Welcome to the second part of this article on giving and receiving constructive criticism. If you missed the first part, you can find it here.

Part 2: Receiving Critique

You might think that accepting critique would be as easy as falling off a log. After all, that's what we're here for, right? I want to learn and grow! Come on, tell me what you think, I can take it!… Right.

No matter how much we want to improve, no matter how much we long for advice from those more experienced, receiving negative feedback can be a painful process. When you put your heart and soul into an image, it can sometimes feel very crushing when you realise that your vision just didn't make it for someone else.

Here are three steps to help you receive the best feedback and make use of it to improve your images.

~Step 1 - Mentally prepare yourself

Some images are so long in the making that they get inside our hearts and make it impossible for us to see them clearly. Try to take a step back and see the image objectively.

• Imagine the image belongs to someone else, and you're critiquing it. What areas for improvement can you see? What do you feel works best?
• Don't take it personally! Bear in mind at all times that you're inviting comments on the image, not on yourself. The comments you receive will be talking about your picture, not your personality or qualities as a human being!
• Remember that the aim of critique is to help you improve (either this specific image, or your skills in general.) Those commenting are trying to help you in that goal.

Now… if you feel mentally and emotionally ready, post your image.

~Step 2 - What critique do you want?

It can be hard when critiquing an image to know where to start or what pointers to give. This is where the "notes" section can help both you and your audience.

When posting your notes, include information on anything you feel is relevant. Here are some example questions which you might ask yourself:

• What application was the image rendered in?
• Which elements did you create yourself? Are you using all props, or did you model and texture the items?
• Did you add any postwork (2D) to your image? If so, what did this involve?
• What gave you trouble with this image? Did you struggle with clothing the character, for example, or posing the hands?
• What do you feel you got right? (Lighting, expressions, materials?)
• What was your intention with the image? Did you want to convey a feeling or evoke a certain mood? Are you telling a story?

And the most important question:

What do you most want help with?

This final question is the biggest step to getting useful feedback. People out there want to help, so pointing them in the right direction is key. If you're doing a test render of a pose you've created, you don't need 20 people giving you feedback on the lighting!

Here's an example of how the notes might look:

"This is a skin texture and shader that I've put together with this head morph. I made the morph in Hexagon. The render is straight out of Poser 7, no postwork. I'm pretty happy with the skin in general but not sure about the facial hair. I've tried bump mapping around the beard area but I'm not sure if it's right. Any feedback on the skin, nodes, or morph is appreciated!"

Remember - the more specific you are, the more specific (and therefore useful) the criqitues will be.

~Step 3 - Accepting and Acting on Critique

OK, so you're mentally prepared and your image is out there with your specific critique requests.

Now, hopefully we will see a nice flood of useful feedback coming in. Ooh, here come some ebots! Let's go and see what comments have been left…

"You said you were going for a sad and melancholy feel, but the model's expression doesn't mirror that. She looks a little blank and wooden."

WHAT?! What do you mean, wooden? I spent a good two minutes on that expression!

"Why is there a giant pink cartoon bunny in the background? It's a little distracting and doesn't fit a sad theme at all."

HEY! That bunny is symbolic of, of, of, her inner torment! And it's pink because it's making a statement on, errr, gender conditioning! What do you know anyway, you… you critic!

Woah, stop right there! I think we've forgotten step one. Remember, don't take it personally! These people are critiquing the picture, not you, nor your intentions or emotions. Divorce your feelings as much as you can, and read through again.

(Tip: Pretend that the picture is by someone else and you're going to be feeding back all the critiques to them. Rephrase the critiques as if you were providing them with a summary of feedback. "In general, the commenters liked the lighting and pose. Some felt that the expression could use a bit more life. The majority felt that the pink bunny was a distraction. Several people were very complimentary about your handling of shadows.")

Remember, the comments made are to help you improve. Your harshest critic can be your greatest friend, if your honest goal is to improve your work as much as possible. Start reading with the assumption that all the commenters want to help as much as possible (giving critiques is hard and time-consuming - so this will be true for a huge majority of the time). When reading through, don't ascribe tones of voice and meanings that aren't there.

If someone has given a negative critique, but it's too vague to be of use, don't be afraid to follow up with a site mail. Keep it friendly and polite, something like this:

"Hi there,

Thanks for commenting on my recent work, "Girl with Pink Bunny: The Inneffable Sadness of Being."
[give the url]

I read your comment with interest and was wondering if I could get some more details? You mentioned that the lighting "didn't work for you" - did you feel it was too dark? Too washed out? The wrong colour?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I am always looking to improve my work.

Kind regards,
Karen"

If several people are asking the same question, edit the notes to give the answer. Further critiques will be able to go further. If the question is paramount to the critique, you might drop the commenter(s) a mail answering the question and asking them to review the image again in light of the answer.

Try to separate personal opinions from technical critique. There's a difference between someone saying that they don't like the model's makeup, and that the model's feet are buried in the ground plane. The first is a matter of personal taste. The second is something that can and should definitely be fixed.

If you're going to remake the image with the critique tips incorporated, decide how you're going to do it. Do you want to edit the image? If you do this, future visitors won't understand what the first commenters were talking about. On the other hand, it avoids having an embarrassing mistake in your gallery! You could also consider uploading as a new image, and giving a link in the notes to the original version, or (depending on the dimensions of your image) pasting the new version above or below the original. Speaking personally, I love to see how an image has developed in response to feedback, so I favour the latter two methods. It can also be interesting for you to go back to in future and see how much you've grown as an artist.

One final point - when all is said and done, you are in control of the image. You don't have to make changes in response to criticism - that's your choice. Sometimes images are personal and have a meaning beyond that which the outside world can understand. That final decision on whether and what to edit belongs only with you, the artist.

Come and join the "Critique Club" [in the Poser Forum] - a group of like-minded artists who have joined together to give and receive honest criticism. This is open to all artists.

Karen Janes [karen1573] is an artist, writer, and vendor on Renderosity. She is also Moderator in the Poser and Copyright Laws and Ethical Standards forums, as well as serving as a Senior MarketPlace Tester.