Assignment Two — Draw Daily

Providing Feedback

First and foremost, remember that feedback is meant to help and inspire people to foster their growth and development as artists. So, when you give feedback, you are:

trying to provide constructive insight that can guide the individual towards improvement and self-discovery,
giving constructive and actionable feedback that aims to acknowledge both a persons strengths and areas for growth,
while fostering a supportive and nurturing environment for artistic development.

Rule One: One must request feedback. Although this is not the case in every community, here at Draw Daily we pride ourselves in cultivating a positive and fun environment - which means only doling out advice when and if it is requested. So, limit your advice to posts that are requesting feedback, or are posted in the feedback-room. If you are always open to feedback, you can add that sentiment to your sketchbook title, such as “MK’s Sketchbook, Feedback Welcome”.

Rule Two: Provide productive feedback. Feedback should only pertain to the artwork in question, and should remain within the bounds and context of that work. It's important to avoid passing judgement on the person, their beliefs, or their character, as the focus should be solely on the artwork. If you have an issue with someone, bring your concerns to an authority. Let’s keep things light and friendly.

The Assignment

Part One: Share your work. Even just sharing your work with the community can feel like a big first step, so start a sketchbook in the Draw Daily Discord if you haven’t already.

Part Two: Next, venture into the feedback-room. Create a new thread and post something you’ve drawn, be it a Draw Daily assignment, or a recent sketch and request feedback on it. Share any concerns you might have regarding the work, provide a reference if you used one, and specify what kind of feedback you are looking to receive if applicable.

Part Three: It is time for you to practice providing a bit of constructive criticism yourself. Take a moment to find a willing participant by scrolling through the feedback-room, and pick out a piece of artwork you are comfortable commenting on. Your response does not need to be comprehensive, just point one one or two observations, they can even be complements, but be specific.

While we are giving feedback, you want to keep in mind that, although critiques often focus on the negative aspects of a person’s art, positive feedback can be just as crucial to a person’s development as it is to point out something that is wrong. This helps the artist focus in on both aspects, thanks to the well-rounded perspective of the critique.

Lastly, you want to try and focus on giving feedback that can be used to immediately improve a person’s work. Saying something along the lines of ”the proportions look funky,” is unproductive because it is too open ended. Instead, you can say “I think the arms are too long,” or “the eyes are too big for this characters head.” Simple but effective.