings. Think about it this way if a person insults you in a language you don't know you won't care.
It is until you give those words meaning that the words start to affect you.

If you are ever down don't forget to rely on your loved ones.

Unsolicited criticism always sucks imo.
Beside that all critcism I received was the objective truth from their perspective
and most of the time from my perspective too. I always try to work with critique
and use it to get better.

When I was 16 I received unsolicited criticism which I still think about today sometimes:
"Hey, aren´t you the guy who always draws the comic characters with the too short legs?"
Good thing was that he knew my comic characters and I never met that guy in my life and
he was also right, the legs of my characters were ridiciously short, I didn´t think about it at all
and they looked fine to me. I started to learn about anatomy 24 years later and remembered
the comment. That also showed me that stuff like that has impact on people and taught me
to be more careful and never give critique to someone who doesn´t ask for it.

The harshest criticism is when the people don´t care at all

My little brother never said anything nice about my work lol I would be excited to show him my new piece and the first thing he would say is criticism. Most of the time is him being mean not bothering to give actual constructive criticism. I stopped asking for his opinion to save my self esteem

Oh yes, it was by a girl I used to be friends with (by that time we were already not talking, but only for few months so the drama was still fresh). She was also an artist, and a one that I used to look up to, and she went all out on how bad my drawing was, pointing out every small mistake c:
For some context, it was a drawing for a contest hosted by my friends, and they decided to give it a small additional prize because they couldn't decide on top places. That girl's point was that my drawing didn't deserve it and only got a prize because I'm their friend. To be fair, it might had looked this way from her point of view and me knowing that it wasn't the truth doesn't change it. The criticism that came with it was unnecessary harsh, tho.

So that one was a wall-of-text criticism, but I also got a very short one, 'it's ugly', which wouldn't hurt if it was from just a random person, but it was from my parent sooo yeah

As for dealing with it, well, I know that I'm improving with my art, and I know the direction I want it to take. And a lot of other people told me that they love my art, so I try to focus on that. Not everyone is going to like it, and that's okay ( :

There are a lot of negative people out there who do this for a reason we don´t understand.
Energy vampires

There are a few different types of criticism I see online.

There’s good constructive criticism by people who genuinely want to teach, which is actually helpful.

There’s constructive criticism by someone who has zero interpersonal skills and delivers the feedback harshly (which hurts, but can still be helpful).

Then there are the trolls. The haters who have issues in their own lives and cast it out onto others under the veil of internet anonymity. These are the worst and although we know their “criticism” is invalid (they are easy to spot), it still hurts. A lot. A few years back I was making a little comic by taking screenshots of a game and adding speech bubbles, extra story to it. It was really fun to make because I was playing a game and making a comic of it at the same time! I posted it to the game’s subreddit and someone commented on multiple posts saying whoever made it had to be retarded. Literally lost years of self confidence, even though I knew it was a troll, stopped making the thing. (The good news is I stopped wasting my time with that and started writing again, so… silver linings and all..)

If there are repeated negative comments treat them as a troll and ignore them. If they have anything valuable to say you can get that same information from another source without crushing your heart. Often, if we convince ourselves that one thing they said if valid… then our minds trick themselves into thinking “we’ll maybe other things they said are true too” and that’s just not worth the psychological damage.

Yeah, it's unfortunate. Sometimes people just want to get the last word in too... Sadly, often the best thing we can do in these scenarios as creators is just say "thank you for the feedback" or not reply at all and leave no room for further discourse. If they are continuously commenting negative things even after that... then that's getting into troll territory (even if they aren't doing it on purpose) if you ask me, especially if they are repeating the same feedback.

I still remember that one time when an artist I really respected and thought to be my kinda sorta online friend told me, with this kind, i-want-the-best-for-you, caring framing:

"I'm sorry, but your drawings are just not pleasant to look at. I think you should just stop drawing. It's for the best."

And I mean, sure, I was a little kid (so were they) and my skill was indeed lacking, but... I did stop drawing for like a year after that. Stopped trying for even longer.

And it's this haunting frigging memory that pops up in my mind every time when I start feeling insecure due to lack of response or whatever. My brain is like "Well yeah, this is 'cause you're still drawing what's unpleasant to look at, what do you expect!"

But most of the time, like with the majority of negative things that's been told to me and got stuck in my mind, I turn it into spite. Pleasant or not, it's mine and I personally like it. Suck on that, self-doubt.

(that attitude makes me very hostile to actual constructive critisism now, however. That's... a bit of a problem)

I usually just keep quiet when I get insults thrown on that because yeah, I know how much my skills measure up to (which...is not a lot). Still, I have had some "friends" try to bully me because of my grammatical mistakes before. It didn't feel good, and I definitely thought they could word their comments better
Honestly, understanding yourself is the most important thing. The best advice you can receive is mostly from yourself and some "real critics", not some inexperienced idiots.
So, what I'd say on this topic is to not to take all your feedback with the same degree of concern. If you get holed up and hung up on a single imperfection, then you'll end up stuck for a long time instead of improving.
To improve yourself, you need a open attitude and some mental fortitude.
For me, I take insults to the face because I won't let anyone just undermine my confidence. Maybe that's a good thing, but I think it really helps me with thinking about the whole picture when piecing together feedback I receive

I've never had someone critique my works in a harsh manner before, so I can't really say anything else except maybe people compliment me too much? It's a cycle I can't get out of because people want to stroke my ego to get free works, I guess. It got me into a depressive state every time someone compliments my works whether it's genuine or not. Not that I'm looking for critiques either, it's just a weird experience I have time and time again. Maybe I just post too much fanarts or maybe I am good, I don't know.

But I have been studying other people's works more and been really comparing my older works that people "compliment" and really test the limit of how bad I was during that time. It's a lot of mental cartwheel but it pays off in the end, I think if someone were to critique my works now I wouldn't be mad because I am aware I will always improve.

Honestly... no. Uh, I've never had unfair harsh criticism, but just kinda bad criticism. Nothing too mean.

Oh yeah. In college, my favorite animation teacher (who I made the mistake of fanboying over because he was a second-generation Disney animator) took a riotous dump on my final project. There were absolutely some good points, but a lot of unwarranted personal boas was sprinkled in there too. It was a real kick in the pants as I was on the way out the door and just about to enter the labor force and the big-a** scary world.

And words can hurt. And that's okay. Thankfully I was strong enough at the time to put it all in perspective and separate the good points from the bad, but I still couldn't help it from letting his unfair points overshadow my mood (and self worth) until I got enough distance from it all. It sucks that a kind word rolls off me but a negative word sticks in. Survival mechanisms can be cruel.

But when I can, I try to take criticisms as growth opportunities. The legit criticisms I use to grow my art, the illegitimate criticisms to grow a tougher skin and become a more empathic person (and hopefully become a better friend or mentor). Growth is uncomfortable (both physically and emotionally), and I try to give myself the time and space to validate my feelings until that particular work on myself feels resolved (for the time being, at least).

Also, thanks for opening this conversation up. I really enjoy these types of threads and am so happy to see everyone's journey.

Many times but dealing with the ego blow isn't nearly as difficult as resisting the urge to clapback at them.