The Art of Reviewing

I am not an artist, by any degree, but I am a great admirer. Admining Immeritus, where we host a lot of gorgeous Sirius Black fanart has left me a little dumbfounded. I don’t think that people really understand that feedback is the only slightly tangible thing that fanartists (and writers) really get out of all their hard work. I mean, you can argue that not all fanfic authors and fanartists are looking for people to see their stuff and give them great feedback, that some of them do it for the fun of it, or better yet, for themselves. But really, most people that put themselves out there sharing their work, I think, are looking for a little bit of good feedback. Getting that one rec with the awesome review attached to it. But it seems to me that the art of the review is getting lost. The more venues that we have to share people’s art or fanfiction, the less time people seem to take in providing good feedback. I mean, you can only see *squee*, *omg! dies*, *fans self*, gorgeous!, and the like as a full review a few times before you want to start to shoot yourself.

For example: Our gallery. Better yet, our most recent comments.

ooooo pretiful
These are so awesome! 🙂 🙂 🙂
:,( oh no! :,( :,( :,(
??????Waz going on here?? (with re: to a labeled slash image)
:,( :,( :,( :,( :,( :,( :,(
It’s perfect a lot! 😀

Why bother leaving anything, if that is all you are going to say? I simply don’t get it. Is it the fact that you don’t want to leave anything long because of the rest of the responses? Do you feel you don’t have the time? Prefer quantity of reviews left over quality? And what about grammar? Does a review not merit an attempt at good grammar?

I am just disssapointed in the general lack of quality of reviews lately. I don’t read fanfiction, so I am not all there in how things are going in that arena, but in fanart, I see a lot of this garbage. Artists, what do you think about this?

Better yet, what makes a good review? To me, it should read like a sentence, to begin with.

I agree. It’s striking to see how well she makes use of shapes and colours to give her art that unique feeling. The veil, the robes, they all blend perfectly and the result is quite impressive. It’s not canon, yeah, but the drawing seems to have a story of its own. And yet again, I think Sirius’ face is brilliantly drawn.
The shadow puppet concept is awesome, not to mention the extraordinary manipulation of their hands!
Really cool. I love xxxx’s style. Her characters are very well thought out and drawn in great detail. Unbelievable work.

Now, an excellent review would be something along the lines of:
Well, I can’t find one right now. Do you have any examples?

If I had to come up with a formula for the perfect review, I think it would be:
emotion+mention of specific item in piece+mention of technique+own interpretation

That is not to mean that concrit is bad. Actually, concrit is excellent when done with tact. But that is a whole other ballgame.

As an admirer, I do leave the occasional one-liner, but I like to think that my review is my little payment for being able to see the wonderful piece of fanart. I’d like to think that your work is worth more than “oh coll! omg that is the bestest! 😀 😀 :D”.

I’d like to hear from both sides, the artist’s side, and the reviewer side. What do you think about reviewing? Do you think it is as bad as I say? Why do you think that?

9 Responses to "The Art of Reviewing"

silent_kb says:

April 25, 2005 at 9:01 pm

You’re right Mag.

I find it hard to be a reviewer. I will never review something I don’t like, because I don’t want to be mean, but even when I review something I like, I sometimes find it hard to come up with something concrete.

But seeing how you feel about it, I will make a better effort to provide a better review. I know as a writer if I post something, I want concrete feedback.
1. anitza says:
  
  April 26, 2005 at 5:15 pm
  
  You are right in that most people won’t review something they don’t like, unless they are trolls and are looking to hurt people’s feelings. Since I look at reviewing as a form of payment on my part, I don’t really bother to waste my time reviewing something that I don’t like. I’d rather spend that time and energy on someone that deserves my attention.
madam_pudifoot says:

April 25, 2005 at 11:15 pm

I completely agree Mag. I can’t say anything as an artist because I can barely manage a stick figure, but as a “writer” I can. And sadly, fanfiction is much the same as fanart. Although at Immeritus I’ve known people to at least try to say something more important that “Nice work, I can’t wait to read more.”

It’s nice to know that someone appreciates your effort but it always brightens my day to have someone post something meaningful, like what they enjoyed or thought needed improvement rather than “OMG!!!1 2 Kool!”

As for leaving reviews; I try my best to add something of what I thought of of what really stuck out for me. Although I constantly tell people that I can’t review for the life of me, I do at least try to say something that they’ll appreciate more than “Cool, update soon.”

(I’ll admit, sometimes other people say everthing I want to (when it comes to fanfiction) but I still feel that I should at least let them know I’m still reading along.)
1. anitza says:
  
  April 25, 2005 at 11:19 pm
  
  You bring up a good point – when someone says exactly what you were thinking. I think there is still a good way to add to that, by kind of attaching yourself to the other person’s review and giving your little two cents. Know what I mean?
plumapen says:

April 26, 2005 at 2:39 am

You’re right and I agree with what Kit and Puds already said, so I won’t repeat. I’ve found the better reviews (whether to criticize or leave concrit) come from those people who are artists/writers themselves, and just that smidge more mature (this has nothing to do with age in my mind). The one-liner nothing reviews run rampant at places like ffnet, and it seems the writers/reviewers there are younger, newer to fandoms/fanart/fanfic endeavors perhaps. I just get that vibe though I’m not sure I can explain why very well. It does have something to do with the laziness in grammar, the use of netslang, the uselessness of the ‘review’.

As you say, reviewing is an art in and of itself and many people just don’t seem pushed to learn how to review, or can’t be bothered with it, or feel they’re true review wouldn’t be appreciated (something I’ve learned from pushing my students to justify their reactions to things over the years). Even though the Internet is fairly anonymous and distancing, a lot of people seem to look for that sense of community, acceptance at various places. Perhaps leaving a meaningless review that does nothing but praise is an attempt not get flamed themselves, to be accepted.
1. anitza says:
  
  April 26, 2005 at 5:13 pm
  
  Another interesting point – leaving reviews not for the sake of the artist, but for your own sake – for your own acceptance. It’s true, you know that? Depending on who I am reviewing, I almost look at it as an introduction, and I want them to like me because I admire their work. I want them to take my opinion seriously and to heart. So it’s a two way road, the artist and reviewer. So when you write a one-liner, you really aren’t putting yourself out there to anyone, and it makes you less vulnerable. Interesting!
  1. plumapen says:
    
    April 27, 2005 at 2:35 am
    
    Hey Mag, I was thinking about this on my way to work and I wonder if it doesn’t also have something to do with the way art affects us. It’s not always easy to verbalize an impression from or a reaction to art since, for me at least, it usually affects me on so many different levels. Art expresses that which is usually difficult to verbalize so a different language form is used to communicate. If that’s the case, this might work the other way too; a reviewer may not know how to put their impression(s) into words. I think I may have repeated myself. *shuts up*
sharklabyrinth says:

April 28, 2005 at 1:51 am

Damn, LJ mangled my comment 😛 Anyway, just wanted to add my 2 cents…

As an artist, I have to admit that I appreciate every review I get, even the “OMGSQUEE” and “*ded*” one-liners. I appreciate concrit and wish non-artists were more willing to offer criticism. I don’t even mind when someone asks “??????Waz going on here??” to a labeled slash image 😉 Slash doesn’t have to be for everyone, and not too long ago I didn’t know what the term meant myself.

Now that you mention it though, there’s only one kind of review that I’m not grateful to receive, and that’s “Pretty.” Gah, it just sounds so bored and superficial and patronizing. To me it seems to say, “thanks for providing me with a half-second’s worth of eye candy.” Which is probably how the majority of people view fanart anyway, but I don’t know why ‘Pretty’ irritates me as opposed to ‘squee’ and all the other one-word comments.

I don’t think a good review has to be in complete sentences or anything, just honest and thoughtful reactions of people who can perceive that pictures can contain more than a neat, shiny surface 😛
1. anitza says:
  
  April 28, 2005 at 4:34 am
  
  I understand that getting most comments are nice, that it is nice that people bother to say anything at all. I guess what irks me is that when I go through and look at the comments that people leave, say, in our gallery, they go on a spree of saying the same incomprehensible garbage to everyone they like. I think it is in those particularly instances that it really bothers me. I have a problem with people posting garbage all over the place in general, but when it is with regards to something that I admire, I dunno, it’s almost sacrilegious.

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