As an artist, whether amateur or professional, one is bound to receive a bad critique now and again. However, one of the hardest parts of a negative critique, is not keeping oneself composed during the crit, it is taking the criticism and moving forward with it. But how does one move forward? One student might find destroying the work in question cathartic. Another student might take solace in crying. These methods wont get an artist back in the studio.
One of the biggest questions that I ask myself, after a negative evaluation is what is the reason for critiques. Reviewing an artists work, while the artist is present, is important, in giving the artist a chance to explain their reasoning behind the piece and for the artist to clear up any discrepancies that a viewer is having. Assessing work, from a viewers perspective is crucial to artists because it allows a party to point out positives and negatives and give advice on how to find solutions.
Even though its clearer why critiques are essential to artists, its still can be very difficult to move on from the negative, with your confidence intact. Its okay to give your self a day of pity but no more than that. After your day of pity is over, its going to take some time to process what has been said and sort through the negative, to pick out the useful comments. Once you decide what is useful, the artist has to chose, whether or not, to listen to the critic. Depending on how many different people have viewed your work and the comments you get from them, will really push an artist, in how you listen to viewers. I also think its important to value and listen to viewers that have been in the art world for many years.
Make work, talk about it and learn from it. The more one critiques their work, the better an artist they will become.
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