Mon, May 30, 2011
When you ask for a critique, you’ll get back three things. It’s important to realize what people are giving you, so that you can feed it through the appropriate filter.
Opinion. Opinion is someone’s judgement of your work, “I like” or “I don’t like.” Opinions are nice when they’re favorable, but they don’t give us the specifics we need to grow as artists. When we ask friends and family what they think of our work, we’re mostly going to get opinions. Oftentimes when we ask for a critique, we’re secretly wanting someone to praise our work and we’re somewhat devastated when they criticize it instead.
Criticism. Criticism is when someone simply points out the problems in an image. Criticism can be given by peers and colleagues. You have to, in turn, ask yourself, based on their input, how you could change the image to improve it. Bare in mind, when you ask for criticism, not everyone feels compelled to make sure you feel good about it receiving it. So, take it with a grain of salt and mine their comments for the truthful nuggets that will actually help you grow as an artist.
Constructive Criticism. To me, criticism and constructive criticism are two different things. Constructive criticism is harder to give someone. Constructive criticism are suggestions, tips and hints for improving your image. There’s less focus on what’s wrong and more focus on how it can simply be improved. This is going to be the best input you can get or give someone.
So there it is. Next time you’re out giving or receiving a critique, be mindful of the three possibilities and strive to give people what they need most.
About Timothy John
Timothy John has written 21 articles on this blog.
Tim is the Fundy SOS marketing ninja. He loves life in Hollywood, CA where he enjoys fresh organic foods, running and studying improv comedy every chance he gets.
