Hi, Elizabeth.

I am new here and not exactly an expert, but looking at your painting I thought the pupils were a bit off.

Keep posting, I have often sent Emails to friends asking them what they noticed that sort of popped out. Once I reviewed their comments, I realized I had missed stuff that was rather obvious. By the way, I bet my friends are beside themselves with joy that this wonderful site exists - no need to bother them anymore!

I suppose this will get a bit lost in a dedicated critique section, but since it's already been discussed at some length in this thread, I'd like to speak to this matter of critiques.

Let's get this part out of the way first: If people view the work and do not comment, does it mean they do not care for it? Yep, that's certainly possible, but it's not the end of the artist's world. People also view works in classical museums and modern galleries, don't feel compelled to respond, say nothing, and walk on to view the next. Even among the Old Masters' work, there are pieces I find astonishing and engaging, and others that I can easily walk past without feeling drawn to them in any particular way, can't figure out what's there that excites anyone. The fact that the cognoscenti and Keepers of the Truth have christened them doesn't mean that I have to genuflect, no matter how shrill or strident - and sometimes embarrassingly silly - their canon and polemics.

So, yeah, let's face it. Not everyone will love your work, even if it's very darn good. But you know what? So what?

Okay, with that out of the way, what's going on here, in this Forum? Well, a lot of people who feel very strongly about the beauty and worth of traditional portraiture have come together to support others who feel the same way. Most of us just love what we love and what we're doing, aren't insistent on the righteousness of our own preferences, and don't have any personal negative agenda against what any other artists love to do. We are the extraordinarily privileged of the world, not because we're brilliant or clever, but because we have the happy circumstance of computer access. Too, there are tens of thousands of artists out there who are reporting to their studios every single day without ever signing on to check email or read or write critiques. (Just having written that sentence is giving me ideas.)

The impulse to offer advice to others is often generated by a prior experience of having received a similar gift in one's own training. For folks in our line of work, that advice might be offered in workshops, for which there is time set aside, and compensation for that time and the expenses. It might be offered in intensive studio programs, expensive and requiring extraordinary long-term commitment from students and teachers.

Or it might come through a forum like this, where people who like what they do and want to share their pleasure and talent with others sign on and offer what they can. They can't possibly report to a boiler-room "Operators are waiting Now for your Call!" assignment. Most of the people who can here offer insightful comments borne of experience have to steal precious time away from their own easels, studios, and galleries to do so. And yet they DO it, because they so much enjoy the privilege of passing along the tradition that was their fortune to receive.

But gosh it takes a lot of time and work. I don't even consider myself a professional, just a very serious beginner with some serious training, and I'm often overwhelmed with the number of requests for critiques. If I'm away for a few days, or a few months, dozens of postings are made that I never see, and apparently some of them receive little attention. One thing I've done in the past is to just sign on to Forum Home and look for critique requests that have only one (or fewer) responses, and I'll make an effort to post there. That kicks the thread up to the top of the list and sometimes there are instantly another four or five responses. That tells me that the posting wasn't ignored, it just came in at a time when the most likely respondents were doing something else. Life does go on outside cyberspace.

I'm here quite a bit and yet I discover "old" postings every day of which I wasn't aware. Maybe I was out of town. Maybe I was tired. Maybe they were written in Stevenese. Maybe there were five paintings I wanted to comment on, and midnight fell before I got to number three.

If you're assessing your work in terms of the serendipitous and unpredictable cyber responses - whether in number or content - of the relatively few who spend time online and contribute, you'll be either misled (happily or sadly), or cheated or fooled. Just keep doing your best work. Strive. Read, watch videos, attend workshops and conventions. Show Up and Pay Attention , and others will, too. Nothing posted here matters a dollop if you aren't independently respectful of your own talent and potential, as well as the unique talents and potentials of others with their own training, circumstances, and perspectives.

Best wishes,
Steven