Visitors' poll

Originally Posted by Steven Sweeney

It was good for me. It let me know exactly where I was, and what I needed to do to get better. And I came back the next day and the next and for the next three years, every day. My work embarrassed me for at least a year. Then it got better, and by the 50th or so drawing and 30th or so painting, the fear of humiliation was gone.

For some of us without a lot of natural confidence, that's the way it has to be done, or not at all. I wish I'd been such a natural and so self-assured that I hadn't had to put myself through all that, but I can now draw and paint well, and I'm very grateful that I didn't turn the truck around that first morning.

Same thing, with the reaction to an unsatisfying response to a Forum post. You have to want it and go after it.

I agree with you 100%. But as you know, artists can be very sensitive.

I am curious to know why you have never posted your own work here.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

I have postings here as well that have not received comments or very few, although I know that plenty of people have looked at it. So naturally the 1st response is, "Wau, is it really that awful?!"

The biggest mistake I have made in my life as an artist is to be intimidated. After high school, I went to enroll at the University as an Art Major. I had some time to kill before registration, so I thought I go check out one of the art classes. I walked in, saw the work in the empty classroom, was totally shocked, turned on my heels and walked right back out again and enrolled in Engineering Drafting and Design! I had drawn all my life, yet that's how intimidated I was by what I had seen and it set me back many, many years.

Over the years, I have learned that the only person you have to please is yourself. Set goals and work towards them as hard as you can. The bar is set very high at this forum, but look at it as one of the best ways to learn to get better. I agree with Steven that you have to keep posting and be persistent in getting an answer to your questions. Eventually someone will always answer.

This is an example of why this forum does not appear to be inviting or welcoming, and a strong reason why large numbers of juried members have not posted even one time.

With due respect for the possibility that appearances may trump reality, there simply is no evidence that it is even a reason, much less a strong one. As for new members who have "never" posted, an equally unsupported explanation may be that lots of artists who very understandably wish to become proficient and even excel are also people who not wish to even risk the possibility of critique, which they read as rejection. (I'm not being judgmental -- I'm describing an earlier version of myself.)

Many members routinely go out of their way to make sure to welcome new members who announce themselves in the "New Members" threads. That welcome is sincere. The vagaries and permutations of what happens in threads thereafter is not a withdrawal of that welcome.

[Steven Sweeney]

Cynthia can correct me on this but I suspect that the number of views for a given thread includes views by nonmembers, who would not have had posting privileges to lodge a reply. So perhaps the fact that 36 people looked at the image and only 1 responded means only that of 5 of the actual members who viewed the image, only 1 felt that he or she had something useful to contribute. (Though it happens, this has rarely been a forum in which a long string of one-line "Way to go!" replies is posted. Usually there's an effort to either say something constructive -- whether positive or "negative" -- or nothing at all.)

I very often bring the Forum up just to see what's going on, even though I don't have time to contribute anything. The next time I come back, the little "light" isn't lit anymore, because the thread is no longer "new," and so I may never get back to a thread that I might otherwise have posted in, had I had the time. Truly -- I have not thereby adjudged the posting artist to be "unacceptable."

As to other matters, I can only reiterate that giving away so much of your own power and potential by investing so much of it in whether or not somebody else pays attention to you is a Mapquest search for Heartache, USA.

There's another phenomenon in play as well, though we're getting afield. There are members who have, over months and years, received literally dozens of elaborate critiques on their work (some of whom never changed a thing in response to them!), and yet never once themselves offered a critique, because they "didn't feel comfortable giving critiques." That's the nonparticipation that I find least defensible.

[Terri Ficenec]

Maybe another reason why there may be fewer critiques is the need to go out to the index... select critiques, then enter the password to see what's there... especially when time is limited, I often visit without even logging in and just check 'today's posts' to see what's up.... When I logged in to post this reply here, I was shocked to see how long it's been since my previous login and what an lot of posts there are in those sections that I've missed. . .

Don't get me wrong... I like that the critiques section is protected with a login requirement... (I've got some, umm earlier work in there that I'd rather not have popping up on search engines!) But wonder if there isn't a way to make it so that if you are simply logged in as a member, the critiques area comes up with the 'new posts' too rather than having to go back out to the index to find the critiques area... I always found the critiques area one of the most interesting and valuable parts of the forum, and part of what kept things interesting and dynamic.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am curious to know why you have never posted your own work here.

I have, actually. It would take me a while to ferret out the various threads in which it has appeared. I can say for certain that there' s work in a thread in the "Nudes, Critiques" section, under the title "Nudes with Values." There's a demo on sight-size techniques, in which one of my paintings appears. There are various drawings in a "Classical Drawing" thread of yore. A still-life in an old Cafe thread called something like "Landscape vs. Portraiture." A portrait-in-progress of my son (I'm not even sure how I'd find that, but I'll have a go.)

I now do more landscapes and still-lifes (and even dogs) than portraiture, which is part of the reason that I have largely removed myself from regular participation, save to the extent that the same "rules and procedures" apply across genres.

How did this come about? Well, it's that old self-assurance thing -- I gradually became less and less comfortable with doing commissioned portraits, for much the same reason I knew back in '83, after two years of private practice, that I didn't want to be a trial lawyer after all. I didn't have the fire. I use the degree to this day, but in a non-courtroom venue.

Just have to keep going with what we have.

[Steven Sweeney]

Ha! I didn't intend to sneak in and post as an "Unregistered" contributor. This is the only thread on the Forum where you can type up a response and click "Submit" without actually being logged in.