In the world of Art, artists are surrounded by many walls and obstacles. Financial obstacles, creative blocks, work overloads, the list goes on and on. One might say that artists truly cut and bleed for their art. But of these obstacles, one rises above them. A threat that has plagued every artist's mind and driven us into a corner of frustration and near insanity. This threat has many names, but somewhere along the way we've all dubbed it by a three letter acronym that in itself is both a threat and a salvation to artists... We call this CnC.

What is CnC? It simply stands for Critique and/or Comment (it's my own theory that we first called it "CaC" but, as that's equivalent to a Minnesotan's male private part, we opted to "CnC" instead). In the world of art, when one posts his or her work on a forum or public display, it's common courtesy to ask for CnC. Here are some hidden rules when asking for CnC that will help you either avoid CnC altogether or look like you know what you're doing.

1. Post more than one version of your work.
I've found that whenever alternate versions of works are posted, the CnC is, to an extent, less harsh. Why is this? Being guilty of this myself, I'm almost sure that it's because we're all lazy mother fuckers and critiquing each one would just be a pain so we opt to pick the one we like best, even if we don't like the piece itself at all.

2. Use Flattery
If you can, it helps to use flattery. The biggest form of flattery in the artist's world is imitation. If possible, take the chance to say your piece was inspired by someone on the forum on which you're posting your work. Choose generally good artists from whom to pull your "inspiration." The best perk of this? If you get negative critique, you can blame it on your inspiration.

3. Bash Your Work
I'm more than guilty of this one: bashing your own work. We get into the mindset that if we point out all the obvious problems in our work, if anyone tries to point them out again we can just laugh and go, "I ALREADY SAID THAT STOOPID! LOLOL"
Here, the word "poop" is highly effective. "I tried making something new but my colours turned out to be poop." Poop in itself is the single most effective bash word you can use on yourself. Why?

... It's just SO FUN TO SAY!

4. Use Emoticons
As stupid and as absurd as that sounds... Using a humble emoticon such as or at the end of your CnC request makes you seem more humble, and more tolerable. Why is this? I'm not sure, but here's a diagram of statistic evidence that I have gathered. This diagram is 100% accurate.



Along with these tips, you also need to be aware of the types of people who give CnC.

The Hater Gonna Hate
This person's mission in life is to tear your work apart without giving any positive or constructive feedback. The best way to avoid him is to simply not respond. I warn you, do not argue with this person. In this case, you will be a goldfish ramming yourself into a shark's mouth. You cannot win this. Back down and hope you never run into this kind of person again. If you do decide to engage with this person... Well, here's a professional diagram of what will go down:



The Spam Fartists
There are many who I've dubbed as "Spam Fartists." Rather than giving CnC, these people opt to spam with a slightly critical undertone. An example would be a time I made a black and white signature and recieved the comment, "u mayk fun rainbows." The worst thing about Spam Fartists is that most of the time, for some odd reason, they're exceptionally better than you, leaving you feeling too insignificant to retaliate.

"The Dissecting Doctor"
This person is someone who'll take your work and dissect it into the simple parts that it is. However, one important thing to remember is that you can dissect ANY piece of art into its simple parts. For example, a friend of mine worked on a tag that was 30+ some layers. They received a comment saying, "it's just a cut out jacket, some C4Ds, and text."
Of course, when they dissect your work poorly you're left feeling triumphant. Fool a doctor, fool the world.

The One Word
These types of critics will give one word responses or short phrases such as "cool," "ugly," or "poop."
Like the Hater Gonna Hate, I urge you to not engage in battle with these if the word or short phrase they say is something negative. Rather than being eaten alive, you will most likely have your IQ lowered. Someone once called my own work ugly. Just... ugly. One word post. I then asked him why, and his response was, verbatim, "jus cuz teh lginting is no a difeernt sdie than what its supposdedd 2 b..."
I had to ask about twenty people to help me translate.

So you may be wondering... Is there even a good kind of critic? The good critic only comes with CnC that is actually helpful. Yet one must question what makes good critique. Generally, the best CnC is constructed with an equal amount of praise and criticism. This leaves the artist feeling accomplished and eager to better him or herself in the future. In conclusion, I leave you with my first and last serious statement in this article. Whatever critics you run into, remember that not everyone will hate whatever you create in art, but at the same time, not everyone will love it either.

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