Critique Arena: Special Critique Session

Johanna Kim

@Kim-Rosenlof I feel exactly the same about your piece--it's really wonderful!--and I totally empathize with how you're feeling. Thank you for your kind words. We artists are all very sensitive, which is helpful for making expressive and deeply emotional work, but also challenging when we get less-than-stellar notes. But I have to keep reminding myself to not take feedback and opinions personally, and instead, learn from them and try to do better next time. Easier said than done, though.

Lisa Clark

I read a book with my kids tonight about the Easter Bunny and I was thinking a lot about what was taught today. While the Easter Bunny book did have pretty illustrations, it did not have a clear interesting story throughout the illustrations. I am grateful for the time spent on this lesson today, Will, Lee, and Jake. I appreciate that you don't merely want us to be good at illustration, but also have that WOW factor.

@Asyas_illos My favorite was the bird one of yours! I would have liked to hear what they had to say about that one.

@Johanna-Kim My 9 year old son is totally in love with yours. I thought it was so beautiful! You should be very proud of what you accomplished!

AngelinaKizz

@Lisa-Clark I agree, I’ve read stories to my kids, that I can see the issues in the illustrations. I’m still really new to illustration, and I strive to absorb everything I possibly can. I don’t want to just be an ok illustrator… I want to have the wow factor. I’m grateful for these classes, and for all of the insight from Will, Lee, Jake, and David. You can’t grow and get better if you’re only shown your strengths. We grow more from confronting our weaknesses.

Pamela Fraley

@Johanna-Kim said in Critique Arena: Special Critique Session:. Hopefully, if I'm lucky to be a finalist again, or by some stroke of luck, a winner, I'll feel more deserving.
This happened to me a few years ago with the Mermay contest. I got picked as a winner and then everyone chimed in that you “couldn’t even tell they were mermaids” because you couldn’t see the tails. It kinda takes the fun out of the win. I didn’t know how to feel about that. It kinda sucked actually. But I do want to reiterate what Lee said. Sometimes there’s just something about a piece that catches the eye and pulls you in. You totally accomplished that! Your work was beautiful and professional quality. And, that’s the real win. The point of SVS is to help us become pro level illustrators, not to win contests. Even the contests are about highlighting the pro level work. I would say all the top 4 were there this month.

Jeremiahbrown

I feel bad that this has taken a little bit of the shine off of the winners. I think we're all eager go-getters and when we saw the episode was about improving our pieces we came with pen and paper in hand ready to make our lists. When we got to the episode, however, we were writing things down, crossing them out, writing them down again, modifying them, erasing them, etc. Then when the top four were shown we looked down at our semblance of a list and just scratched our heads.

I think this is the reason for all of the discourse around March's Critique Arena and not whether or not the winners should've been the winners. (Personally, I would've bet money that Johanna's would've been a winner and I would've pegged Kim's as top 8 if it were traditional Critique Arena.)

After rewatching some of the episode again I think at the end Will summed it up well by saying (paraphrasing as best as I can), "Never start an image by just drawing. You need to have a plan and story in place before you even start." The winners absolutely did this and @Johanna-Kim and @Kim-Rosenlof should definitely feel proud!

Kim Rosenlof

@Jeremiahbrown Thanks. I really liked yours, a lot and think it would be a fun to expand the story a bit.

Now that a little more time has passed, I have been able to look at it with a less emotional view. I will take what Will, Lee, and Jake have said and improve my piece, and try to improve the others that didn't make it in the critique part. The best part about yesterday was learning how I can improve.

I think one of the hard parts about critique arena is that I don't always agree with the choices in the top 16, not that the illustrations are not great, I just may have a different preference. And I don't always know the reasoning behind why the top 16 are chosen. There are definitely times that I am surprised by the winners too because I think that something else would have won, and that is not because I think the top illustrations are not good, just not what I would have chosen. When we submit illustrations in the art world, we don't usually have this front row seat to what the art directors are thinking, so it can be hard, but good to see this side of it. It would be hard to pick the top 16 (or four) because there will always be someone saying, "What?" or "Why?".

Thanks @Will-Terry @Lee-White @Jake-Parker for taking the time to do this special session. It was insightful and will help with future prompts. I like the one-word prompts, but they definitely stretch my brain sometimes . I have to admit that the prompt was a bit more tricky for me than usual because I had to really think of how I would illustrate and convey it as lucky. I had some of the problems that you guys were talking about, especially ambiguity and not going for the cliche. I liked how you showed examples of how you could do it, but in a simple way.

Thanks to everyone for their insights.

Johanna Kim

@Pamela-Fraley Aw, thanks Pamela. Your comment means so much, and I'm sorry you also felt bad when you won the Mermay contest. I remember your piece and how it totally captivated me. I hope you've since come to feel good about the win because you definitely deserved it.

Johanna Kim

@Lisa-Clark Thanks so much:)

Johanna Kim

@Jeremiahbrown Thanks:)

Pamela Fraley

@Johanna-Kim I do feel better about it. But, I also redid it and added a tail.

Kristen Lango

@LisaF Hi Lisa! I didn't get an email with the link either. I'm a relatively new member of SVS and my email is studioklango@gmail.com
Thanks!

Lee White

@Kim-Rosenlof @Johanna-Kim don't let it throw you off your game at all. There are a few "Truths" with contests and image making in general:

EVERY image can be improved, no matter who makes it. Pros are no exception. I don't think there is a single image I have ever made that is perfect. Will, Jake, and I crit each other ALL THE TIME, and it would sound WAY harsher than what we do in crit arena. But at the same time, we don't even think about it because we are so used to that.. In fact, i would hate it if jake and will DIDN'T say what they think when looking at my work. "Hey, that hand looks funky", "Your color balance is way off", "Man, this one needs some help" kind of comments are both welcome and needed! This is how we lift each other up! If it wasn't honest, it wouldn't actually help!
People will ALWAYS question the work in a contest. People will always wish we did something different, or didn't do something we did. It also just goes with the territory. In fact, this is exactly why we changed to the audience voting format! When we used to pick the winners, we would field a TON of emails from people telling us we are wrong. I will say this, We were unanimous about the 4 that ended up in the final. So don't worry about a thing. Your work was at a very high caliber and that is why you made it to where you did. : )

Again, hope that helps! Everyone needs to remember that this is art, not science. THere is no easy recipe for why something will win. If there was, I would be using for ALL my images! lol! But again, the process of making images CAN be changed and as long as you are following the steps I mentioned in my last post, that is all you can do. THen cross your fingers and hope you get LUCKY!

LauraA

@David Hi all, I just wanted to say that though I couldn't watch this one live and didn't have a horse in the race, I watched it today with great interest. True, there were certain train-wreck qualities to it , but you guys said as much yourselves. What I liked about it was that it was a full episode devoted to how to improve one's story, with examples and draw overs. I learned a lot from that.

I may be weird, but I actually like this format very much. In the sweet 16, I get a bit thrown off by the pairing and all the talk about As and Bs. Here, it was just concept, concept, concept! (A lot like Will's new class, which was very useful, by the way!)

And I thought all of the finalists were fantastic!

Johanna Kim

@Lee-White Thanks, this does help a lot. Really appreciate you taking the time.

chrisaakins

I didn’t get to watch all of it but fast forwarding through it I didn’t see my pic so I guess I didn’t get a critique. @Jeremiahbrown i thought for sure if we had a top 16 yours would be a winner. I loved the two winners too.

I really have no idea if my concept was clear or cliche now.

Jeremiahbrown

@chrisaakins Thanks Chris! I thought yours was super fun, memorable, and made me smile

Cayleen

@Jeremiahbrown Aw, thank you! I had to spend a day or two licking my wounds after being the 'bad' example of what not to do, lol. Your note was very welcome. I've decided I still like art and still have a lot to learn, so back at it! Thanks again!