Stupidest criticism you got for your artwork

Now, constructive criticism is basically the fuel to an artist's fire: it helps us improve our skills, fix mistakes and make a better final product. However, then there's that form of criticism: the type that completely misses the point to the point of borderline Trolling, and basically tells the artist "you suck" without giving any further justification or actual constructive criticism. In other words, it's the same kind of "criticism" Armond White gives to movies, only for artwork. So, tell your stories of incredibly idiotic criticism given to your artwork, that did nothing to drive you to improve, here.

"THIS IS JUST LIKE SALVADOR DELI. I LOVE DELI!" Capitalisation and spelling theirs.

I love any and all criticism but I think that comment made my artistic skill decrease just by reading it.

I don't think I got any. if I did, I don't remember it.

However, most of the criticism I got didn't actually improve anything.

basically tells the artist "you suck" without giving any further justification or actual constructive criticism

I'm sure that's been used as constructive criticism before. Throw away the trash before it rots further.

"Your drawing is amazing!, Can I see it?"

Yes in that order...

edited 22nd Feb '11 7:35:48 PM by FallenLegend

I once got chewed out on a drawing for not being Animesque.

• "If she's supposed to be a Viking, why aren't there horns on her helm?" Gawrsh, I don't know. Could it have something to do with the fact that they never actually wore horns on their helms?
• Anybody who points out Jack Clive's deformed eyelid like it's a mistake, especially after I've already explained it. His eyelid is supposed to be deformed, people.
• I once had this asshole explode at me with a "all I see is anime anime why do people draw so much anime nowadays?" Dude, I don't even try to draw anime. =/
• So I had this character who was fat, and some jerk thought that her weight was a drawing or design mistake.

If silly feedback counts...

"They all have powers? So it's like that War-craft game you play. You could try to get them to make a game like that with your characters!"

God bless you, grandma.

edited 23rd Feb '11 8:48:40 PM by Zanter

"They all have powers? So it's like that War-craft game you play. You could try to get them to make a game like that with your characters!"

Oh my God, my grandmother does that too. I also get "YOU HAVE TO COPYRIGHT THESE CHARACTERS. SOMEBODY FROM THE INTERNET WILL STEAL THEM" from my grandmother and great-aunt. It is so cute. (They think people from the internet will steal everything that I own eventually)

Man, the only thing I really remember was so many years ago when I only just started drawing again. Let me find it... here.

Showed it to some guy, and his comments were something like: "Moto? Sounds Japanese. Be original!" and "You should make him big so he can smash stuff!"

It's... mystifying. Thing couldn't look less Japanese if it tried, and I was apparently supposed to be more original while at the same time turning this character into a giant ball of muscles.

edit: those eyes

those eeeyyyyeeees

edited 24th Feb '11 3:00:49 AM by Fawriel

Could it have something to do with the fact that they never actually wore horns on their helms?

I thought they did for ceremonial purposes...but anyway, the popcultural image typically has them with horns, so common people generally won't know about it. It seems more like just an ignorant question rather than criticism though.

I know, but it's a major pet peeve.

Yeah, there's some speculation about priests wearing horned helms for religious purposes, but I still won't poke the horned helm issue with a 40 ft pole.

edited 24th Feb '11 10:10:02 AM by annebeeche

6 months before Anonymous and Wikileaks hit it big on the world stage:

My Photomedia teacher: What is this?: http://www.flickr.com/photos/57212196@N02/5284488217/

Me: An "Epic Fail Guy" cosplayer, he represents the mascot for the shadowy Internet organisation Anonymous, who protest against Scientology while rallying recruits through the 4Chan internet forum.

Her: What's an internet forum, and who is this Epic Fail Guy? Does he represent ANYTHING to me about internet culture?

Me: He's about as internet culturey as it gets, actually.

Her: Please don't backchat, sir.

Me: Umm... I'm just trying to explain the work to you - I didn't realise you might not have understood it from the get go...

Her: That's enough. You can edit the image to give it more context later.

Me: *le sigh*

6 MONTHS LATER: Anonymous launches Operation Avenge Assange and seals their fate as a mainstream-recognised internet anarchist group.

Me: I WARNED HER! DIDN'T I WARN HER? I TRIED TO TELL HER WHAT WAS GOING DOWN! Why is my photo more relevant NOW than it was BEFORE?

Probably that my art influences were shit. Yes, the person used that exact word, in reference to a character from Dragon Ball that I sketched and posted to a Deviant Art chat room.

One of my biggest art influences is CLAMP. I know they draw Noodle People, especially nowadays, but damn. That chharacter wasn't drawn with any particular influence in mind, however.

This is something an art teacher told my brother, not me, but; "Manga isn't real art."

-_-

"This is really good! Where on the internet did you trace it from?"
"What? I-I don't trace. This is original. Besides, how can you trace from the Internet?"
"You know, put the paper on the screen. Duh."

So much rage.

New favourite: "Hey, uh, no offence, but the way you've drawn that makes that guy look like he's got no legs / is missing an arm"

The characters are amputees.

I was accused of tracing once. The critic already disliked my work, but I suspect now that she wasn't terribly bright.

I was once told that my anthropomorphic elephant characters were stupid because they had breasts. They weren't ridiculously oversized, now, just normal-sized breasts on a few fully-grown elephant women. I believe their exact words were, "Elephants don't have titties!"

Elephants actually do have breasts, and they are located right where human breasts are: right between the front extremities. Their front legs also bend the way our arms do and their back legs bend like our legs. That's one of the reasons why I find them so easy to anthropomorphize; their body is set up sort of similarly. I'm actually pretty surprised there aren't more elephant characters in the furry fandom (but I'm not really that deep in the fandom, so maybe I'm missing them).

edited 7th Feb '12 10:57:18 AM by BlackElephant

I never knew that about elephants before!

I made this flash project for web design in 12th grade

The crit I got was "your person has no shoes."

I got a few people who said they didn't like the fact that I set up toys as a still-life scene for a picture. That's not very helpful, since that shows that the person can't separate what they want done in a picture from what the artist wants to do in the picture. It would have made more sense to say that they disliked the composition (like the positions of the objects), or the lighting, or the post-production effects.

"I don't like your work because it has toys in it" is not constructive criticism. However, "I don't like it because it's too blurry and underexposed" definitely is.

Basically, confusing personal preferences with objective things (such as technical ability) is a pet peeve of mine.

I had a professor put his foot through one of my canvases because it was "utter ****" but he couldn't give me a reason why.

This is the latest convo I had of the sort with a family member.

"I want a painting for my dining room." "Tell me what you want and I'll do it for you." "I want it to be good." "I'm good. If you don't want me to do it just say so." "What makes you think you're good?" "My degree as well as multiple exhibits internationally as well as domestically." "Just because you have a degree doesn't mean you're good." "Well apparently two years of strict studio apprenticeship, the Tate Gallery, and all my scholarship providers think I can do it." "Maybe I'll just get a Thomas Kinkade. He's supposed to be really good."

SCREAM!

Someone told me my work looked "incomplete."

It was supposed to be a "Work-in-progress" critique, so of course it's going to be incomplete, everyone's else's work was incomplete too, otherwise it wouldn't be called a work-in-progress critique. The point of the critique was supposed to be to tell people if the direction they were going in sounded "right."

"wtf this sucks"

Exact quote.

weirdly enough, my weirdest critique wasnt of my own artwork. it was of my taste in art. My class was visiting an art show in Kansas City, and I saw a very internet meme-inspired Pop art piece (lots of digital images overlayed, lots of anime-ish art and internet style humor art "

It had nice color balance and an amusing theme. I commented that I really liked the piece.

At which point our tour guide walks over to me and goes "well, I just dont like it. I think this is just some sort of stupid fad"

Me: Uh...Okay.

edited 19th Feb '12 9:18:35 AM by Midgetsnowman