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More Culture News

S U N D A Y . F E A T U R E #8

~EffysDream:iconEffysDream: reports, 7h 57m ago
Sunday Feature #8!

If you want to get featured, too, click the link and find out how!

SUNDAY. FEATURE

Weekly Deviation - 11/29/09

=RoxRio:iconRoxRio: reports, 6h 4m ago
Another week, another selection. Different people, different style, great works! Theme: Seasons.

Make a Difference #35

=3wyl:icon3wyl: reports, 1h 58m ago
Make a Difference aims to do exactly that. This series of articles will hopefully make a difference to you as well as the artists featured. Just by giving one minute of your time to write constructive comments, favourites and even watches will make a difference to these artists. Click here to make a difference today!

An Observation of deviantART

*ProjectComment:iconProjectComment: reports, 2h 6m ago
Discussing page views, activity and popularity, ~ChaoticSkye explores the inner workings of the community on deviantART from her point of view.

Although this does not apply to everyone, we hope the article is a worthwhile read and that the majority perceive things from a different point of view from reading this.

Photonig's 'Village Green Preservation Society'

`photonig:iconphotonig: reports, 20h 43m ago
The newest society at dA.
Here to to keep safe the images of things that make memories special.
Nigel says, if you don't read he will abuse your cat!

Combined Shades of Beauty

*Akhenaten-Aten:iconAkhenaten-Aten: reports, 5h 28m ago
Love is more than just a state of mind.

6 bellas obras explicadas por sus autores.

=noticias:iconnoticias: reports, 15h 32m ago
Te presentamos SEIS bellas obras de SEIS hispanos. En cada obra su autor nos explica el porqué de cada obra y otra información que le da un sentido especial a cada obra.

Anímate a conocer estas obras y a sus autores.

200 Piece Feature

*the-photographicpoet:iconthe-photographicpoet: reports, 21h 53m ago
Following the success of the 100 Piece Feature, here's a 200 Piece Feature with a twist ;)

Sammie :rose:

helping-the-unknown: 29/11/09

*helping-the-unknown:iconhelping-the-unknown: reports, 8h 6m ago
Welcome to the 40th edition of *helping-the-unknown's news article. A project created to give new and underappreciated artists the recognition they deserve by featuring four pieces of work from five deviants.

DeviantDead presents: The Growing Horde!

*DeviantDead:iconDeviantDead: reports, 15h 27m ago
Come join *DeviantDead in a zombie themed art jam! Due-date in mid December. :zombie:
4 comments   Projects  Last +fav: ~LinkTerra

Culture News This Week

Wacom: Bring Your Vision to Life - Dreams Contest

$Moonbeam13:iconMoonbeam13: reports, November 24
DeviantART and Wacom are proud to present the second Intuos4 "Bring Your Vision To Life" contest! Open to all artists all over the world, we challenge you to show us your dreams and aspirations for the future. Get drawing!

Establishing a Process for Better Art

`Rahll:iconRahll: reports, November 23
In this article I'll talk about establishing a process of working on art that will help you turn out much better work without as much struggling or confusion.

Unknown Art - a supporting feature

*Blaumohn:iconBlaumohn: reports, 2d 5h ago
Big feature for unknown art that deserves some more attention. Take a look and I'm sure you'll find some work that you like. :)

Secret Santa... With a Twist!

*ProjectComment:iconProjectComment: reports, November 23
With Christmas around the corner, what better way than to celebrate with a fun rendition of Secret Santa?

The staff at *ProjectComment and =alwaysmotivated have teamed up to bring you our own Secret Santa 2009... but with a twist! :dance:

HUGE collection of "Love" art

*rebeka-anne:iconrebeka-anne: reports, November 25
"All you need is love"
Get a dose of it here!

These works deserve more love PART 03

*Hieyizar:iconHieyizar: reports, November 24
This article presents some features of some artists who deserve more love :heart:

Daily Literature Deviations for November 24, 2009

=DailyLitDeviations:iconDailyLitDeviations: reports, November 24
Daily Literature Deviations is a group that is dedicated to bringing literature to the forefront of the deviantArt community. We attempt to accomplish this by daily featuring Literature artists from around the community that deserve the recognition, but are not getting it.

Each day we will feature 5 deviations from the Literature categories in a News Article. In order to support the artists that we feature, we ask that you :+fav: the news article as well as check out the individual pieces. We understand that each day you may not be able to check out each and every one of the pieces, everyone has their own things going on. We just ask that you make an attempt to help support the growing Literature community.

Daily Literature Deviations- November 23, 2009

=DailyLitDeviations:iconDailyLitDeviations: reports, November 22
Daily Literature Deviations is a group that is dedicated to bringing literature to the forefront of the deviantArt community. We attempt to accomplish this by daily featuring Literature artists from around the community that deserve the recognition, but are not getting it.

Each day we will feature 5 deviations from the Literature categories in a News Article. In order to support the artists that we feature, we ask that you :+fav: the news article as well as check out the individual pieces. We understand that each day you may not be able to check out each and every one of the pieces, everyone has their own things going on. We just ask that you make an attempt to help support the growing Literature community.

Daily Literature Deviations - November 28, 2009

=DailyLitDeviations:iconDailyLitDeviations: reports, 1d 9h ago
Daily Literature Deviations is a group that is dedicated to bringing literature to the forefront of the deviantArt community. We attempt to accomplish this by daily featuring Literature artists from around the community that deserve the recognition, but are not getting it. Each day we will feature 5 deviations from the Literature categories in a News Article.

In order to support the artists that we feature, we ask that you :+fav: the news article as well as check out the individual pieces. We understand that each day you may not be able to check out each and every one of the pieces, everyone has their own things going on. We just ask that you make an attempt to help support the growing Literature community.

Daily Literature Deviations - November 26, 2009

=DailyLitDeviations:iconDailyLitDeviations: reports, November 25
Daily Literature Deviations is a group that is dedicated to bringing literature to the forefront of the deviantArt community. We attempt to accomplish this by daily featuring Literature artists from around the community that deserve the recognition, but are not getting it. Each day we will feature 5 deviations from the Literature categories in a News Article.

In order to support the artists that we feature, we ask that you :+fav: the news article as well as check out the individual pieces. We understand that each day you may not be able to check out each and every one of the pieces, everyone has their own things going on. We just ask that you make an attempt to help support the growing Literature community.

Culture


On constructive comments or the lack thereof

*Shutsumon:iconShutsumon: reports, August 11, 2006
There seems to be an attitude prevalent on deviantART not to comment except to give praise in an unconstructive manner. A few people – probably in reaction - take the opposite tack and either flame or only say what’s wrong with a picture without any positive notes whatsoever.

Now I don’t really mind the unconstructive praise within reason. I do it myself about half the time – possibly more. Sometimes a picture is just so good that you’re left speechless. There are some truly great artists on dA.. But when you can see a multitude of problems with a picture and people are still telling you it’s great it sounds a little hollow. It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t get the feeling that some – may be most - people avoid giving negative feedback because they think you should never be negative. To me this seems silly. People learn from their mistakes but sometimes they need them pointing out to them.

However, don’t go to other extreme and tell them their work is useless or whatever. (I’ve seen people say some horrible things on here) That’s not constructive either. That’s plain cruel and soul-destroying.

Also no matter how constructive you are trying to be don’t just list what’s wrong with a picture. A lot of beginning artists have very fragile egos and will come to the conclusion that nothing is right with the picture if you just hand them a laundry list.

So how do you give constructive criticism? Well this is just my opinion but it’s how I do it and I’ve never had anyone accuse me of flaming them or take my comments as a diss so I guess it works.

Guideline One: Look at everything. Full View the picture and study it. Read the artist’s comments (my personal bugaboo is people who don’t read the artist’s comments and then say something that makes it obvious they haven’t). Check they even want criticism – if they’ve set it to critique discouraged respect their wishes and don’t go beyond guideline three.

Guideline Two: Keep the tone of your comment encouraging. This is important. Constructive Criticism builds people up rather than knocking them down.

Guideline Three: Say what’s right with the deviation first. If you like the colours or the shading or the line work or the composition say so. If the person doesn’t want a critique you can still say what you like about a picture so you can still do this. And even if you can’t find anything wrong with a picture knowing why people like it can still help the artist because they know what they are doing right.

And if you can’t see anything right with the deviation? If you really hate it? Look at it again. If you really can’t see anything to praise then question if you’re objective enough to give a truly constructive comment. If you still think you can then praise them for trying and for their hard work or something similar. They’ve probably broken their back to create the picture you hate, so acknowledge that at least.

Guideline Four: Pick one or maybe two things (if you had a lot of positives it’s fair to list 2 negatives if not stick to one) that are wrong with the picture even if there’s more than that wrong. It’s easier to improve slowly than cope with correcting an entire list of faults. And be careful how you phrase the criticism. Try to phrase it as “issue” -> “suggestion” -> “encouragement”. Example paraphrasing something several people have said to me about my art.

“I think your shading looks a bit off for the light source. Try drawing an arrow pointing in the direction of the light while you’re working on shading. But well done it was a strong effort.”

Of course it’s not always possible to give advice. You may not know how to solve the problem. In that case try to explain the problem in as positive a way as possible.

If the person noted a flaw in their artist’s comments and you agree with them and have a suggestion to help them to correct the problem in future artworks you can do that as well following much the same pattern – but acknowledging they did it themselves.

Guideline five: No matter what you should never flame a deviant. If it’s really bad (though that’s a value judgement) or you think its art theft report it to relevant authorities on dA (with evidence in the case of art theft) and let them decide if it needs moving to scraps in the former case or deleting and the user banning in the latter. Flaming isn’t big and it isn’t clever and it’s never right no matter what the target may or may not have done.

Guideline Six: (Note I’ve never had opportunity to do this but I’ve heard from people who have) If you see a deviant who isn’t great but shows potential and the ability to take criticism then – if you feel up to it – watch them and continue to give constructive advice. Seeing them improve will give you a sense of accomplishment because you’ve helped them.

To sum up if you want to give constructive critiques – and I’m not saying you have to, it’s completely up to you – the most important thing is to keep your tone encouraging find at least one thing due praise and offer advice on the problem if you can..

I will close with one thought that may help you decide to try this. Helping people improve their art will help you improve your own because it will make it easier to see and understand your own mistakes.

Devious Comments

love 1 1 joy 4 4 wow 0 0 mad 0 0 sad 1 1 fear 0 0 neutral 0 0
:iconaperfectnightmare:
Excellent guidelines

--
If the saying "You are what you eat" is true, then I must be a hot latina!
:iconivysan:
These are great guidelines! :D It's really well thought out. :)

--
Extraordinary is extra ordinary.
"...it goes like faaaadeeee dark faaade..." --Sun-Flowerfairy13
"Hey quote me in your sig xD. I want to be quoted I want to be quoted!" --Totally Rad
:iconvgmmaster:
I notice this as well. But if you look closely, the people that only give praise may be the people's friends or +fav/comment whores.

However, this is a nicely written article. Well done. :clap:

--
My gallery
:iconmikabots:
A very helpful read, nice article =) I like the focus on being encouraging. One should always find potential in an artist's work, help them to build confidence and not tear them down.
:icondoubtful-della:
Although your points are good, this is not really a news article. More of a journal entry or rant.

If you'd like to be productive, and find other productive people, why not try joining a club like

--
"There is room for different point of view, different style, no matter how good of a photographer you are" 'gilad
:iconjanus-hero-of-winds:
Well-said. I like constructive criticism more than one-word postive comments, by a long shot.

--
This is the Internet. Anything you say can be used against you...and if it's lulzy enough, it probably will.
:iconconexion:
Very nice. It gets really bothersome when you get a bunch of comments that say "Lookz Great! lolz"...

Sure... yay... it looks great... now what can I do to IMPROVE?

It can get tiring... especially when you start hitting a rut and don't know what to work on. Good article.
:iconkingcobra:
The discouraging comments that I hate the most surprisingly are not the "ur art sux" ones, because are fun to ignore. It's the "Where the hell do you find blue sand anyways?" or "Why the hell did you use Fireworks to make this?" i.e. the semi-insults. The comments don't go after the content that you submit, but the person who makes them says the most discouraging things possible to [1] insult others/their work and [2] not get banned for being more direct (i.e. by not saying "ur art sux" you don't get banned). These kinds of comments are bending along a pet peeve of mine, and it will be of no surprise to me if others feel similary. Insult directly, or wuss out. Don't semi-wuss out, because that's still semi-insulting.
:iconshutsumon:
Sorry you see it that way.

I could have posted it on my journal but then who'd have seen it. It's certainly not meant as a rant but to help people.

Perhaps I should have posted it as a tutorial but putting together a large graphics file for something that is pure text seems wasteful.

--
"A person who never made a mistake never made anything"

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