#also fr

Ist.

KALT!

Critique and advice (both pricing and general art ability) are some of the most important parts of an artist’s journey. None of the professional artists you know and love would be where they are now if someone hadn’t given them advice when they needed it.

However, a lot of people seem to forget, or simply not realise, that there’s a time and a place for these things. Not everyone always wants advice. Heck, I’m usually VERY receptive to critique and advice, I crave that. But there are times when I might be having a rough time, and critique on my art might put me in a worse mood, in particular if it’s unsolicited. Likewise for giving people advice on pricing their commissions: they may not always want that, for various reasons.

The biggest thing to remember is consent. Unsolicited advice can be very jarring, and even upsetting. If you want to help someone out, ask first. Just a simple “Hey, do you want any critique/advice right now?” is all. If they say no, leave it. If they say yes, great! But remember: there’s still a wrong way to give critique.

Don’t be harsh. This should be obvious but my god people can be scathing. And don’t JUST tell them what they need to improve upon. That does depend a bit, some artists might not mind, but a lot of artists, in particular young/novice artists might not take well to that. A GREAT formula for giving critique is this: positive comment/something they should improve upon/positive comment AND/OR relate the two. An example could be as follows:

“Firstly, I love your shading! It’s so dynamic, it really brings a lot of realism to the subject. I think your colouring could do with some improvement, I noticed a lot of odd colour combos in your work, and they can be a bit jarring. Proper colour theory will really compliment your shading though! And it’ll help out with that realism you seem to be going for. I have some great links about colour theory if you’d like to see them?

And a very important note for if someone specifically asks for critique: for god’s sake on offer RELEVANT critique that actually applies to what they’re asking. If someone wants some help on figuring out how they can improve their lineart, don’t start going on about how they should work on their shading. An exception could be, for example, if you think their lineart ability would benefit from something else, like anatomy, seeing as those two can often be linked. You’d think this whole “be relevant” thing is obvious, but I literally had someone offer a whole bunch of critique on my art, when I was asking for help with my writing. It was very jarring, and I have pretty bad emotional regulation sometimes so I may have lashed out a bit. Giving someone critique that is not relevant to what they’re asking is no different from just giving someone completely unsolicited advice. If you think they’ll benefit from critique in another area of their art, ask if you can comment on it.

And that’s all just art ability advice. Pricing advice is a whole other horse. Again, consent is everything and unsolicited advice is a bad idea. If you see someone offering commissions and think they need to change their prices, ask first if they’re receptive to that. There’s a lot of reasons people might not be, in particular being that they often struggle to make sales anyway, so telling them to raise their prices isn’t going to go down well. This in particular goes with artists who do traditional work, because traditional art typically is much harder to gain commissions for that digital art. You do trad art and you get commissions easily? Great! But your experience there is far from universal.

First and foremost: Unless someone is a legitimate professional (works in the art field/is a full time freelancer) and/or has a very long waiting list, that whole “charge mine wage for your country” thing is a load of bullshit. In an ideal world it’d be GREAT if we could all charge that much, but it just isn’t realistic. This goes doubly for people who live in countries with a much higher min-wage than the US. Most people who buy art from me live in the US, but considering my countries min-wage is about $14 USD it just isn’t affordable for a lot of my customer base. If I charged my min wage, I’d be charging US$90 for a fullbody. I’d love to make that much, but it’s not ideal.

It’s important to keep in mind that most people you see selling art in places like this aren’t professionals. Unless they’re extremely popular, they probably struggle to make a sale. Sometimes someone may genuinely benefit from being told to raise their prices. But they often won’t be.

💛💛💛

7. If you could spend a week with Bobby what would you do together?

Honestly? The entire week would be us staying inside and him whooping my ass in video games until I got sick of losing and then we’d binge watch stuff on Netflix while we just talked and ate shitty food. I would wrap him in blankets, and we would just kinda exist around each other for a week. And it would be beautiful.

31. Your favorite thing personality wise about each member of ikon?

Hanbin: I expressed this earlier in a different setting, but my fave hanbin thing, the thing that made me adore him, is how he’s not afraid of looking dumb. Like, he’s always himself, and he is not afraid of saying or asking things that can and do make other people look at him weird. He’s unapologetic and wonderful. ❤️

Jinhwan: my saucy prince. I love that no matter what situation he’s in, no matter what’s happening, he always has to make sure that he’s being viewed as sexy. I don’t know, it’s just so endearing to me for some reason? Is that apart of his personality?? If not I really really love how much of an older brother he is for the rest of ikon. Like he loves them so goddamn much, and he protects them, and yeah. Jinani is a prince who we do not deserve. 🧡

Yunhyeong: I adore adoRE ADORE how old fashioned he is. He’s literally just a little grandpa at all times. And he just rolls with it. Like he’s so self aware of how odd he is compared to the other members, but he never stops being himself. Like, I know everyone brings this up, but they won that whole challenge on ikon tv and he bought a vacuum. A. Vacuum. Like no one but yunhyeong and I love it. 💛

Bobby: oh god. I didn’t know what to even talk about with him at first but it came to me. How different he is from how everyone perceives him?? Like this man, this sweet boy, such an aggressive rapper. Such an image you know? But then on broadcast and on variety shows, he just kind of doesn’t talk. He just smiles a little here and there, and he’s just so soft compared to that. I don’t know man. I just love knowing that my hard rapper boy wrote his love songs from his solo album based on comic books. We love duality. 💚

Donghyuk: ugh my sweet angel ok. I love how much he smiles and laughs. He’s definitely one of their support systems, you can tell. Like dong is so warm and inviting and wow he’s just literally the sun in a human body. I’ve never seen someone as warm as dong, and I don’t think I ever will. When he smiles at the boys they always end up smiling back, even if him and Bobby were just arguing. He’s just here for a good time and you can te l l. 💙

Junhoe: fuckin junhoe. He’s so unabashedly loud. And that’s it. Not his voice or anything, even though that’s loud as hell too. No he as a person is loud, and that’s so admiring. Idk like, whenever I see junhoe smile, he just looks loud, and he’s not afraid of being viewed as loud, in fact he embraces it, and that’s so inspiring. Also, like him yelling and singing everywhere he goes is so cute and lovely and I love it. Never stop being loud you large idiot. 💜

Chanwoo: and my boy, my bub, my beautiful son. Jung Chanwoo is the sassiest boy alive. And I love it. He has 0 (zero) fear of death or retaliation. He talks so much shit to all of these boys, and he just kinda laughs when they give him dirty looks. His YouTube channel is my fave example of this, he’s literally turned yunhyeong into a meme, which he uses frequently. I adore how he makes fun of them, it really just proves how comfortable he’s gotten with them. 🖤

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If you go to Korea and you’re freaking out because you have anxiety, and you don’t want to try the whole ten minute conversation of ordering food, Uber eats is available. Also I think it’s a good thing because Uber eats pays for delivery & that’s pretty revolutionary according to most of my friends.