One guy at an art fair told me my color choices were terrible and he was right

I was showing at a small market in Portland last summer and this older painter walked up, looked at my three pieces, and just said 'your greens are muddy, man.' I didn't talk to him again but I went home and swapped out my palette completely. Anyone else ever get a brutal critique from a stranger that actually improved your work?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivan8734d ago

That older painter did you a favor. I had a guy at a Denver show tell me my shadows were all wrong. He just pointed at a painting and said "that shadow is fighting the light source." I was pissed for like an hour. Then I looked at it and yeah he was totally right. Changed how I lay down shadows from that day on. Sometimes the random rude comments are the realest feedback you'll get.

scott.grace4d ago

Yeah but how do you not just take it personally in the moment though? I had a similar thing happen at a critique group where this older lady told me my greens "looked like peas from a can." I was so mad I almost walked out. Then I went home and mixed my own greens from yellow and blue instead of using tube green, and it fixed everything. Looking back, she was blunt but she was also right. Sometimes you gotta swallow your pride and admit the random rude comment had a point.