Things to never tell an artist.

I'll have to keep an eye on this thread. A lot of my friends are artists. Luckily I haven't said these things, but there might be other ones that I have. One thing they complain frequently about is when people say:

"Hey! What are you drawing? Can I see?" When they are obviously trying to draw without others seeing what they are drawing.

 

Not sure if these are some; but as an artist myself, I get told by these a lot:

You always draw that style. Why can't you try other ways to draw?​

Honestly, there are times that I can try other styles of drawing, but I don't feel close to them. For example, I tend to draw anthropomorphic characters more than human characters. Why? Because, I like to draw characters that way.

You've used that program way too much. Try other programs.​

This is mostly targeted at my digital art. To be honest, MS Paint is the only program I have at this point. So, I can't really do much than I could before (before I had to get my computer fixed, I had MS Paint & GIMP). I'm sure other artists can relate to this: we have to be careful with what we have on our computer and how much it can hold. It is important that we watch what our storage in our computers whether it's a hard drive or a flash drive.

That's all I have about this. And like Aqua said, be respectful of artists. It takes tons of time and effort they put in to their creations and need to show respect.

 

"Can you draw a character for me"
Unless you are good friends with the artist and they know you very well don't ask this question without giving details. I hate it when I'm just drawing something and someone who I don't know asks me to draw a character for them but never says what they want or says whatever you think is best when I don't know them enough to make a character for them. So you either have to decline or create a character based on nothing.

 

"Why are they naked?"
Maybe I'm not done yet lmao... Why do people feel the need to ask this? Or maybe someone's drawing an anatomy ref or something. Either way it's a completely unnecessary question.

This one is a personal pet peeve of mine. Other people may have a different opinion, but here's mine.
"Wow, you're so talented!"
Yes, it's a compliment, but it's also ignoring all the hard work an artist puts into constantly improving their work. Talent implies that someone is born with their ability to draw. Maybe someone has a natural talent for drawing yes, but that doesn't mean they put any less work into improving their work. Try replacing "talented" with "skilled". It sounds much better imo, and means more.

 

Yeah I did a no no on this list and feel really bad about it. Some of these things may seem like common sense but depending on who you are are and if you are an artist yourself, some of these may not click right away. A key thing about constructive criticism is to only give it when asked and to know the context of the criticism they are asking for. It's not just how you say it or why you say it; it's the tone, how it's structured, and what information you base it off of. Take it from me that if you miss even one of those it can make things go south fast. The best rule is to never give criticism unless you know the person and are asked directly to give it. Some people can take great pride in their work and one misstep may turn into an unintentional insult. I personally do art because I find it fun and while I take pride in what I do, I understand that my stuff isn't exactly B grade material. Be that as it may I will get upset if someone gets too critical because it can feel like an attack on me personally and not my artwork. Again I got reminded of this recently and it was a growing and learning point for me.

Again, don't repeat my mistake. Just saiyan.

 

I'm not practicing as an artist per se, but I do get comments like those mentioned above. While it's not things to not say to an artist per se, it can be rather discouraging. I remember some other similar comments like:

When artist is drawing something else out of their comfort zone. (eg. birds as opposed to humans) "You should do more art like this~" Sure, it opens said artist to try a new perspective on things, but what if the artist would feel discouraged that people don't like what they are best in doing? You can't please everyone of course, but that feeling I get sometimes. This point in a way alludes to LunarRabbitPikachu's point above.

When people ask you to draw something and get mad/annoyed when you don't meet their expectations. (especially when asking said artist to draw some aspects they are not comfortable with) Well, problem on the artist's part if the artist doesn't speak up and refuse, but also you can't blame the artist for trying their best even if it's something they are not comfortable with.

 

I'm an artist myself, and yet I never find any of these things offensive... (except for things like "fix this" or "this doesn't look right" or "this looks way too...", they make me upset).
I think it's just that people who don't do art or don't draw don't think like an artist and therefore don't understand what goes on in an artist's mind.

But what I do find annoying is that sometimes, people don't believe that I drew something when I actually did!

 

The thing I find annoying is when I draw something and people say thats looking like this and it should be like this, make it like this and so on... This irritates me, when I am drawing something, it is in my own style, in my way not yours.

 

Whoops, I said this to [member='ShiroLugia'] earlier. I didn't think about it that, I just think she can draw really well so sorry Aqua if you read this ;;