Over the course of the quarantine, I've been involved in a small online art group. We come up with a weekly theme and then share artwork via email; it's simple but good. I've been enjoying it immensely.
This week, at the request of a few of our members, I wrote up a short essay on peer critique. I've been involved in peer critique for decades, and I feel like I've seen it all. I'm going to publish my thoughts here in three parts.
On Giving Critique
Believe it or not, giving is the more important half
of peer critique. In my experience, you learn more by formulating and giving good
comments than you do from most of the comments you receive. At least 75% of the
commentary you get will be more or less useless, and the 25% that is
useful will come from completely unpredictable sources.
On the other hand, every single piece of thoughtful commentary
you give will help you. You’ll expand your art vocabulary. You’ll expand your
knowledge of techniques- those that work and those that don’t. You’ll learn what
you want to do more of, and what you wouldn’t do in a million years. You’ll get
better at following an artist’s inspiration and process step-by-step, and since
art is a form of communication, you’ll be that much more able to appreciate
subtlety and nuance.
Perhaps most importantly, you’ll develop your own inner
critic. Most of us have an immature, stupid inner critic, especially when we
start out. It’s like a junior-high kid or an internet troll: all it wants to do
is tear things down, both things it doesn’t understand and its own things too,
just for spite. Some folks make the mistake of trying to ditch the inner
critic, but that’s not helpful in the long term; what you want to do is help
your inner critic grow the eff up.
You need a solid, helpful inner critic that can tell you gently
and kindly when you need to improve something, when you need to toss something
out and start again. You need an inner critic you can trust, who can actually
say, “Hey, that’s really good. I see how much improvement you’ve made on this
technique you’ve been practicing, and I’m proud of you. Now, here’s the area
you could start working on next….” Your inner critic should be your friend, but
you do have to train him or her.
Peer critique helps with that. Exercising your art skills,
your observational skills, and your human empathy as you make good comments on
others’ work models that behavior for your own inner critic. Over time, it works.
(next section: On Taking Critique...coming soon)
