Okay Connie, Deal. (Shoves her bodily off the soapbox and takes it for himself ).  ummmm and I do this with all due respect milady... 

If people want my serious critique and artistic opinion, I'll give it here at their request if they don't mind it publically viewed.  It used to be, about 2 years ago or so IIRC, that many people posted here when they put up a new work, and people would follow the link and then comment here on it.  Some very good critiquing going then.  I learned a bunch that I can now see in my work.  One of the best tips and tricks I see ignored in work is turning off the damn ambience in textures.  If you look at my earliest works, I didn't learn that for a bit, but the instant I did, my art improved dramatically IMHO.

But, there is a cost to this... your comments to your picture will drop dramatically, except for those not participating in this forum or offering happy stroke commentary.  So that is your big trade off.  Personally, I think people have become uncomfortable to sometimes offer true opinions because they have a tendancy to really tick some people off.  I also know that sometimes posting a hard opinion, all be it constructive, in the wide open gallery comments feels too much like dressing someone down in public.  There have been times that I'd have loved to take a scene someone rendered and then re-rendered it in my own inimitable turn to show what I would have done differently as a form of criticism.  (maybe there's a challenge in there somewhere). 

So what say we revive an old tradition of when you post an image, put a link here if you want serious criticism.  People can post their "public" gallery comments there, but then put serious criticism here in the forum where some serious learning can be done, and hopefully we can revitalize some of what this forum is supposed to be about... learning, sharing and growing... okay and some fun too.

I wasn't nicknamed "The Critic" for nothing when I was trying to get into comic books. ;c)

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