How to Take Criticism Without Taking it to Heart

When your an artist everyone is a critic! From artists friends, amateur to professional, non artists and even your own kids (or in my case students) you can't escape peoples need to critique your work. Good or bad, we can use those words as a way to grow as an artist and turn it in to a positive experience.

If you are an artist and you took an art class, group critiques were the norm. In college I took one art class - painting. It was an oil painting class (which I had little or no experience in). Oils just never resonated with me, I couldn't understand the medium and it proved to be quite difficult for me to push myself to use them. Let alone we had to paint still lives that were quite boring in subject.

Today I do understand the need to learn the fundamentals, you have to learn the rules to break them. What was the most daunting part of the class were the group critiques.

What I did not appreciate about group critique was that we were all on the same level of skill (most of us anyway). How could someone on my level tell me what I did and did not do right? It was frustrating. I also felt like they were mostly negative and not constructive - in my class anyway. So in the end I dropped out of the painting class and never took an art class again.

Sometimes I wish I would have persevered. Being a self taught artist is very difficult. Every painting is both a series of failures and successes. I wonder what kind of artist I would be had I kept going on with these classes and set those fundamental skills. It was those darn critiques that got me!

Flash forward to a couple of months ago. I am apart of this artist group on Facebook and I had posted a picture of a finished project that I was quite proud of. Moments later the comment section was filled with criticism. How I could have done things this way or that way. It really frustrated and upset me. I already finished the painting, there was no going back and I thought it was really good.

I ended up getting in to a spat with a someone on the forum. Eventually I came around, she explained that criticism is just an act of trying to help the artist improve and that is the very moment the lightbulb went off in my head!

Criticism is rarely used to hurt the person that is on the receiving end of it. It is used as a tool for growth, if worded properly. Most recently I was working on a painting and every few days I would ask my fiance for his feedback. Weary at first because of my history of being angry and upset over any form of criticism, he came around to tell me a few key points he felt would make the painting better - and it did.

The reason why I did not care for criticism in my art was because art comes from the heart. If art is so near to your heart then how could it be wrong? Well - it can especially when you're trying your hand at realism or figurative art which is what I aim to be. We can all use a little criticism here and there with our art and they way to not take it to heart is to just know that it is not a personal attack on skill, but just to make the piece better in the end. Now I like to ask at least two other people for a critique on an in process piece because more sets of eyes will help you grow as an artist.

I hope that this blog will help you learn how to use tools of criticism as a growth opportunity. For more information on my paintings and process click the portfolio tab above!