[chimera]

This is an experimental thread, we'll see how it goes. As this is one of the things people hate, it might create a bad mood on the forum. I hope separating it out will create a clearly defined situation and allow this forum to help builders and artists.

I saw on 4chan they have a critique thread, and reading a lot of the comments, they came off as very insensitive. Also this was a major problem on e2046 where some would just post nice comments, and others would seriously point out flaws. This has always been a problem because some believe they're helping, and others think they're just insulting someone. Here's the issue as I see it.

In art class, it would be common for other artists to comment on your work, as an artist in this situation, I didn't feel insulted by this at all, and it was an incredibly valuable tool to increasing my skill and ability.

After art school, advice I've sought, and when I've tried to get my art critiqued, I have felt insulted at times. I think the major difference in whether I felt insulted or not is that I knew in art school, these were my peers, I knew the art that that person critiquing me had done, and that I would get to critique their work, and I knew their advice was coming from a place that was trying to help as they saw it, even if they happened to be wrong.

You see a similar thing occurring on American idol, with Simon, that people always like to reference. Who the heck is Simon to comment the way he is? He's not an artist, he may be pointing out most of the time flaws that are obvious, but no one knows his work, he really isn't coming from a place where people can take his comments as constructive. He's there to make money from the person if they succeed, and he's looking solely at that, as a producer. He's asking,"can I make money off this?" His critiques are coming from a completely different point of view, and this is not helpful to the artist. If someone at the height of their art were to comment, in the same way he did, and offer the same advice, in the same field, I think it would be taken much more constructively, and not negatively.


So in an effort to create a constructive atmosphere here are the rules:

As the forum only has a few posters currently the minimums will be small, and these will grow as the site grows hopefully.

To either post a work or comment on the work you must have at least 10 posts of worth and content on the site, in other words no filler comments to get to that number.

To post a work in the critique section, to get critiqued, you must have posted at least 2 works in the show other category.

Finally, to comment on a work, you must have posted at least 5 works in the show others catagory.

Don't post here unless you expect to to receive criticism. Critiques should follow a general rule of pointing out at least 1 good thing about the work to 1 bad thing. Further, as a general rule, if you see a problem, you should also offer a way you think will help correct the issue.

If you violate any of these rules, or even come close, expect to have your post summarily removed.