Drawing skills vs Compositional skills

demotlj

I've been watching the critiques on the Critique arena and have noticed that Will, Jake, and Lee rarely critique the quality of the drawing itself (anatomy etc.) in a piece and almost always focus on composition, story-telling, color, and values. I realize sometimes simplistic drawings are a stylistic choice but in other cases, is it because drawing skills are less important in illustration than they are in, say, animation? I'm just curious as to what people think about that and why you think it would not often be raised as a factor in the critique arena.

deborah Haagenson

This is only my opinion. There are many skills that need to be developed to become a good illustrator. I have been drawing for a long time and for me and what I want to do it's important to have good drawing skills, but I have seen what I would consider to be really good illustrations on this site, where maybe the drawing skils aren't so good. I think if they focused on drawing skills during the critiques they may lose some people who really contribute a lot here. It takes a long time to improve drawing skills. I'm fine with the fact that they don't judge drawing skills too harshly.

demotlj

@deborah-Haagenson I'm also fine with their not critiquing the drawing skills (especially given my struggle with anatomy) but I thought it was interesting that they critique everything else but rarely that. Maybe it's that they are trying to call attention to the aspects of illustrations that most people neglect whereas drawing is something all of us are generally working on.

ArtofAleksey

@demotlj i think the reason behind this is (also just an opinion)
Skills like rendering and painting can fall under technical skills, which means with enough time people can learn it
Skills like mixing the right colors together, spacing subjects and framing and storytelling, along with light and shadows fall under something that would create a stronger emotional connection with the viewers. Which is what you are trying to do with art. And if you can create that strong emotional connection with the audience, people don’t really notice your level of technical skills or lack there of. Often times people would assume your lack of details or rendering was intentional if you nail your composition and create that emotional connection.

And of course people can learn this too it takes a much deeper dive into ones emotions and understanding of humanity to really understand it. Which many people lack the tools or skillset to do so.