Why Artists HATE Unsolicited Critique! || SPEEDPAINT + COMMENTARY

COURSES:

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[kyellketill]

My eyebrows shot really high at the „if you do not seek to improve your art as a hobbyist you are wasting your time” bit. Because ironically the years where I did not give a flying flip about my weird anatomy were the happiest years in my time as an artist. I just wanted to create dozens of characters for my story and that I did. Unsolicited critique would have potentially crushed that joy if had posted my work online. How do some people forget that just having fun is a thing…?

[panda.with.a.pencil]

mentioning how nasty people can be on the internet, all I can think about is that one tweet where the guy says "some of y'all have gotten way too comfortable saying nasty things and not getting punched for it".

[xquenda]

“posting your art online is asking to get criticism”
To me is like: “wearing a skirt in public is asking to get catcalled”
(since some people are having trouble understanding i'm exaggerating, i don’t mean harassment is the same as criticism.)

[crescentcrater]

Once, I asked for criticism on my own art a few years ago. Every stylistic choice I made in that piece (ie. the way I draw big eyes and draw circle-ish heads) was HEAVILY criticized by three people all at once. A moderator of the discord server I was in had to STEP IN to make them calm down, and I have never asked for criticism on my work ever since.

[pearlthenephilim]

Sometimes I get a bit upset when my art isn't complimented, but there is a difference between "Watch this video your art needs it" to "Hey, may I offer some advice?" The way to introduce yourself is why I personally don't ask for critique anymore unless it's by other artists I know and not random people on the internet. Please do like.. a compliment sandwich where you like 2 things that are good with a helpful tip in the middle ^^

Edit: I should've mentioned because not everyone seems to know this, if the person ur giving advice/criticism to asks for help then it's ok. But if their just posting it cuz their *proud* don't go around saying everything you don't like about it, we see it later and question why we thought it was good at times!
(This isn't directed at anyone just the people who don't respect an artists boundaries)

[Kiwi.Flight]

One part i hate about critique in general is it feels like that everyone expects you to be aiming for more realistic art. I know wonderful artists who use the stiffness of a pose to emphasize their artstyle and have no want to change that. I feel like when giving critique you should try to tell what artstyle the individual you are critiquing is going for, or state in the critique it may not apply to their artstyle. On top of that I have in the past stated i am going for a cartoony artstyle and been told something i did was "unrealistic".

[Aryatheartist]

Unsolicited critique is one of my biggest pet peeve’s as it kind of crushes me a little. The only time I would ever need critique is if I needed anatomy help.

[__PhoenixCreates__]

Unsolicited criticism is one of the main reasons I don't get confident about my art as often as I should.
Edit:Didn't see the 22 reply till now, but my experience with getting unsolicited criticism is common with those not replying to others or trying to argue my bad experiences with getting criticism, asked for or not. Everyone has their own opinions on this topic, mine is related to my experiences with just sharing art I was proud of.

One experience that will stays stick with me is getting criticism everytime I sent art of mine in a chat I was proud of and my art style at the time not being the greatest. I was extremely hurt when others posted their art and never got the amount of criticism I did when they asked for it. I was a young artist at that time who was just doing art for myself. I wasn't looking to improve at that time. Getting critiqued on my art anytime i posted it was really damaging for me and it really drove me to not want to share my art at all. I eventually got over the want to never share my art, but the feeling of it being horrible always stayed with me. This is one of the huge effects on unsolicited criticism. It damages people's self-esteem in their art.

[sho.thatsit]

As someone with severe social anxiety, thank you for talking about sensitive artists. I've always been a very sensitive person, and while some critique has helped me improved, it always made me feel really bad about my art. I've specifically stated this on my Instagram, but people wouldn't listen. As a result, I stopped allowing people who don't follow me to comment on my posts, because it's always someone who doesn't follow me.

[FrankensteinsMom]

Something I found very valuable about giving critique to those who ask for it is to also offer two compliments on what the artist did well to go with it so that they don’t feel discouraged.

[Dragmiredraws]

This topic is a very mixed bag for me. In my experience, I’ve never gotten a solicited critiques on posts I’ve actually been asking for them on, if I got any at all. But then those pics that I just posted because I personally liked it, that’s when everyone decides “This is the piece that needs my advice!” It’s one of the reasons I’ve picked up the mantra, “Everyone’s got an opinion til you ask them for it.” And I think it reins true, especially for online artists, it’s never the picture that they’re actively seeking input on, it’s the random sketch hidden in the bottom left corner they showed when they were doing a sketchbook tour.

This is actually the reason I only accept critiques from friends because they usually know what I’m working on, they can tell the difference between style and inconsistencies.

[wintershock]

I really hate unsolicited critique. I'm more than happy to hear it if someone nicely asks me if I want to but when it's randomly given, it just annoys me. It doesn't feel like it's given out of kindness and wanting to see someones art improve, it feels more like that person is trying to boost their own ego.

[yegeuxl]

I almost never comment, but I wanted to here.

I'm so so glad to see this in-depth take on unsolicited concrit. I used to be in the 'this is the only way you can really improve' camp before someone changed my mind with an excellent metaphor.

The internet, in regards to art, is a gallery in which all works of art are displayed in the same room. The once in a generation virtuoso is hanging next to the kindergartener's fingerpainting. And the person who walks up to the fingerpainting and says 'this artist has no fundamentals' is a jerk. Not the kindergartener that painted it.

Now, not to say everyone who does art for fun is a little kid, but it illustrates the futility and rudeness of commenting critically on a for-fun piece.

Similarly that person has no place critiquing the virtuoso, based upon their extreme skill difference. Again. Obviously a pair of extremes, but the metaphor really worked for me and changed my mind.

This video was outstanding. I'd have loved to have heard a tidbit about how the artist receiving the critique doesnt actually know the person making it, or their skills. It happens a lot in the writing community. Once a handful of people self-righteously try to correct something that's not incorrect in the first place, you start to wonder just how many people are commenting without the resume to back it up.

It was slightly touched on in the commenting incorrectly on style choices part, but I'd have loved to see just a bit more time for 'who even are you to make this critique'. Maybe I'm just salty, lol.

[Sooouup]

I'm so glad you mentioned giving advice that is incorrect 😭 some people for real have no idea what they're talking about and still dish out bad advice anyway and nobody wants to talk about it because generally discussing other peoples skill level is considered disrespectful

[shadaneanimates]

Not only was unsolicited criticism widely accepted when I was just starting off, but personally I would almost always get destructive criticism while people genuinely wanting to help me were very rare. Usually it ranged from calling my art terrible and telling me I should feel bad without telling me what about it was terrible, or if they did it was usually nitpicks such as the species of my characters, or how they had humanoid faces instead of canine ones when they were clearly meant to be sphinx-like, all the way to wishing child @buse on me, accusing me of doing horrible things to animals, or creating insulting or outright hate art, all because I drew jinmenkens and sphinxes. Also a certain Pokémon was used to mock me and my art because of the way their eyes were shaped which made it hard for me to grow attached to that Pokémon in the future.
Nowadays I tend to think; "well pardon me for wanting to do wolf stories a little differently from everyone else!" But I was 12 years old. All I could do was cry, so I would go to my room to cry privately without telling anyone so I wouldn't be laughed at, because I knew the internet tends to find someone, especially children crying to be drop-dead hilarious for some stupid reason.

[regalblade]

i once had an argument because someone said my art was "too hard" and that i should draw "something easier" and then claimed that he gave me proper constructive criticism, while also disregarding the fact that i draw on paper, i'm new to art and i have a particular choice of styles

[starry-p]

When it comes to being sensitive

I never grew out of that, I’m still sensitive. I’ve tried to condition myself to not be sensitive but it only made me worse and fvcked me up. Normally when I want advice or criticism, I just ask. Cause then I can mentally prepare for it and take in the information better.

When I was going to school, the art teacher had us put up the art we wanted critiqued up on a wall.
So we were all fully aware that the art on the wall was going to be critiqued by everyone in the class.
Everyone was aware and respectful.

The difference between my class and people online is that people online are not respectful, they have superiority complexes, and they are egotistical.

That’s why I can’t always take online criticism seriously because it just has never been helpful to me. I value criticism that is more on the technical side.

If you hate that I use bright colors, too much purple / pink, draw too unrealistic, then that’s not real criticism to me. It’s just your weird opinion and I’m not going to improve by hearing your personal preferences.

[ashlee]

Some people are just lazy to actually help, which sucks. When they say something is wrong in our work and we ask what’s wrong or how can we fix it, they either say “idk” or “you figure it out”. Like thanks for not helping lmao.

[cydney]

Criticism isn't just telling someone what is wrong with their art, It's seeing the problems and helping them solve them. I feel that's where most of the unsolicited criticism givers go wrong.
Sorry I realized you said this better in the video

[leooliver]

i recently had to take a break from tiktok after posting a joking video with an older piece of mine went viral. the 'critique' i got (not only on that video but a few of my newer pieces that i thought were pretty good) basically amounted to "your art sucks, your anatomy is bad (but they wouldnt respond when i asked which anatomy), and you will never get into art school. its completely damaged my relationship with my art and i constantly feel awful about everything i make