What a wonderful world of bubble we have entered! It’s so inspirational to be able to view so many wondefully talented artists and have the opportunity to learn so much. Thankyou to RedBubble for providing
such a user-friendly interface and allowing us to share our work.
Perhaps in the future we can look forward to sharing some constructive criticism which will enable us to learn from each other -develop our skills and further the standard of photography all over the world?
Thankyou to everyone for your welcome and positive feedback…
it’s very exciting and encouraging.
Graeme Hindmarsh
I agree Belinda. But lets not limit it to just photography.
Other artist sites I visit have special sections for critique – for works in progress and works that an artist would like some honest feedback on. At present on RB, positive feedback is the norm – rarely will you find any “constructive criticism”. How are we to grow as artists if we cannot learn from our mistakes through constructive critiques?
IMHO, such a feature would add to the value of the community.
Pilgrim
Graeme and Belinda, I think the idea of constructive criticism for works in progress is a great idea. One thing we will be adding is a ’scrapbook" for less finished works or for jottings etc. This would be a good place for the constructive criticism. I am a bit reluctant to encourage constructive criticism at this stage for finished works (at least until we have given the artists the abiity to control and delete comments on their works) as I know how sensitive one is about ones art. I also know that some sites have deteriorated into rather juvenile sniping and flaming and this would be a tragedy.
Anne van Alkemade
although I am no fan of censorship, I would hope the redbubble creators would have some say if things looked like they were heading down the sniping track! Maybe the constructive critique function could be a “I asked for it” section. Questions I would be asking about this sort of section would be – does everyone see the comments or are they just viewable by the person “asking for it” or could they choose for public/private views? I think in a private view it would be hard for anyone to perpetuate negative feedback. Just some thoughts.
Belinda Strodder
I think the “I ask for constructive critiques” option would be wise and probably the only option in order to avoid undermining the quality and supportive atmosphere of RB. The Scrapbook idea sounds great!
Stephen Mitchell
Constructive criticism is always a pleasure to receive.
_ When we type our thoughts, we stop to think.
When we think, we discover what we know already.
When we teach what we know, we learn more about ourselves.
When we learn, we improve. _
It’s an important cycle – and no institution teaches you that!