A little disturbed

frankiiij

@Johanna-Kim Thank you a million. In the future with me you do not have to apologize for a long response. I love reading others opinions.
Thank you for much for your insight. I and not above believing that i might have let my frustrations get the best of me today. My agenda isn’t for to push my art. Again I know i have years of intense improvement. My sole purpose is just to get more in sync with what is expected. Right now, believe you are correct, it so according to the taste of the judges. Especially for a no name and beginner artist.
I hope in the future i can return such positivity and inspiration for you. Thank you again.

chrisaakins

As someone who missed the critique arena because I FORGOT!!! I am dying to know who was in the top sixteen now that I read this thread. I am pretty certain it wasn’t me but I am curious to see how this was interpreted.

Coreyartus

I, personally, never know what to expect from these kinds of things. So I stopped having expectations.

I do these prompts now thinking I won't be selected, and honestly that's very freeing. I tell my students in my classes, "Let's say your 'A' is guaranteed. So now what are you going to do with the time you have in this class? If grades aren't the issue, what is your relationship to the assignments? What are you wanting to actually get out of the investment of time and money?"

So I gave up thinking about the judging aspect of the prompt. I do the prompts to practice something I want to concentrate on for that month--creating key words or manipulating a specific element or principle of art or composition and blah blah blah. It's homework that I do because I need to practice the process of doing the homework.

@dafoota I would urge you to submit your work to the forum's thread for some month in the future, but schedule something in your life that directly conflicts with the live critique. Then you can go back after it's loaded up to the classes the following week and watch the voting at your leisure. It changed the experience of participating for me when I did it, and helped me maintain the frame of my investment of time and energy on my own terms.

Now I have a bunch of portfolio pieces that I am proud of, despite only making an honorable mention once. And I can indeed be proud of them because this particular field is so frickin' subjective... Art Directors/Agents/Editors rarely agree on what they prefer, and you will never be in a situation like a prompt without having very specific direction and guidance from someone--often ad nauseum in certain situations... Prompts are quite artificial in most ways. So give yourself a break, and use them for something you want to accomplish. They can be very valuable if you let the judging be part of the experience and not the goal.

My 2¢.

frankiiij

@Kevin-Longueil RESPECT! Honestly, I did not consider the portfolio aspect.

Thank you for your insights. Also, thank you for your compliments. I greatly appreciate it.

A little about me and hopefully this doesn’t reflect in anyway how i feel about your compliment. I’m not fighting for my piece. I only enter because I know i could get some live critiques. I have wrestled with even submitting because ultimately I do not want anything the contest has to offer except the wisdom i need to grow. I really enjoy listen to all the critiques because i learn from them too i think i might have just let my frustrations get to me.

Again thank you so much for your insights. Much Love. ONE!

frankiiij

@Jeremy-Ross RESPECT! Thank you so much for your compliment. I appreciated it greatly.

SN: This post isn’t about my submission really. I only submit as a form to pick the professional’s brains.

Ultimately: Thank you greatly!

TessaW

@dafoota I do want to give you a shout out on your piece this month. It's my fave of the pieces I've seen from you on the forums. I think it was well worth it for you to explore the contest prompt. It made for a great piece.

frankiiij

@JennyJones RESPECT! Thank you so much for your insight. I think we are in line a lot. So I’ll start with your last sentence. I too am not trying to be a Karen or spread hate. I would just like to talk through what is bothering (Which I rarely do). I’m trying to evolve.

I have wrestled with discontinuing also but because i ultimately just want the constructive criticism.

You have some good insights that i think should be considered.

Hopefully, we can open a healthy and productive line of communication with whoever engages.

Much Love and God Bless!

frankiiij

@NessIllustration RESPECT! Thank you for your insight. If this is how it is then I will have no trouble altering my perception of Jake, Will, and Lee. Thank you for you time and patience.

Much Love!ONE!

@TessaW I don't compare the experience of the live critiques with other contests, but I know that this is much more public than they usually are. If a jury chooses, it is private, and there is no commentary most of the time about why some make it and why some don't.

What I compare it to is the classroom critiques I had when I was in design school 20 years ago. Those were brutal. Critiques in classrooms can be a public assessment of your skills and not healthy for building the kind of confidence some need. Some people thrive on this, but I needed more privacy. It was not a contest, but it always clear who the 'winner' was, yet each piece got attention and ideas for improvement. There was also the important component of talking about your piece, explaining what you were trying to achieve. I know very well how that environment affected me; I was not ready for it, and I was not mature about it.

I participated in all the live critiques except today's this year, and December's (iirc) was exactly when it had changed to voting. If you look at some of the old critiques on SVS, they have full draw-overs and none of it feels like a competition. Or, if it does, the competition is the one the artist has within their own work. So to me, the format now is something between a classroom critique and a competition by votes, and I will be entering each contest as I am able, and then specifically NOT attending the live critiques. I think the contests are great; I think my tendency to compare myself with others means I can't handle the live sessions yet.

So the contest, as it is now, improves my work each month. Looking at what everyone submits is one of the most amazing parts of it, and we wouldn't be able to see those if it were a more typical contest. I study the entries as much as I can. But I am not ready to attend a contest that is determined by voting because I need to work on understanding what I think of my own work BEFORE I start comparing it to other artist's work.

So @dafoota I would suggest that you make sure you are clear on your own expectations of your work when you create an entry. Yours was beautiful, btw. What do you want to explore that has nothing to do with winning a contest? Your portfolio can be ANYTHING you want! This is such an exciting idea I have sometimes forgotten when I'm desperate for feedback or a particular path. In a traditional class you would have assignments that would need to be done in a certain way with more restrictions, but here, you get the prompt while you're free to pursue anything you might need in your portfolio. You also might want to consider not attending the live critique if it helps you keep going with producing work. Because wondering what the judges want is honestly not going to get you anywhere. I do relate so well to your post here. I have been surprised at how unnerving it can be. If it's a throwback to all the painful critiques I experienced in design school, I guess this is my chance to work through that and get better at it. (seriously the good classes were the ones that had the reputation for making students cry in front of everyone, just the worst!) Right now for me it means setting myself up to do my best work and until i'm more mature about where I see my work going outside of anyone else's expectation, I won't attend the live critique sessions. I can't seem to sit still in a zoom session these days anyway! I also just want to assure you that you're not alone in your frustration, it's hard! But it's a good contest, so I hope you continue entering along with us.

frankiiij

@TessaW RESPECT! Thank you for your insight on the contest and history of it. To clarify my focus isn’t my piece. It is to understand what the 3 point professionals know that i do not. Being so young at pursuing art and practically speaking i do not expect anything of mine to be selected. I see how much more I need to grow. On a personal, level I do not want to even be selected. I have even wrestled with submitting but asking not to be selected. I just want the constructive criticism.

My frustrations is more with the reasons, the selection process, and the miscommunication with the prompts. After today and comments I think I’m at the point that it is more about what they prefer over concept and artwork. For example, @Ryan-Ehr ‘s Penguins was simply stunning both for artwork and for concept and wasn’t even selected. I recognize that my opinion carries no weight due to lack of credibility, however *** SIXTY-ONE *** other people liked it. The critique was “It didn’t fit the concept.” If i were going to fit for a piece it would definitely be this one over mine everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. Haha

Thank you for your time and patience. Much love ONE!

frankiiij

@chrisaakins There was 120 submission and they gave one critique which was awesome. I am thankful @Will-Terry and Mr Painter took the time out. I am also impressed with the talent this community possesses.

frankiiij

@carolinebautista Thank you for your insights on self evaluation in regards to the contest. So I work with a famous comic book artist and i know i annoy him sometimes because i bug him about criticizing my work. I ultimately just want to see what i don’t see but what professionals do.

Thank you for your compliment too. So @Will-Terry struck a question “what if he didn’t go to art school and went through the svs path?”

I’m kind of considereing art school. I want the feedback no matter how brutal it is. And maybe what i am looking for the svs professionals do not have the ability to do. Which makes sense unless they clone themselves. Maybe i just need to Just create more?

Anyways thank you for your time and Patience.

Much Love.ONE!

frankiiij

@TessaW Thank You for your kind words. Much Love. ONE!

TessaW

@carolinebautista Ahh, interesting points. I can see where this format could be really hard for some people!

@dafoota Ah, I see. I can see that frustration. I was talking with some people earlier, and we were also analyzing over the selection process and the prompt interpretation of the judges. I expected to see @ryan-ehr 's piece there too. I really appreciate the discussion you've sparked!

@dafoota Yeah, just create more! I know that ultimately I need to have the judgement to move my work in the right direction WITHOUT feedback. And I don't want to pay anyone else to teach me that. So I am working on actively developing good judgement about my own work. This includes feedback sometimes, especially in the beginning, but it also means shutting some things out and giving myself space and I can't stop and wait for feedback to move me forward. I think having good judgment about one's own work is by far the most brutal thing.

I still don't know if this is possible to do without professional guidance. One thing I know is no artist ever found their voice by worrying about what professionals see, or about contest outcomes. Contests need to be a side thing, not a primary thing.

@TessaW Hopefully more people can talk about how other contests compare. It's mostly my personal issues from a long time ago that I need to master.

StudioLooong

My thought on why the judges went with more negative takes (and also the reason I didn't enter the contest) lies in the etymology of the word "isolation". I know that there was some talk that isolation doesn't have to be negative but if you look at the origin of the word, there is some negative sentiment there that may be why some brighter takes missed the mark:

"to set or place apart, to detach so as to make alone, from the latin word insulatus, meaning 'made into an island.'"

The nuance of this word implies an involuntary divide. It is not a state that one can freely enter and exit, it is forced aloneness, it has permanence. Since the word implies that the subject being isolated doesn't have control over that state of being, it would naturally come with uncomfortable or negative feelings.

In my opinion, if they wanted to leave room for more positive takes, they could have chosen a word like "alone" which doesn't have as much weight behind it. One can choose to, and may enjoy being alone. They can end their alone-ness at any time by seeking company. Alone is a more temporary state of being, it is visiting an island as opposed to being made into one.

For contests like this the prompt word needs to be easily derived from your illustration, even from someone unfamiliar with the prompt and for people trying to do a positive spin, the judges couldn't get there.

frankiiij

@carolinebautista beautiful! Respect!

KathrynAdebayo

The humility and sincerity of this thread impresses me. What valuable insights, guys... thank you for such great discussions on this forum. I am learning so much thanks to you all.

frankiiij

@TessaW I’m glad you all didn’t take it negative. I was working so hard to voice with breeding hate you know? Thank you for your positivity.