Give me strength (or a shotgun; whichever's handy)

[saviourseph]

Quick opinion-get: when giving critique, should it be cushioned with complimentary platitudes even when there aren't redeeming qualities?

Remind me not to intercede to avoid forum wars breaking out ever again, lest I get more PMs from butthurt Norwegians. -_-;;

ETA: ilu, mintylim & lthlf <3

Comments

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

I saw. I lol'd. I agreed :3

[omgimsuchadork.livejournal.com]

Granted I have no idea what you're talking about, but an attempt at softening the blow of stinging words (whether or not they actually ARE stinging; people always get uppity when critiqued) never hurt anyone.

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

Dreamshaper's art thread.

I thought I was nice enough about it to be honest (and he took it well at first - he must've changed his mind for some reason today ^^; )

[zellie-kinneas.livejournal.com]

I always try to at least pick out something that could be a good point. I mean, if there's absolutely no good points about it whatsoever, then, well... I guess it's up to you if you wanna be a liar or not. Best is probably to just give the honest, constructive criticism and hope they're mature enough to take the tips into consideration =/

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

There really wasn't a positive to point out; that was the problem (all he'd done was post photos of himself with stock Photoshop filters applied, then got miffed when not everyone was impressed).

I'm just confused as to why he's suddenly taking issue with it, as the other day (when I posted the crit) he took it happily. :/

[zellie-kinneas.livejournal.com]

Okay, yeah, if he's doing something like that just to hear how many people love him, then that's just dumb ._.

[wrongly-amused.livejournal.com]

If it's a critique? Then my personal feeling is "yes." Because critiquing is about refinement of a standard base, something that's got potential and has the capacity to be much better. It's balancing what an author's doing right and then pointing out what's wrong or could be improved. You can be blunt, but you should be fair on giving balanced cues.

Criticism, on the other hand, is just whatever you want it to be: blunt, forward, impolite, etc. You're there to point out flaws and expect the artist to do their job and figure the details out. I will say that my feeling on blunt criticism, however, is that while anyone has the right to do it, it's completely hypocritical to whine if the artist in question gets defensive or even hurt. People have to accept that publishing can be the equivalent of placing one's bare neck on the guillotine, but reviewers have to be responsible for how they come across as well.

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

I told him what he could do to improve, so fairly certain it would class as critique. I don't see how adding "great pics, but..." or whatever would make it any more useful though (just the opposite in fact because yeah... they really weren't; it was camwhoring with a side of tacky filters and dodge/burn).

Like I said, I wouldn't have even bothered commenting had there not been a shitstorm on the horizon; I was trying to explain why they weren't universally adored, and he took it fine (until today anyway).

[taure.livejournal.com]

Your criticism wasn't even very harsh anyway. I don't see why he took it maturely one day and then two days later get upset over it. Personally, I think it has to do with a certain "photoshop skillz" topic.

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

He sent the message hours before that - it was out of the blue AFAIK.

[taure.livejournal.com]

Well in that case I don't know what his problem is because you gave a good critique. :\
ps: we can has aim chat nao?

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

I was about to hit the hay actually (I only replied straight away because the obnoxiously loud new mail noise woke me up from half-sleep ^^; ), but I'll be on tomorrow night. :)

[thatkindofguy]

...He needs to get his ass out of his head. Your critique was in no way inflammatory and pretty helpful as far as critiques-and-not-cc go. He needs to know that you can't just run a Photoshop filter or two over something and call it good.

[lthlf.livejournal.com]

Fuck
ing
L
O
L

Troll thread was lol. right? riiiiiiiiiight?

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

Hell yeah.

Also, BAHAHAHA @ your new sig.