Critiquing

Critiquing

The critique is an important part of the experience of being in an art school. We are here not only to learn from our teachers but also from our fellow students. Though no matter how good you think your work is, being part of a "crit" will always make you a little anxious. Nobody ever likes to hear their work being criticized and it's never fun to criticized other people's work.  But if you follow a few simple guidelines, which we learned in class a few weeks ago, then more can be gained from the experience.

One of our blogging assignments is to critique a piece that was done by a second-semester fashion illustration student at the Academy titled "Death Dance". We are also told that this composition was created in just an hour. Here's the piece.

My initial reaction is very positive. I'm impressed with the fact that such a well balanced composition can be created in an hour. It's not something that I could have done. The piece works because of the dynamic nature of the characters in it. There's a great sense of movement which was created with the different poses of the models. The splatter of paint and the quick brush strokes add to this feeling. On a personal note, I've always connected the color red with speed probably because I think sport cars look better in red.

As for negative points, the composition of the figures could use some work. The two figures on the far left seem to overlap each other and it ruins the sense of depth which was created with the central figure being larger than the others. The artist did a good job in creating a sense of how the dresses might look or feel like but I would think that more detail would be needed in order to actually make the dress.

Overall, it is a good piece when you consider how little time it took. I would like to see more detailed sketches of the dresses from the artist and I would also ask him how he came up with the title.

We are never going to escape this process of the critique, not in art school and not in the professional world. We must realize that the point of the process is not to bring you down but to offer you another point of view. Of course, not everyone will give you fresh or helpful insight but it's worth it even if you only learn one thing that will improve you work.