My confidence in people has been dealt a serious blow this week and I'm still recoiling from the initial assault, my own reaction and the reaction of others on the forum.
After posting artwork for a poster that I've been working on and hoping to get some feedback from others to help improve it I was shocked to find the first post, from a very well established forum user and artist of considerable skill, was nothing short of a personal attack based on nothing more than my choice of user name, post title and project title. Without going into the fine detail the advice offered by this person to me was; "I have two - one for you, and one for everyone else: For you, I'd
suggest making at least some tiny effort to involve yourself in the
community; for everyone else, I'd suggest not commenting on your work
until then."
I usually a very calm and tolerant person who isn't quick to rush in to confrontation or resort to vulgar language but this post cut deep and stung like hell. In hindsight I should have taken the time to think about my response calmly and settle my rattled state of mind and emotion - unfortunately I didn't and my response to the user in question began with dialogue I won't repeat. Needless to say it indicated what I thought this person could do with their comment and highlighted a foreseen difficulty they might have in doing it before going on to express my shock and objection as well as justification for my selection of user name, post title and project title.
Perhaps because of a degree of forum naivety I was surprised by the reprimand issued to me by a couple of other forum members. Their responses mainly inspired by my choice of language and void of any disagreement with the initial post.
Thankfully with the intervention of a forum moderator the matter has seemingly been resolved but it has seriously made me question any future involvement I might have in the forums.
When it comes down to it. Being and aspiring artist I don't really see myself as having much to offer in the way of advice to others. I don't have an extensive portfolio of finished work and while I enjoy the process of creating work, I haven't yet created a piece that I've looked at upon completion and gone "WOW" that's awesome, I've actually produced something worthwhile."
Is it enough to simply comment on peoples work; "That's a really great composition", "Fantastic use of colour", "Wow what and awesome pose"? Is this what I should be doing in the forum as a way of becoming more involved?
If you have an opinion I would love to hear it, because right now I'm about ready to drop it and simply go back into my on little sphere of isolation - it's nice and comfortable there.
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Comments
kazky said:
hmmm, i missed all of that so i went and read the thread. Ok now i think probably what happened is that you just posted at the wrong time, em.. is not vindictive (unless he has to be) and is extremely helpful. I may be wrong as i've not read any of your previous posts (from what i can remember anyway) however, we have quite alot of members, now look at how many are actually active forum members..... i couldn't even work out the percentage, it's so low, and we see so many times, people who want crits/advice/love on every one of their images, and who only post their images, in their threads, and are not willing to offer advice/crits/love to any other member. Now it's not compulsory to offer advice etc of course, it's just polite really.
It really becomes annoying, and if you've been a member as long as em.. and myself and others have, you just reach a point where you think 'screw you' to some of the people who do this, especially if they do start their post as if they are long lost friends.
There has to be give & take otherwise people get fed up, we also get people who post an image for crit & then complain if they haven't had a reply in 30 mins.
Anyway this reply is kind of in defense of em.. and by way of an explanation as to how i and possibly feel about this kind of thing, and a question, have you helped or offered advice to people here? if you have then you were probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time, if you haven't then you might want to.
JimboJimboJimbo said:
I hate to admit it but no, I haven't offered any advice to any other forum user. But this isn't due to any degree of selfishness but rather a lack of confidence.
It doesn't feel right to me to post a crit or suggestion on someones else's post when I'm not happy with my own work and feel that in reality there's very little merit to it when it comes to technique etc. Perhaps this could be seen as selfishness - I don't know? It's not that I unwilling to share knowledge or insight just that I don't feel I have any.
All-in-all since em..'s post I've been weighing up if this the right place for me or if it wouldn't be better for me to withdraw and work on my material in solitude until I'm happy with it myself. Until I've gotten myself into the right head space to share my work and have the confidence in my own abilities to feel that I have something of merit to offer in the way of advice. Again - I don't know.
This entire incident has me doubting so many things and wondering how I should proceed. The only thing I do know for sure is that I'm not going to give up.
kazky said:
ok, well all of us have felt like that, and the only way to get through it is to keep going, your confidence will grow as you practice and here is as good a place as any, you will find it harder to grow when you're doing it alone.
i would carry on regardless :-)
phoenicorn said:
pick yourself up, dust yourself down, get posting and show us your strength. god on my first post on concept art I got slated for plagerism. don't chuck in the towel coz of one individual. you are already alot stronger than you think you are. Skill will come in time if you doubt your abilities but the correct attitude is something your are born with and I belive you have the correct attitude.
you can do eet!
I have to disagree with kaz when she says that this is as good a place as any. no this is the best place trust me I have been on all the major forums and this is the nicest and gives the best crit without being too harsh. hell send me a link to your work and all post afew comments to help if you want.
just remember sometimes people have bad days and make posts they normaly wouldn't. don't let it get to you.
JimboJimboJimbo said:
Thanks Kazky, Thanks Phoenicorn
No way am I giving up on my work or giving in to self doubt. I'm going to do my best to forget em...'s comments and move on.
I've really appreciated your inputs and insights - it means a lot to me.
I'm also going to make the best effort I can to be a more active member in the forum even if this means simply posting comments of admiration until I feel more confident in my own skills.
Cheers
Jimbo
kazky said:
i was going to suggest that until you felt more comfortable, i think you'll find you soon notice little errors and things and will be able to point them out to others, not only will that help you see how others work and can get things wrong without noticing, but help you look for errors in your work.
and only the most precious would get offended by any crits you offer, crits and advice is usually what were asking for, (well not everyone, but you'll soon realise who does & doesn't want crits)