Such a conundrum. I hear people complain all the time about asking for critiques of their work on online forums. They want an honest critique but all they get is, "Ooooh! Ahhhhh! Those are so pretty."
Which is so not helpful at all when you need to know what to fix.
On the other hand, if anyone dares to actually criticize the work shown, then we all suffer from other comments along the lines of, "That was uncalled for," "You didn't have to be so mean," and the ever popular, "That's why I never comment here anymore, everyone is so mean."
The person who originally asked for the critique skulks off to nurse her wounded feelings and anyone who dared to offer a genuine critique gets chastised, ostracized, and, after a moment of angry self-defense, usually just ends up feeling like crap.
Or the scenario goes that everyone just says "ooh" and "ahh" and "those are so pretty" and the poor person who originally asked for the critique walks away feeling either that asking was a total waste of effort because no one was honest with her, or walks away with the impression that her skills are up to par and they don't really need to improve on anything, depending on that person's ego and connection to reality to begin with.
Either way, the issue of turning to the Internet for peer evaluation is often a lose/lose situation.
And then there are the total wrecks. Usually, if someone is asking for a critique it's because they realize they need some improvement, they at least are trying to get better and are willing to admit that they aren't "there" yet. But what about the work that is just horrible? And I'm not talking about "horrible" as in just representative of a style that may not be terribly popular. A lot of us want to throw up a little when we see duck feet flares, or stilettos, or super long nails — but most of us at least recognize the difference between nails that we don't personally like versus nails that are horribly done.
What if someone just doesn't "have it"? Like, they're telling you that they've been doing nails for 12 years already and you're looking at their photos and thinking, "Oh honey, you need to put in an application at the local grocery store, nails is not your calling."
Yeah. I don't want to be the person who says that either. It comes across as really hateful. I don't want to dash anyone's dreams, but shouldn't it be someone's job to point this out when appropriate? Maybe we need an anonymous critique site? Where you post your photos and then they just get ripped apart without mercy, but the comments are totally anonymous. So everyone gets to be brutally honest, we all feel better about being able to tell the truth, and we all feel better about hearing the truth, but no one gets blamed and personal relationships can continue to flourish without repercussion.
Hmmmmm. I think I'm on to something.
