It sounds intimidating—everyone staring at your piece, inspecting every part, pointing out what they like or don’t like… Maybe you come away less pleased with your piece than before. Maybe you come away discouraged, thinking you’re a bad artist, or too scared to ask for feedback on a piece again.
So… why would we ever ask people to critique our artwork?
The Need for Critique/benefits:
When we receive critique in the correct way, it is not only extremely beneficial, but also necessary. It is crucial for our growth, for understanding our own work, and for communicating better through our art.
When we receive feedback on what could be improved in our work, it shows us the areas where we could use more practice and instruction. We may not even see some of these weaknesses until someone points them out—and how are we to get better unless we know what we need to get better at? Just like getting a second opinion can help you make a better choice, getting another person to look at your art can bring to light some areas to work on that you hadn’t noticed before.
Feedback can also mean positive comments and having others point out what worked well in your piece, helping you grow in a different way than criticism. It helps you better understand your strengths and where you do well. You can then use that knowledge to play to your strengths to create a stronger piece. Getting critique can also give you a better understanding of your own style as other people might see patterns in your artwork that don’t jump out as clearly to you.
Lastly, receiving critique is crucial for learning to communicate through our art. When giving critique, people are in a sense explaining what the piece communicates to them. They are letting you know what they see in the piece and how they are understanding it. If the message they get from your work is totally different than your intent for it, then you know something wasn’t communicated quite right. Discussing what made the viewer interpret a piece a certain way can give you a better understanding of where your piece didn’t live up to your intentions and how it could be improved to better communicate your message.
How to receive it:
So, how do we receive feedback in the correct way that helps us grow? First of all, we need to understand this one fact:
We always have ways to improve.
We are never going to create a piece that is completely perfect, and we are never going to get to “the end” of our art journeys. There will always be ways in which we can grow and improve and learn.
Keeping that in mind, we should receive critique with the expectation that there will be suggestions for improvement, and with the peace of mind that that is normal and good for our growth. Again, if we don’t receive suggestions, how will we grow?
Don’t be discouraged that a piece isn’t as strong as you’d hoped it would be. Don’t let loads of suggestions overwhelm you or keep you from trying again. Simply keep those suggestions in mind as you seek more ways to grow and as you work on your next piece. You may even be able to go back and continue to develop that first piece!
Secondly, receive feedback with an open and discerning mind.
Sometimes people are going to have wild suggestions. And at times, they may be the perfect suggestions for your intent with a piece. If that’s the case, be open to the idea and willing to give it a shot. But if you go “hmm, that would look pretty neat, but I’m not sure that’s the look I’m going for exactly…” then don’t feel obligated to follow every suggestion you get. In the end, it should be your piece, your voice, and therefore your choice. Could it still be helpful feedback? Of course! Maybe in the future you’ll use that suggestion for another piece where it would match your intentions.
How to give it:
Since feedback and constructive criticism is so useful, we need to be able to critique others’ work well too so that we can help them out as well. How do we go about doing this in the right way?
Keep this principle in mind:
Be constructive, not destructive, in your feedback.
What does this mean? Any feedback you give should be for the purpose of helping them grow rather than to simply discourage them. In order to be helpful, feedback needs to be specific so that the artist understands specific ways they can improve rather than being left with “this wasn’t good but I don’t know what needs to be fixed.”
For example:
“This piece is terrible, it hurts my head” vs. “The orange and red are very vibrant and clash in this piece. Finding some calmer and more harmonious colors could balance it out and work better for your intent.”
Then the artist knows “Ok, I should study color theory more – what makes a color more calming? What makes certain colors more harmonious than others?” It gives them guidance for their growth.
To help be specific, think about using the elements and principles of art in your critique. Consider how they did or did not use lines well. What about shapes? Colors? Form, texture, values? How is the composition? Where is your eye drawn to, and is that the intention? What stands out? Does it feel balanced? How does your eye move around, and does it get stuck on one spot?
Also, simply letting the artist know what the piece communicates to you can be helpful for them to see if they achieved their intent well. Explain what you think the message is? How does it make you feel? What do you think is going on here? What is the story?
Hopefully this encourages you to seek out critique on your pieces—ask anyone who you know will give you their honest opinion. Be open to suggestions, but remember that the choice is ultimately up to you. Keep in mind that there are always ways to improve, and actively seek out growth. Be honest and constructive in your critique for others, helping them to grow.
In the end, that’s the point of critique—to help us grow!
With this being the last article of the year and my last year of clay as a senior, I just wanted to say thank you to all of you readers. Thank you for your kind feedback and encouragement, and a special thank you to all those who submitted artwork! It always makes me so glad when I hear that my articles have been helpful, and I hope everything you have learned this year helps you to continue growing in your artwork.
Cover Photo:
https://thevirtualinstructor.com/blog/the-importance-of-critique-art