Handling Criticism
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Use It To Your Advantage
Handling criticism. In all honesty, nobody likes it and some people love dishing it out. How do you handle criticism when it’s aimed at you or your artwork?
First of all, understand the different types of criticism.
Criticism is simply negative comments made in reference to someone or something. In this case, your artwork. The first type is the one we’re most familiar with. The type where someone tells you that your work sucks and suggests that you should just quit trying. The basic troll type criticism.
It’s negativity with very little intelligence behind the statement. If you asked the troll why they felt that way, you’d more than likely get the same statement again with very little added to it. There certainly won’t be any intelligent information.
Chances are, the person doing the criticizing has little to no knowledge about art, is not an artist, or just wants to tear someone down.
The second type of criticism is a critique. The word critique is from the Greek kritikē, from kritikos, or able to discern. In a nutshell a critique is “a critical essay or commentary, especially on artistic work”. Yes, a critique is a form of criticism, but it is generally given as something constructive.
The ability to discern requires some intelligence and so, a critique is well thought out and analyzed. A critique would offer reasons why the work didn’t measure up. For example, the balance of subject matter was awkward, the color didn’t harmonize well, the perspective was a bit off, or the anatomy was inaccurate. Statements like those offer a base for the artist to begin making improvements if they choose to do so.
Critiques and criticisms can both sting. So how do you approach handling criticism without losing your cool or being crushed by it?
Consider the source.
First of all, is it criticism from a troll or a critique from someone with some knowledge about art? If all the person can tell you sounds like… ”Your work…
