Double Standard Critic

[Amelius]

I'd like to know why in the wide wide world, that when someone is snarky, rude, flippant and all around unpleasant when critiquing the art of a person it's become "trendy" to hate on in the art world, it is deemed "immature" for said artist to respond defensively or with equal venom?

Here's what's got me rankled today. Someone was moaning about how How-To book tycoon Christopher Hart was "rude" to them and blocked them after they left the following comment:

"While I admire your chutzpah in continuing to work and your generousity in attempting to instruct, given the static nature of your poses overall, I believe you might find the following beneficial.


It's a link to Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy on Amazon. Feel free to seek out illegal pdfs."


When Hart ( who is not beyond criticism by any means but that's beside the point for now) responds by posting one of the artist's own pieces and calling it static (it wasn't static per se) he gets called out for being immature and get this, the rude commenter gets defenders saying:

"The person wasn't even trying to be an *ss to you. She was just giving you some tips so your art can be even better at instructing people, and then you go and attack his/her art."

Wasn't trying to be? More like "was a complete and total *ss", and anyone who doesn't see that lacks reading comprehension or is just delusional with bias hatred toward Hart."

Allow me to dissect the comment and find what exactly offended this man.

"While I admire your chutzpah in continuing to work..."

"chutzpah" is not a complimentary word. Period. It means you have gall, nerve, audacity, insolence, arrogance. As it's been explained, "chutzpah" is the way to describe a man who hits on the bride at her wedding, or the widow at her husband's funeral. An overstepping of boundaries that is met with disgust and condemnation.

This isn't how you "try not to be an *ss" this is how you "totally succeed at deliberately being an *ss because your art friends will applaud you"

THAT is how you start off on the wrong foot. But let's continue shoving the ankle down the throat with:

" your generousity in attempting to instruct,"

"attempting to instruct"
"attempting".

You know, I think that speaks for itself. Whether the books he puts out are good or bad is a matter of personal opinion; I think his books on cartooning he did yeeears ago were good while the manga art ones are a little weak.
But ATTEMPTING? He IS instructing, whether you think his instruction helps or hinders artists. He is telling them how to draw a style that obviously the beginner who picks up the book wants to draw in. Does he miss the mark sometimes? Oh heck yes, sometimes his thoughts on how to draw certain things are downright goofy. And sometimes things like his manga how-to feel more like jumping on the bandwagon... but do you know what? It's do or die, and to remain relevant sometimes you have to put out an instruction book on how-to-draw in a genre you have no clue about. As bad as some of his manga how-to books were, they were pretty comparable to their contemporaries under different authors. Do we just hold this man to a different standard because he's been around longer? He's an artist trained in Western cartoon style, which is why he hired other artists to do the art for his books. Aren't they equally to blame then? Because they are the ones providing the visual examples.

" given the static nature of your poses overall, I believe you might find the following beneficial.
"

There's nothing really wrong with this statement on the surface. It's true that many of his character poses tend to be same-y. But considering I have the book in the link in my possession, this doesn't come off as "your work could use a little more variation in poses" and more like:
"I am a stuck-up art snob who thinks the only true art style is realism. Stop drawing your silly cartoons and study anatomy with this book where every muscle bulges like the subject is being electrocuted. "

There is no effing way this book would make Hart's art less static. NONE. This is just a deliberate attempt to foist the artist's ideals onto him, and this was carefully selected to make him look bad for rejecting it. "See, he's not interested in improving! Dynamic Anatomy is a critically celebrated book, and should have taught him a thing or two about art and instructing and he dismissed it!"

Half of the book is a write-up on art history. The rest is pencil illustrations of intense-looking men who look like smooth, bald robots. Telling Hart this will improve his static poses is like handing it off to Jim Davis and telling him it'll help Garfield look more dynamic.


And here's the biggest mistake of all:

"It's a link to Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy on Amazon. Feel free to seek out illegal pdfs."

Do you know the best way to make a published author who makes his living off his published works become hostile to you?

Suggest he steal PDF's from the internet of another published work. Because surely, he isn't already infuriated that kids download HIS books for free and he doesn't see a dime of profit! OR are you insinuating that he lacks the moral scruples to not just buy the book off Amazon from that link, and indeed prove the SOPA supporters right by getting it for free, ILLEGALLY?

What a piece of work you are, girl! You should be glad the only response you got was a weak-willed snipe on a randomly selected piece from your gallery!

Unprofessional? Maybe, but who made it a rule that you have to put up with BS from idiots on the internet just to maintain a "professional image"? These children just want to tear someone down who won't fight back, and they're upset when they do. I'm SO sick of this attitude.

Why not exercise a little manners, and put more thought into a comment before you send it? Here, I'll write one better!

"Do you know about the book "Dynamic Anatomy" by Hogarth? It is well known around the art community, you should check it out. As an art instructor reaching out to millions of readers, you might find it inspiring for your own work on art instruction."
(or better yet, replace the book suggestion with "'Cartoon Animation' by Preston Blair" because that would be actually freaking helpful!)

See how I didn't feel like I had to undermine, leave backhanded insults and thinly veiled set-ups to get a rise out of him? Yeah, if you still want to point out his work seems static, do it but without basically going "You're training everyone to suck at art!"

Even if he is, that's no excuse to be rude!

Had to get it off my chest so I can get some work done! I feel a little better, haha!

[lilac]

I'm going to be honest, I really don't like Christopher Hart's how-to books because I think his style is too goofy overall, especially when it comes to manga. It's not my cup of tea.

But I do agree that this troll could've gone about it in a much better manner than they did. I really really REALLY hate passive-aggressive attempts to insult people, which this person did by saying, "While I applaud your ATTEMPT..." If you don't like their work then just come out and say it, point blank, instead of insinuating it through a snarky comment. Overall the comment was incredibly rude and unhelpful. You don't point out a realism book to a cartoon artist drawing cartoons. I mean it helps as a basis to a beginner but to someone like Hart, who has probably studied realism extensively, it's just stupid.

Anyway, this rant was really well thought out and I agree with it. As I've said I don't like Hart's style but at the same time that's just personal preference above anything. There's no need for rudeness and I don't think Hart was disrespectful or immature in his response (me on the other hand, I would've been very immature. And screamy).

[Amelius]

Haha! Yep, it's an uncomfortable position to be in when you're defending someone you don't find particularly good at instructing either! However, I have a soft spot for "Everything you wanted to know about cartooning(but were afraid to ask)" because it focuses primarily on the one thing he's really good at, and that's goofy, WB/newspaper comic style art. My Great grandmother gave it to me as a gift a long long time ago... and at that age, it was pretty helpful! So while his newer stuff isn't grand, I felt he really was a pretty good instructor at one time.

Yeah...then his manga books... but I hate to say I've seen much, much worse @_@

(though I chuckled 'coz Nick has the "Fantasy Manga" book of his, and he expressed loudly that it was the worst how-to book he'd ever read. I looked at it and I'm like "Hey I know this guy! He... can't draw manga.")

And don't worry, I don't think everyone doesn't like him to be trendy, it's just the thing I see going around lately is a big hate-bandwagon of people leaving baity troll comments and then telling everyone what an egotistical buttwipe he is for getting mad at them. Telling someone they are a disgusting human being isn't going to make him come around to see your side of things...

[nightreflection]

Firstly, It's his account, he can block who the hell he wants. Sorry, but people tend to forget others have the right to privacy.

Second, if he was, so what? He doesn't owe anybody anything.

Finally, if a critic is going to be downright blunt, or even rude, they'd better be linking their own art. I don't care how valid their point is, if they can't perform to the level of their own critique, then they have no idea how much time, skill and effort goes into what they are demanding, and they have no idea how much practice it takes to get to that level.

I wonder if critics realise that even the simplest comics take hours to make. I get the impression that some of them think ten minutes for a newspaper quality comic, one hour, tops for a web comic. Easy money. Not that web comics make much money either. I think they also expect that anyone can sit down, and with the critic's godly insight into the subject, can create a masterpiece first time. It don't work like that.

I probably would have ranted, but to be honest, I think the response was almost perfect. Block the troll and ignore them. He probably shouldn't have responded, but tbh, I think he did very well to keep it short. Getting into an argument only feeds them. If they or anyone else calls them rude, refer to points one and two. You can actually gain popularity by being a jerk, so don't be scared to at the very least, ignore trolls. In fact, nothing is more infuriating to a troll than simply deleting their posts and shutting them up. Even if they freak out on another site, a calm, uninterested demeanour will usually rob them of their prize. Regardless of the temptation, just don't bite. They are not rational, they will not see your side of the argument, they will not be convinced, and even if you win one argument, they will just start another. They may slander you, but just ignore them. If you try and defend yourself it will just fan the flames on something which everyone will forget in a few months anyway. You may end up spending more time defending yourself, and wasting more time agonizing over them than you will actually doing stuff. So just ignore it. Try not to let it wind you up. Go smash something, or play squash if need be. It will ruin your life if you don't let it go.

On the flip side, if you just leave them be, they will probably rage themselves into a hole, and anyone with half a brain will see their true colours.

"The person wasn't even trying to be an *ss to you. She was just giving you some tips so your art can be even better at instructing people, and then you go and attack his/her art."
This is just a brainless fan. I've been there. We don't always know what we are saying, and we often don't know what we are talking about.
If they really are a fan, a short message explaining why they are wrong, but again, it could be a troll alt, or they could explode because they are never wrong, of course, and given the brainlessness of the above comment, I'd say the chance of that is quite high.

[lilac]

Amelius: Yeah. When it comes to how-to manga anything I always stick with Japanese artists. A lot of the published Western artists who draw how-to manga books always have that funky Teen Titans cartoon art that makes me cringe inwardly. Not that I'm saying that Western artists aren't good at manga, it's just all the how-to manga style books by Western artists just look..off. Like they just slap abnormally large eyes on a human and say, 'LOL THAT'S HOW YOU MAKE MANGA ART GUYZ.' I do think that it's largely one's personal taste (I have a lot of friends who love the art on Teen Titans and thought it was great, for example), and that's why trolls like this girl are just...ridiculous.

NightReflection: I agree! Ignoring trolls is often the best road to take. However, I think that Hart was in an awkward position since ignoring the girl would've looked as immature to his haters as his harmless response did. I don't think there's anything he could've done to satisfy their collective troll rage.