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I'll tumblr for ya: criminallyincompetent: coelasquid replied to your post: i relish in...

criminallyincompetent:

coelasquid replied to your post: i relish in getting constructive criticism myself …

Shit sandwich: compliment:criticism:compliment

I usually go with compliment:criticism:helpful tips

because closing with a compliment just makes it seem sugar-coated…

I’m not good at this. No sandwiching. I just tell it like I see it as respectfully as possible, because it isn’t personal. It’s criticism, not an insult parade. I am not going to give compliments if there are none to give. I’m not going to make up a right direction when the art is too immature, and there isn’t one. If nothing else, I think someone is always moving “in the right direction” by drawing at all. But all you can say sometimes is that. I honestly don’t think it’s that constructive to tell people more elaborate positive things than that when there’s nothing to really tell. I feel like it’s insulting.

yes a thousand times

I don’t see the point of actively striving to compliment people in critique at all. Being able to take critique gracefully and impartially is a critical part of the learning process in and of itself, and if someone truly cannot handle respectfully worded negative criticism that isn’t sandwiched between a load of dishonest garbage (whether through inventing things to compliment that aren’t actually there, or by overstating the level of success they’ve achieved relative to the more egregious mistakes in their work), I’d rather risk pissing them off in order to help set them on the path to acclimating themselves to a thing they will need to learn how to deal with than accommodate a personality flaw that will demonstrably inhibit their ability to learn and improve throughout their entire career.

I don’t really bother going out of my way to compliment people even when they have done something I genuinely like. I’ve never seen praise as particularly useful in the context of critique (specifically personal critique written for the purpose of helping an individual artist improve, rather than a comprehensive academic examination) for anything other than softening the blow of my negative criticisms. Which I don’t want to be softened, in many cases. A lot of people really do need to hear it straight without all the bullshit.

Source: criminallyincompetent