So you want to help an artist?
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.
If you think someone should raise their prices? The best thing you can do for them is support them. The very best way to do this is of course to buy art directly from them, at the price you think their art is worth. If you can’t do that, give them a platform. Reblog their art, share it with your friends. Help them get known. The more popular someone is the more commissions they can sell, the more money they can charge, the more money they can make. If you seriously want to help an artist, support them directly.
