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« on: February 16, 2014, 05:00:35 am »
Giving critique and making edits of other people's art is challenging, but rewarding likewise. Not getting a direct response or seeing an obvious effect stemming from your critique does not mean that time has been wasted!
Teaching is a skill, and like drawing, it can be improved and refined through practice. And this improvement, I believe, is a good thing in and of itself. Wether you agree with me on that belief or not, you have to know that your performance of this skill (of teaching) has an impact on wether or not your critique is taken to heart by the reciever.
Patience is also a skill.
Being a good teacher is not only dependant on you being able to present the right theoretical knowledge to be applied to a certain case, but also to be aware of the feelings and sensibilities of other people (especially the student in this presumed scenario). For example, an abrasive personality that presents impressive edits that look far above the quality of the students own work might actually be detrimental to the students progression. It's easy to feel intimidated when faced by such a response to your small plea for some help and guidance. Some students might enjoy and feel inspired by such exhibitions, but I'm guessing most don't. I don't.
My personal experience of posting art and recieving critique - given the circumstances that have led up to this topic being brought up - has been pretty positive. I don't post very often, but when I do I have usually recieved several replies with mostly helpful suggestions and critique. When my threads have died, it's been because of my own failing: I stop working on my art and don't update the thread. One reason for this that I know of is that I'm very cautious of other people. Even as a stranger among a group of strangers, I'm worried that I might do something embarassing or improper and be percieved as a bumpkin. Whenever I'm about to try and reach out to other people (online), looking for help or just socialization, I take care to read up on and properly identify the decorum of their group. Maybe understanding and performing correctly in these systems eases my (eventual) introduction to the group, but it certainly has never helped me improve my art or made it so I actually reach out to new people and make friends. Introduction doesn't guarantee a cure to my cautiousness.
So, if I know it's so bad being this cautious, why won't I just be honest? Honest about my ignorance, honest about my lacking skills, honest about needing help, honest about my insecurities, honest about my own personality, flaws and all? I don't know the whole answer. But I do think that the attitude of dismissing this issue that's brought up by Vakinox, by stating that only the people who are "hard workers" and put in noticable "effort" into improving their work will get/deserve attention and help, further stigmatizes these feelings of ineptitude. I've let threads die because I've gotten so many good suggestions that I fear I'll expose my ignorance by even attempting to accomodate them. What if I haven't understood the instructions people have given me? Will they think I'm stupid?
The one who is seeking help is always the disadvantaged one. It's important to try and keep this in mind when approaching someone who is looking to improve with their art. To expose your skill level publicly with that first post is the most valuable action of all, and it alone makes that person worthy of attention. And respect. Unfortunately, even going in with this mindset, there will be a lot of unattended queries. It's okay to say that this happens because there simply isn't enough time or energy on the part of the people who could help out. But never say that it's because they are undeserving of attention! Even if that is what you percieve to be the truth, don't say it. Because such a statement will only cause harm, and possibly stifle activity even further.
Thank you for reading. I'm not sure any of this is applicable to the discussion any longer. But writing this has made me have to think a lot of things through, and I can't abstain from sharing it now. (that is also how I feel about attempting to give critique: you learn by putting into words. You learn by teaching. And, hopefully, you'll get better at it and it might even help your own artistic pursuits)
(Time is never wasted if you're trying to help someone)