#Art criticism

[asexuwales]

guys how could i make ts more interesting?

i never seem to be able to pull off good and interesting artwork (ive been at this shit for 20 years)

[3456boidone]

I wanted to bring a visual example to the table... the goku scoliosis meme.

His head is slightly off to the side, which makes it look like he has scoliosis. This is just a small error, but it has some major effects on the anatomy of his character.

I just wanted to show some accidental bad anatomy

Everytime Lily opens her mouth about art, I wanna tape her mouth shut. Like GIRL! You don't draw!! Your WIFE does! Then Lily wants to say some stupid shit like, "You don't need to practice anatomy because anime art styles dont!☝️🤓" Girl!! They do! Just because the eyes are big doesn't mean anatomy isn't important. If someone were to draw a person in an anime artstyle, and one arm is bigger than the other- people will notice. Which is why- regardless of artstyle, studying anatomy is important. Read "The Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams(This applies to everyone just because it's really helpful in not only animation, but art tips as well🩷)

In summary, my message to Lily O is that you don't walk the walk, so don't try to talk the talk.

[summergoodwife]

some of y'all need to remember that ianthe explicitly doesn't look like coronabeth 2 complete with luscious golden locks and gorgeous eyes and conventional attractiveness but instead looks like if coronabeth was made of wheat bread and got left out in the rain overnight and everyone who sees her kind of wants to die for a second

[sharkchunks]

From Hell (2001, The Hughes Brothers)

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Beauty in Splash Art 3

League of Legends splash art is, on the face of it, perhaps an odd place to go looking for beauty. These are JPGs whose first and primary function is to hawk video game cosmetics for a free-to-play game, it's not exactly the sort of thing you expect artists to particularly flex their creativity for.

And true enough, a lot of splash art is fairly rote. Here's a character, wow look at their cool pose, don't you want to spend dollars to own this, and so on.

But sometimes, one of the artists working at Riot, or at their outsourcing studios, seems to get a bee in their bonnet, or maybe they just get excited about an opportunity to practise craft, and you get splash art that tries to do something more than simply sell the product, or artwork which displays a real flex of technical skill, often in ways which are functionally invisible at any of the common resolutions that the art will ever be displayed at.

There is genuine reward to be found in those pieces, in zooming in close and marveling at the level of effort spent. So let's spend about an hour doing that!

Splash arts covered:

Odyssey Sona - by Kelly Aleshire

Victorious Sejuani - by Francis Tneh

Aurora - by Jennifer Wuestling

Redeemed Star Guardian Xayah and Rakan - by Ina Wong

Empyrean Vex - by Horace "Hozure" Hsu

Winterblessed Diana - by Bo "chenbowow" Chen

Porcelain Irelia - by Alsie Lau

Toy Terror Cho'gath - by Fortune "Fortuneee" K

[diemelusine]

Portrait of Denis Diderot (1767) by Louis-Michel van Loo. Musée du Louvre.

[amphiptere-art]

How compliments feel sometimes.

[detroit-become-moomin]

Howdy y’all, my essay on the abject is finally out! It discusses a number of issues, including purity legislation, self-advocacy in media consumption, and how we interface with dark/ugly topics in art and literature. It also delves into the issues surrounding HB900, Greg Abbott’s (failed) censorship law. It’s free to peruse, no paywall, so consider giving it a read if interested.

READ HERE

RT HERE (really helps!)

[cateluna]

how to critique and not to critique an artist: a guide to online etiquette for non-artists

what non-artists really misunderstand about artists is that we are showing you our old vs new art, usually with a redraw, we aren't asking for a comparison or for you to give unwarranted criticism. we are simply showing you our progress and how much we have improved over a given amount of time. for context, this is what my 2024 vs 2020 redraw looks like:

i genuinely don't mind other people not liking my art. art is a subjective matter and i understand that people have art styles they prefer. HOWEVER, to outright tell an artist you much preferred their old art is rude, especially when they are not asking for your opinion or criticism. we aren't asking for your "honest opinion" unless we directly asked for it -- if you have something to say about someone's art, better ask the artist first if they are fine with receiving comments, and even then, give the artist constructive criticism in terms of anatomy, colors, values, cohesiveness, contrast, etc. instead of just telling them your preferences.

this is the only time i asked for an opinion, and even then, i was only asking this specific person. however, saying stuff like "the colors in the new one is uncanny" is NEITHER helpful nor constructive

i want to focus on this comment for a bit. there's nothing wrong in not liking someone else's art, but saying that "he looks like he is wearing blush and the lips are so red he looks like he's wearing heavy makeup" is not constructive criticism, and it sounds like you're just stating your preference on what styles you like instead of actually giving advice on how to improve their work.

also, what's wrong with men wearing makeup? what's wrong with blush and lipstick? if the problem is "the colors are too bright", just say that, instead of saying "he looks like he's wearing makeup", because obviously, the colors are a stylistic choice

"you have very dark shadows" ok, then what do you suggest i do to improve it? elaborate on your comment instead of just stating your preferences.

"the expression looks way too exaggerated" and "the simplicity of the older one; looks cleaner, has a less cartoonish expression" is outright just telling your preferences and not constructive at all. do you dislike the way the artist rendered the work? do you dislike the linework and the detailing? be specific instead of just leaving it at "the old one looks cleaner" or "the eyelashes are too thick, looks uncanny"

and the expression is exaggerated because... i have a cartoonish art style. this is on purpose. there is nothing wrong with cartoonish expressions... on a cartoonish art style...

again i didn't ask for criticism on this work, but this time it's constructive and actually gives me advice on the anatomy, colors, etc. so i don't mind. if you are wondering how to critique an artist, this is the better way to do it.

this is how to PROPERLY critique an artist: tell them what they did wrong, and how to improve. don't just tell them your preferences, because again, that's not constructive. instead of just telling them "your shadows are too dark" or "the expression is too cartoonish", actually give them pointers on how to improve their anatomy, colors, shading, values, rendering, etc. etc. (although the comment saying that my line work was way too thick and how the femininity "should" be conveyed through experience and not features sounds more like personal preference)

^ these are more examples on how properly to give critique:

the shading: is it flat or overdone? does the shading convey the contours of the subject well? what can the artist do to improve on their rendering, values, and colors?

lighting: is it fine or is it way too sharp and bright? does the lighting convey the shape of the subject properly? does it suit the subject well? what can the artist do to improve it?

colors: are the colors way too flat and desaturated? or too bright and saturated? does the work have enough contrast or not? how can the artist improve their coloring?

anatomy: are the limbs too long? are the proportions off? is anything way oversized or way too small? did the artist convey the personality and character design well, or not? how can it be improved?

these are all i can think of for now, but hopefully you get the point!

conclusion: when commenting, provide constructive criticism instead of just telling your preferences. tell the artist how they can improve their work and style. and even then, make sure that the artist actually asked for criticism -- if not, ask politely if they accept criticism or if they don't mind receiving it, then actually provide constructive feedback. if you don't have anything constructive to say, then it's better to not say anything at all.

but once again, please be polite. everyone you encounter on the internet is another human being (unless proven to be a bot or an actual troll or something). treat them how you would treat people in real life. be considerate and respectful. it is easy to forget that random strangers are still human because of internet anonymity, but please, remember the human.

[death-limes]

These are originally from this post (X) but I want to make it its own post bc it’s something I was kinda worried about people misinterpreting.

I actually agree with this person, anytime someone redesigns or redraws something and calls it “fixing” I always cringe a little. Art is subjective, no matter how you, I, or anyone else feels about it. To say that you’re “fixing” someone’s art is to imply that the original is “broken” or inherently wrong in some way, which it’s not. That is disrespectful — which is why I very purposefully don’t use that language.

As for small artists, I don’t think I phrased it properly above. Poor-quality media is rarely a result of a lack of skill on the part of the artists drawing the storyboards and final animation. Along with being overworked and underpaid, they are also given model sheets which they must strictly follow. If something looks wonky in a fully-produced show — in this case, a character’s head not being drawn to suit the angle it’s tilted at — it’s the fault of the designers and showrunners, not the artists actually drawing the frames. They’re the ones who decided how the characters should be drawn, and they’re the ones who approve the final product.

(And yes, I’m censoring this person’s username even though it’s easy to find on the original post. I’m not intending to incite rude comments toward this person, but if you’re the kind of person who would go out of your way to view the original post & find them, my words probably wouldn’t dissuade you anyway.)

[acid-comet]

Baby update on artstyle. NOTHING HAS CHANGED 🥲

(Not done, complaining, and im gonna add more angles/lines/etc. also will be posting individually once all done🤪🤪)

PLEASE ADVICE, CRITICISM, ETC

[indierpgnewsletter]

The problem with asking if games are art is that the answer can be as simple and as complicated as you have time for. In some sense, anyone trying to be stingy about what qualifies as art is fighting a battle that was decided a long time ago. Today, anything can be art if you're willing to give it your attention and let it move you.

The more interesting question when it comes to tabletop games is, which art are you talking about?

The most common is the art in the books - beautiful illustration and beautiful writing that makes an RPG book an “art book”. I was recently posting on the site formerly known as twitter about how momatoes’ ARC was a work of art. As evidence, I posted screenshots of the PDF. The pages were filled with art, words, and layout that was dark but not scary, a kind of modern fairytale aesthetic that hints at hidden depths. Like a sculpture where marble looks like cloth, it's a feat of technical skill that can both humble and inspire you.

Then, there's the art of playing RPGs. This is a tricky one because there’s lots of things this isn’t: this isn’t acting, this isn’t the same as performing in an actual play. It’s adjacent to performance but not exactly the same and its importance varies across playstyles. But if comedy is an art, then people are busting their gut laughing in their games. If drama is an art, well, often it’s much more moving when someone you know adds the slightest quiver to their voice than when someone in a movie bursts into tears in the rain as a violin plays in the background. Sometimes its just knowing who or when to pass the ball to, and doing it deftly.

And then, there’s the art of design. Which I think Robin Laws referred to as “the hidden art”, though that is probably a little controversial. It’s not exactly writing, it’s more about what or how to write. It’s not exactly the sum total of everything that goes into a book. In some games, the bulk of the design is just the premise. The rest is left to the players. In some games, it’s carefully choreographed ritual. Eithery way, like all art, most of it will leave you cold but some of it can grab you and change you.

(This was originally published in the indie rpg newsletter.)

[metaphrasis]

[A critic is] someone who […] loves experience. I think it’s a disposition that comes even before attention to art. It is someone that looks at any phenomena and wants to extend their life by paying attention—by analysis—[by wanting] to juice this aspect of experience for all that it’s worth. Someone who is, in one way, battling death by saying I can extend this moment, and this one, and this one by way of attention. And so the best way to practice that disposition happens to be on art and therefore, [the critic] uses their taste, uses their standards, uses their whole apparatus of judgement, really, to express a kind of joy of being alive at the same time as the thing.

— Vinson Cunningham's response to the question, "What is the work of a critic today?" on The New Yorker's Critics at Large podcast

[caramelcove]

I'm not satisfied with my coloring or shading 😭

Here's my attempt at throwing anything on the canvas

If there's anything you like or dislike in these PLEASEJDG tell me

And you have any tutorials please do not be shy 🤲 share

[shesgonnachangetheworld]

i've said this before but like. people usually want to talk about media literacy as being a problem with literal comprehension (aka they want to call other people "stupid" so bad) but the actual problem is that in order to understand art, you have to want to make an effort to understand it, and a lot of people don't want to make that effort if they can interpret it in the worst faith possible as a vehicle to be mean!