Hi everyone!
There is a matter I have been thinking about a lot, the matter of feedback to the land before time fanart presented here in the GOF.
Luckily many of us are presenting their drawings and paintings, their videos and fanfictions here and it is certainly one of the most delightful parts of the GOF
Sometimes artists feel there is very little reaction to the presentation of their fanart, and some of them have already expressed their disappointment about the limited reactions. Most fanart threads consist to less than half of posts not posted by the artist himself or herself. I'm afraid shortage of reactions may discourage some artists from creating and posting more of their work.
On the other hand however it can be difficult to give a helpful feedback on the work other people put a lot of effort and enthusiasm in, in particular if such a feedback wouldn't consist exclusively of praise.
It sure can be motivating to receive a large number of feedbacks telling you that your works is beautiful and that everything is fine. Such feedback however is not likely to promote any change from good to even better in case a piece of art includes some (for lack of a better term. This is not meant to be offensive in any way) "flaw" which could easily be prevented in future work if the artist is aware of it. It is natural that people are less critical about their own work than of other people's work in which they didn't invest any personal effort. Therefore most people are prone to overlook "flaws" in their own work which strikes any other viewer. If the other viewers abstain from mentioning anything negative about the artist's work for the sake of politeness the "flaw" is more likely to be repeated in the future than it would be if a bit of constructive criticism is offered to the artist along with the well deserved praise.
Some artist's will welcome such suggestions of improvement while others won't. This is not meant to sound accusatory of those artists who disapprove of any criticism of their work. It is quite understandable. People who put much effort and commitment into a picture, a video or whatever piece of fanart are proud of their work and don't want to hear it being "smeared" by anyone.
However, people who point out existing shortcomings in a piece of work don't mean to "smear" it, but to help improving it.
The fear of offending people by pointing out shortcomings in their work has often been a reason for me not to write anything at all. Claiming merely that everything was fine for the sake of politeness would have been a lie, which in turn would have been rather impolite and unhelpful even if nobody would have been aware of that impoliteness. I know of several others who told me that they didn't give any feedback on a piece of art presented in this board because of this dilema; it is not just me.
Therefore I suggest that we should make the problem official in order to solve it.
We cannot make rules as to prohibit artists to be offended about crticism of their work, nor should we make rules as to prohibit artists from giving any feedback the artist might not like.
Of course feedback must be in accordance with the board rules (no flaming, no spaming, no personal attacks) and the same goes of course for artists' responses to the feedbacks they are receiving.
Furthermore I suggest feedback to orient along a few simple rules.
-If there is anything you like in particular, let the artist know. He or she may be able to keep up what made a good impression on you in future work
-The same of course goes for anything which you see as a flaw in the picture (with the only difference that your pointing it out would prevent rather than promote the "flaw" in future work.
-Sometimes one must differentiate between points which are matters of opinion and which are plain facts. For example the number of the characters' fingers, toes, horns, whatever at their current age (as a grownup Cera is likely to grow more horns and bumps on her frill) are known, as are their size relations etc. Mistakes in this field can be pointed out as facts. In other cases it is more a matter of taste (e.g. "your Cera looks really nice, but does she really have to wear that necklace of flowers?). The difference between fact and opinion should be pointed out whenever necessary.
What do all of you (artists, critics, everyone) think? What are your oppinions on this matter?
In the admin section there has been the suggestion of creating a "feedback award" to be voted on this year (for those who are voted for giving to most helpful and / or frequent feedback) was brought up. It is meant to encourage the posting of feedback and thereby the posting of fanart.
