creative critique.
If you want to improve your artistic skills, you’ll often here that you need to critique your work or get someone to critique your work. It’s important to understand how your work is being perceived by others, which will in turn help you to improve your artistic skills. Identifying how to improve your own work, or receiving feedback from others on your work will, in the long run, be invaluable to your own development.
why do we critique artwork?
Critiques can be used for educating viewers on an artist’s practice, understanding the intent of a body of work, or providing comments that strengthen an artist’s creative endeavors. As the artist receiving an art critique, be prepared to be receptive. As the subject of a critique, it’s important for artists to be open-minded.
Whether the work you show is finished or unfinished, you can gain new insights into your work versus when you’re developing it on your own. Critiques can be a way to progress your artistry into new and undiscovered directions.
tips for how to receive an art critique.
It can be nerve-racking to have your work be seen in an open, public environment, but know that you are the expert on your own work and have the skills and resources to represent your practice in the best way possible. Try to get a sense of what your art practice is before a critique, and provide as much detail as possible about your work that can be shared.
Don’t take comments personally. There may be some negative comments, which isn’t always the most encouraging feeling. You have ultimate control over how you make and understand your work. Critiques can just be guidelines on how to express your ideas in different ways that don’t necessarily have to be the only way to progress your practice. Feel free to engage more with the people providing comments. You can reveal as much as your practice you’re comfortable with sharing. It’s good practice, to keep note of whether or not others’ interpretations match up with your intentions.
guidelines for giving an art critique.
There are four basic steps to critique artwork: describing, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating. When you are critiquing artwork, you must assume the artist has a message hidden within the work. Using the four steps listed below, you can provide constructive feedback to your peers.
Step 1: Describe what you see in the works.
Make a list of everything you see. Take note of the size of the works, the medium, the process used, this subject, object, details, and elements of art used. Be objective.
​
Step 2: Analyze the principles of the art in the works.
How are the principles of art used to organize the art elements of line, colour, value, shape, form, space, and texture?
Step 3: Interpret what message the artwork is communicating.
Explain or tell the meaning or mood of the work. You may make guesses about the artwork, as long as, they appear to be supported by what you see in the works. Use your intelligence, imagination, and senses to interpret the works. Don’t be afraid to interpret the work differently than someone else.
​
Step 4: Evaluate the degree of artistic merit.
Explain what you think of the artwork. Was it a successful work of art? Why or why not?
