How to Survive Critique Day

Giving and taking critique is almost always inherently nerve wracking. Whether you receive a ton of criticism on parts of the work you loved, or no one says anything about your piece at all, both outcomes can leave you feeling demotivated… or like you want to set your own work on fire. But it doesn’t have to feel that way! So here’s a quick crash course on how to get the most out of your critique days.

1.Give feedback you would want to hear.

While this is the entire point of critique, I’ve found that people are far more likely to be active with your critique, if you are proactive and actively engage with their work. It can also help set the energy of a room. Everyone else is likely just as nervous as you are, but if you show that you are entering the class with a positive and productive attitude, people are going to follow in your footsteps.

2. Be upfront about the type of feedback you want and ask questions.

Sometimes you’ll walk into a critique loving what you’ve made and know exactly what you’d do differently, and other times, you'll hate it and have absolutely no clue why. It happens to everyone. In those moments, it’s important to express how you feel about your work and what sort of feedback you want to hear.

If you want to know if a part of your art is working or not, ask that. If you want to know how other people would have approached solving a problem you encountered during the creation process, ask that. If you wanna prefacing by saying you struggled with the piece, that you aren’t entirely confident with it, and would prefer a softer approach to critique, ask for that. Most professors and peers are very understanding and willing to accommodate if you simply ask.

3. Don’t be too hard on yourself!

While I know I just told you that you should be upfront about how you feel about your work, I want to add an important caveat. Even if you don’t love your own work (or downright despise it), leading the critique by saying how much you hate it, what a bad artist you are, and how you didn’t try at all will make the entire process feel so much more awkward for everyone involved. No one likes critiquing a piece they know the artist already doesn't like, which is entirely fair. And you won’t always make work you love all the time, but there is absolutely stuff to be learned from the critique of that work!

Critique is the place where you are given the chance to learn not just what might not be working in a piece, but how you could approach making the changes to fix it. Artists also tend to be super critical of their own work, and getting fresh eyes on it by peers might be able to help you get out of that mindset. Your peers will also probably find aspects of your work that they really enjoy, that you hadn’t been able to notice before. Even if you hate what you’ve made, approaching critique with an open mind can help you leave feeling so much better about it than when you walked in.

4. Pay attention during other people’s critiques.

Besides this just being common decency, you can learn just as much, if not more, from listening to and participating in the critiques of your peers. There’s a lot you can learn from analyzing the techniques and styles your peers use. The way they did the same project might open your eyes to alternative artistic approaches. They might also struggle in a similar area that you do, and hearing the feedback they get can help you implement those changes into your own work. Also, creativity is fostered by engaging with the art of others. Engaging with other people on a deeper level can help serve as inspiration and artistic motivation.

5. MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH THE LEARNING CENTER

Guy... it's what they’re here for. The learning center is the perfect place to learn how to critique, and how to take critique, in a super low stakes and open environment. Practice is always the best way to improve at something, and critique is no exception.