[0509] The Artist
└ posted on Monday, 9 September 2013, by Novil
- Submission: Lake in summer | by ~the-fire-girl | Aug 31, 2013 | Lake close to my hometown, oil on canvas.
- Comment: ~plusreflection | Aug 31, 2013 | wow, i love your talents. keep up the good work!
- Comment: ~annaballo | Aug 31, 2013 | Iwish I could paint like that!
- Comment: ~DruidDoubleForce | Aug 31, 2013 | This is amazing! Very good job!
- Comment: ^KazumiRC | Aug 31, 2013 | Gorgeous. The light and shadows look amazing.
- Comment: ~seacatz | Sep 01, 2013 | I think this is very nice you even have the reflection of the trees right ^_^ very good job keep it up
- Comment: ~mixxxtrope | Sep 01, 2013 | meh, that’s pretty boring.. And the trees look kinda artificial
- Comment: ~salla-chin | Sep 01, 2013 | wow! that’s a awesome landscape picture! <newline> keep up the good work!
- Larisa: I’ll never draw a picture again.
![[0509] The Artist](/comics/2013-09-09-0509-the-artist.png "[0509] The Artist")
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This is literally every artist that I know. I’m actually getting annoyed when they are dissatisfied with their photorealistic art, when I can’t even draw a straight line :I
there’s always going to be that one asshole. don’t let them get to you, novil.
Maybe Ivan could help. His next artwork:
Cretinous critic close to merciful end, troll on fire
Come to that, does Larisa often depict things on fire? Or does she try to keep life and art separate?
Larisa: Or just, y’know, give the psychological profilers as little to work with as possible. 😉
OrphanDidgeridoo wrote:
He wasn’t really being an asshole. Compared to what you can find in the internet, he was being relatively polite. Maybe if he had known how much his opinion would affect Larisa, he wouldn’t have commented that.
When I put oil on a canvas, it never looks like that…
(I still have a long storyline in the back of my head that I wanted to draw one day, but the last time I got to the point where the figures I drew looked human instead of monsterish… but then I hit a roadblocked and couldn’t get to the point to them looking recognizably individual. Then I stopped)
@ OrphanDidgeridoo:
He’s not being an asshole. People just happen to have different opinions sometimes.
I would have told that bi… guy to fu… erm… go away and stop bu… spoiling the mood with his unneeded comments…
Been there…..
Truest thing I’ve read in a while
We’ve all been there
It is very difficult to focus on the positive feedback. Even one negative action can become an almost obsession, whether you want it to or not.
Trust me Larissa, it’s nothing in comparison with what the feeling you get when the only comment you have is a negative one.
I often wish anyone would comment at all….
I’m so much like this. I’ll draw or write something, post it on the internet, get loads of positive feedback and one bad comment and I go into a pit of shame for a MONTH. Something negative about artists? We take everything to heart. And we’re human.
“meh, that’s pretty boring.. And the trees look kinda artificial”
>expecting painted trees to not look artificial
>being bored by a hand-made landscape
Obviously this person was just making his opinion known because he had nothing better to do… right? Or else, why comment?
It’s people like this that make me wonder why *they* are on the internet. Because I don’t like to assume they are trolls – they simply *tend* to be.
Find him. Burn him.
I identify so hard with this. I think the problem is that positive feedback sounds like people just being nice, or ignorant, and negative feedback seems like the “real” opinions, like my instinct is to think “oh, this person is clearly more discerning than everybody else since he wasn’t impressed. He’s figured me out! It’s true!! I’m just a sham!!! OHHHGOODDDDD!!!!”
It seems really stupid when you take a step back and think about it, but it is so hard to take that step back when you put a lot of effort into something.
This shouldn’t be “the artist” this should be called “every artist ever”
Sometimes Novil puts up a text saying “based on a true story,” but in this case it’s based on millions, if not billions, of true stories.
Well, it could be worse. Just imagine getting no comment at all, also a true story for a countless number of people.
There’s always that one downvote by the 10-year-old who’s just beginning to experiment with trolling.
it’s always the one negative comment that derails a potential career…i feel for you, larissa…
It would be cool if there WAS a ~the-fire-girl on deviantART….I am so checking….
All it takes is one troll….
hmmm this comic is pretty boring… And the girls look like some comic characters.
@ AmbiValent:
Try oil PAINT next time, rather than the raw stuff :p
This is so fricken true! there’s always that one guy that feels that he needs to say something wrong about art you’ve made JUST BECAUSE everyone else is inly giving positive feedback !
That’s why I draw so few… 8^(
Why did you draw it in the first place then, Larissa? Did somebody tell you to draw it or something?
If you wanna draw, then draw. You don’t need any other reason for it.
@ Xezlec:
So very true. Comments hit hardest when they chime with our own thoughts. All artists know it’s possible to do better, and so we are pre-disposed to criticise ourselves harshly.
I find it better to give (and receive!) tactful suggestions about how to improve, rather than just criticism. Also, to say that the piece does not appeal to *me* for certain reasons, not that it *is* bad.
Every artist has to either grow a thick skin, or else become a hermit. Or go mad. That is always an option, although not as good a one as it seems.
Actually as an artist I in many ways prefer the negative comments. Even most of those are far less harsh on my work than I am myself, and they sometimes pinpoint something that made the picture look ‘wrong’ that i couldn’t identify. It’s enough satisfaction for me to know that I can (probably) make the next one better, and that I created something. Still got a while to go before I’m as good as Powree though.
While I understand the feelings of Larisa and “every artist ever,” I’d still like to point out that the “asshole” or “troll” at least confined his remark to the work at hand, and pointed out which aspect he didn’t like. Sure, his overall tone is not what you’d call polite, but I still think that within all that wonderful praise, this is the comment is the most helpful one, as it points out perceived flaws in L’s art. Sure, one might be injured by the relatively harsh tone, but I think that a perfectionist (as us artists are wont to be) should stop there. Instead I’d hope that the artist in question would at least take five minutes to ask themselves whether the “asshole” might have a point. Maybe the trees could need a little work. Maybe there might be a way to make the overall composition more striking (i.e. less “boring”). If, upon reflection, one finds the “troll’s” remarks to be unjustified, then one can just dismiss them as an (unfounded) opinion. But if one finds a grain of truth in them, they can serve as another seed for artistic development.
I am quite aware that Larissa, as a young artist, might lack the experience to put the comment into proper perspective, and maybe benefit from it. That might take her a while. I am equally aware that many of the (extradiegetic) commenters probably have to deal with some genuinely upsetting and hurtful reactions to their art (as have I), which might explain the intensity of their reaction to this comic.
I’d nevertheless like to point out that mixxxtrope might not be the complete monster they are made out to be, and that maybe, comments like this can be helpful. I consider us artists to be perfectionists, and how can we achieve this perfection if we classify every reaction that might contain an uncomfortable truth as trolling. If nothing else, consider Hanlon’s Razor to be in full effect.
Sincerely,
Dirka.
I just saw that Eserchie has already made my point, and much more succinctly at that. I apologize for the unnecessary rant.
Not liking something is not the same as trolling.
It’s perfectly fine not to like things. Would you seriously want surround yourself with people who only say everything you do is excellent, and wonderful?! What would be the point? I could create a computer programme that would fire random compliments at you every time you post something, and you’d get the same effect.
It’s all feedback and people’s opinions. You will NEVER please everyone, and you shouldn’t even try.
The comment didn’t criticise the artist personally, and it wasn’t threatening or abusive. They just didn’t like the picture and gave reasons why they didn’t like it. In other words, they gave feedback. Feedback which can either learned from if you agree with it, or since most people seem to like the art, the feedback can be just ignored as being part of nothing will ever please everyone.
I can’t help to think that mixxxtrope’s comment looks top-rated, the way it stands out like that.
Now THAT would really burn!
Heh, sounds like every day on deviantART. 🙂
What? No! Larisa, your art is amazing! Trust me, just keep up your art and remember that some of us can’t even draw a circle!
Someone’s just signed up to be her next 3D art exhibit!
Now for the avatars here from top to bottom we have: a nitrous smiley, a monkey, a walnut, Samus?, a heart with a leaf in it?, meh face and a worried cat. The typos are funny too.
Greenwood Goat wrote:
Would that mean burnig the bridges behind Larisa?
Actually I hate this kind of praise. Maybe I just grew out of it but seeing hundreds of comments thoughtlessly praising an art on, for example, Deviant Art. Especially when the art could use some constructive criticism. I mean, I am not against praising, but I knew a person who was drawing a dozen or two of pictures each week yet failed to improve in the span of 4 years more than the bare minimum.
I suppose you need one or two critics, otherwise how will you ever improve?
@ OrphanDidgeridoo:
Novil doesn’t draw the comic. :3
@ Neveko:
well i don’t pay attention to that shit lol
I’ve met two artists like this.
Why are people calling that one negative comment a troll? It was his opinion.
Positive and negative feedback are needed to improve. If you only want positive you don’t want feedback you want asskissing which is worthless.
Wish I could Draw and Paint as “bad” as larissa =/
Deko wrote:
🙂 Oh, I’m sure you can! You (and I!) just cannot Draw and Paint as -GOOD- as Larisa! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Larissa, this is called a declaration of war. Search and destroy!
She shouldn’t feel so bad about it, it was only one bad review. Doesn’t mean she’s a bad painter. Look a Picasso and Van Gogh, most people though there art was rubbish, and now look at them! She should just except that some people are like that and learn to move on.
And if she can’t do that she can always track down the commenter and set fire to his house! 🙂
WOW! This is the very reason I dont draw anymore. Everyone said that my drawings looked good. Everyone except me, I am my worse critic.
:'(
Meh… I’ve seen better comics… 😉
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(Please, please understand the sarcasm in that comment!) 🙂
If that guy is just being a troll or hater, he needs to run or fireproof everything he owns.