Crit reference/rant

[powercorrupts]

GOOD CRITS:
With examples of my own icons from old posts (that way I'm just picking on myself =D)

These aren't huge long crits, they're not the best or most insightful crits. What these are is what I would consider an example of a solid, pretty good crit.



The crop is a little too centered. If it were further to the right, it might look a little better. The colour variation in the image itself is somewhat limited to yellows and oranges, and the vibrant shade of purple is too similar in saturation - rather than introducing variation, it instead just contributes to the slightly muddy look by introducing a clashing colour. Some negative space would make this icon look a lot less busy - white, or beige, maybe with a simple texture at the most.



Really oversharpened and overcontrasted. The original image is really low quality - the jpg compression is visible on the finished icon, something to always be avoided. The crop, although unique, makes it difficult to tell what's going on in the icon if one isn't completely familiar with the scene itself. The negative space could be spiced up with a simple texture, or some small text.



The use of pinks and blues give this icon a strange levity for the scene. They're a little overly bright, and the lightened colours show a little jpg compression. Some more contrast and maybe a little less saturation might bring out the original textures of the icon, and make it pop more. A texture might spice it up.



The texture cut-out is strange in placement and shape. It looks like it ought to be leading the eye towards Balthier's crotch, which nice as it might be, probably isn't what was intended. There isn't a lot of contrast or colour variation on Balthier, which leads the eye directly to the bright orange on "pirate," but the placement in the lower corner is an unusual place for it.


BAD CRITS: (no examples, because really, bad crits are made all the worse because they don't even seem like they apply to the icon most times.)

I don't like this icon in general, and not the dots either.

I dislike the colours.

Too plain.

It just doesn't stand out.

I don't like the crop.

The texture ruins the icon.

The texture looks busy.

The number one problems I see with bad crits are that they are either not objective, or they're too vague, and the worst ones (like above) are both.

While you don't want to give the iconmaker the idea that your crits are somehow the end-all-be-all of iconmaking, you also don't want to sound like you dislike the icon for no good reason. Things like "I think" or "In my opinion," can soften a crit without making it sound like you're just reusing the crits you gave at some other lims for some other icons.


So. Some specific things to avoid when critting:

"I don't like X" - if this is your entire reason, then think again, or find some better way to phrase it. Why don't you like it? Is it because it's unoriginal? Because it messes up the flow of the icon? Is it making the icon busy, or somehow ruining the colours? Why don't you like it?

X ruins it" alternatively, "The X is bad", or "the X is weird" - This is like the one above. Why does it ruin it? What is it ruining? The entire icon? Ofttimes when I see crits like this, what this crit really is is just the above crit, rephrased more objectively. But that's just it - it's not objective at all. It just looks that way, because you're stating it like a fact. Try something more specific - like with the above, figure out what that one flaw really is messing up, and tell the person that.

Incomplete sentences - this isn't a grammar nazi issue, it's a politeness one. If your crit isn't more than one sentence long, do the person some common courtesy and make it a whole sentence. That's right, subject AND verb. 2-4 adjectives do not a crit make.

Anything else anyone thinks should be added?