Giving a good critique

What makes critique useful

As we discussed last week, useful critique is:

1. specific
2. constructive
3. positive

Let’s examine each of these in greater depth.



Specific
Saying “I love it!” or “I hate it!” doesn’t give an artist much to go on. Find specific areas of the images that demonstrate either good or bad artistic habits that they have, and point those out.
Even if you have a specific problem in mind, simply saying “You don’t use a wide range of values” may not mean anything to the artist you’re speaking to. Perhaps the reason that they don’t use a wide range of values is that they have not yet encountered this concept in their studies. Instead, try saying something like, “It looks like the light source in this image is coming from the right, but your pencil values are the same on the left and right side of the face.” There! Now you have identified a specific problem, and a specific example of where it appears so the student can orient themselves to what you mean.

Constructive
Once you’ve identified a specific issue, you’re going to want to offer some specific advice about how to go about fixing the problem. Sometimes, the issue will be too big to cover in just one response. In that case, offer a starting point.
It might be specific to the image, “Try adding highlights to the right side, and deep shadows to the left side of the face.”
Or it might be about a general skill, “During your next practice session, set up a desk lamp and point it directly at some objects, and really spend some time observing and drawing highlights and shadows. This will help you get a feel for how light interacts with objects, and help build your confidence to use the darkest values that your pencil can produce.”

Positive
When I say that critique is positive, I don’t mean that it is all praise. Sometimes it includes praise, as it can be helpful for an artist to know what they are doing right or where they are showing improvement, so they can keep doing what works. But a critique that contains no praise at all can still be positive — it just needs to assume that the artist is capable of learning and improving and be given with the intention of helping, rather than attacking the person behind the art.
The overarching theme that runs through all of these requirements is respect. No matter how green the artist you are critiquing is, no matter how many mistakes, they are doing a ballsy thing by putting their work out there, and taking a major step toward improvement. Give that the respect it deserves and make a genuine attempt to help.

http://artists.pixelovely.com/giving-good-critique/