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This is an editorial written and submitted by namenotrequired on behalf of ProjectComment, a group founded by 3wyl that aims to encourage deviants to seek and provide constructive feedback that can help you to better yourself at your art.
What's in this article
1. Encouraging people to comment
2. Getting comments through ProjectComment
3. Other places to get comments:
Groups
Forums
Chatrooms
4. More related guides
Encouraging people to comment
Make clear in your artist's or author's comments that you're looking for feedback. You can also ask specific questions to potential commenters about it (“Does this character come across as realistic?”, “Please tell me what you think of the composition/colours/...” etc.).
More about using your Artist's/Author's comments effectively can be found in our article How to Write Artist's (or Author's) Comments.
Some useful stamps and plz'es;
(You can use up to 6 deviation thumbs such as stamps in your artist's comments, and only if you have a premium membership. There's no limit or requirement to using icons.)
Be appreciative and respectful of any comments you receive. Even if you already knew, or disagree with, everything they said, always reply to at least thank them for their time and effort. Not only cause they have at least tried to help you, also cause it will also put any more potential commenters at ease, rather than scare them away.
It will help to give comments, too. Treat other people as you wish to be treated. Many will return the favour, and comment on your art, too. An extra advantage is that critiquing an art piece, and putting your thoughts about it to words, will also help you getting better at creating art yourself.
Having some faithful watchers and friends on here can help a lot – see 5 Tips to Gaining and Maintaining Watchers for more on this.
Don't be afraid to ask. Many people will be glad to help. That doesn't mean you should go to everyone you can find telling them to comment on your deviations, but if you see someone offering, don't let the chance pass you by! You have nothing to lose.
Of course, the next question would be - where do you find people who'll be willing to comment? Which leads us to...
Getting comments through ProjectComment
The Commenter System is supported by many people, for every type of art, who are willing to comment constructively on your deviations. Don't be afraid to contact a couple of them – they signed up for it and they all love to receive requests for comments.
There is a Comment Thread, a fun 'game' that guarantees you at least one comment if you give a comment yourself.
'Get Familiar' Comment Project allows deviants for the chance of receiving constructive comments from other people participating in the project.
Submitting to the Gallery and Faves increases your chances of receiving comments and being seen. Not only that, but there is a Volunteer Commenting Project amongst the Admins of ProjectComment, where every week, Volunteers of ProjectComment post comments.
Last, but not least, there are a few other things in the works if you stick around.
Other places to get comments
These groups all focus on critique and other constructive feedback on various art forms. Most of these are found from ProjectComment's affiliates list. This list is nowhere near complete – to find more groups you can browse the :devgroups: page.
deviantART has a Forum with various places where you can get feedback. To find more forums, browse the forum page and the galleries forums.
In the Thumbsshare Forum (and, for Premium Members, the Subscribers Thumbsshare) there are always several threads from people offering feedback for anyone who posts one or a few thumbs of their art.
Most galleries (as in dA art categories) have their own forums, often including forums specially reserved for giving feedback and critique. An example: the literature gallery has besides the general literature forum called Poetry & Prose, and the Fantasy lit forum, a Lit Workshop forum where writers can give and get feedback.
Many art-related chatrooms, such as #iPhotograph and :#theladiesoflit: found on the chat page, hold regular or irregular critique sessions where visitors can post thumbs of deviations to be critiqued. Some rooms such as :#KnockOnWood: and :#critiqueexchange: are even open to critique 24/7 (if there's anyone present, of course).
Chat events are sometimes announced on the Chat news section of news.
More related guides and editorials
Guides from ProjectComment;
A Guide to Commenting
5 Tips to Maintaining and Gaining Watchers
An Observation of deviantART
How to Comment - Pointers and Examples
How to Write an Artist's (or Author's) Comments
A Guide to (Offensive) Comments
Why Comment in the First Place?
Other useful news articles related to critique
Praise VS constructive criticism
by Snowy-Ninja
When it comes down to critique
by selene18
Critiquing Short Stories (Sci-fi/fantasy focus)
by rushingtide
Final Note
Thank you for reading! I hope you find it useful. Please note that this is not intented to be complete, it's just meant to nudge you in the right direction and make you aware of the variety of opportunities. The community out there is large... most of you will know from experience that you're unlikely to get much out of it if you don't try and become part of it.
In such a vast community, there must be many places we aren't even aware of. If you have any tips or additions to this article, please feel free to comment! We can't edit this article anymore but at least those reading the comments can profit from it.
namenotrequired on behalf of ProjectComment
With thanks to 3wyl!
A better 2018, two months in
In the last days of 2017, I resolved to do my little part to make 2018 better. I decided that I'm going to change, then what I'm going to change and why those things, and how I'll change them.
Two months in, let's see how it's going.
I
Overeating: I've made some progress. I have done this maybe 4 times, and mostly only slightly.
I still rarely separate the lunch and dinner before I start eating. What helped me get this right was mostly just having made myself the promise of not doing it, and having seriously thought through the consequences.
II
Sleeping enough: I'm as surprised as you, but I actually made progress! Especially in February,
For a better 2018, final part
So far, I have decided that I'm going to change, then what I'm going to change and why I'm going to change those things. The last question: how?
Ideally each of these would be a skill or habit that I train until it's natural and mostly effortless.
I can only sketch the initial attempt at improving these things. With time I'll learn if they work or not and change the method. I'll reflect in a month.
I
For overeating, the first step could be to decide how much I'll eat before I start eating. Ellen and I often cook more than we need to leave some for lunch. I could separate this in advance and leave only the amount I intend to eat, before I e
For a better 2018, part 3
Step 1 was deciding to better myself.
Step 2 was choosing five things I know I could do better. I have more, but five seems a good number to get started. And these five should lay a good basis for whatever may be next.
Step 3 is imagining. To be properly motivated to improve myself, it's important to realize well why I'm doing it - who I could be if I work on it, and who if I don't.
What if I don't?
If I don't improve on any of these dimensions, next year I'll be a year older and none the wiser. I'll still be wishing to improve on these things. I may have realized even more things I need to do better. I'll be further behind, and further fr
For a better 2018, part 2
What would "becoming a better person" look like, for me specifically?
I don't need to bother defining "good". I think I know how I can be better, if I ask myself.
I don't know how to be perfect. But some part in me knows at least 5 things I should be better at, by my own standards. My conscience tells me all the time. I just have to pay attention. That's hard, because I'm so used to ignoring it.
Actually, I just threw around the number 5, but let's see if I can come up with five.
I
One of the most common things it tells me (that I ignore) is "you should stop eating now". When I ignore it, I often end up with stomach ache, or being unable
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