In this episode, we start looking into the topic of feedback, as in getting feedback on our illustrations or artwork. What kind of feedback should we be seeking, and where should we look? It all depends on what you are hoping to get from it. It turns out that we don't always need critique — sometimes we just need to know we're on the right track. Sometimes we don't want solutions, we want comfort. This episode begins with some reflections on what it means to seek comfort — that is, positive affirmation about our work.
In this episode, we start looking into the topic of feedback, as in getting feedback on our illustrations or artwork. What kind of feedback should we be seeking, and where should we look? It turns out that we don't always need critique — sometimes we just need to know we're on the right track. Sometimes we don't want solutions, we want comfort. This episode begins with some reflections on what it means to seek comfort — that is, positive affirmation about our work.
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Episode 7
Getting Feedback on Your Work
Comfort
INTRO
Hello, my name is Mr. Tom Froese, and these are my thoughts on illustration. This is a bi-weekly podcast about showing up and growing up as an illustrator. Welcome to Episode 7.
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OPENER
Do you want comfort or solutions? This is a question we can ask our partner or spouse when they’re going through a hard time. Sometimes we just need to vent. We want to be heard and know that someone is on our side. We’re not looking for a quick fix or a report on all the ways in which something might be our fault. Maybe we’re not even looking to solve the problem. There are times when we just want to be comforted or to know we’re not crazy. Getting feedback can be a lot like navigating this question: do you want comfort or solutions? Because I think in our work we want both. And we need both. Sometimes we need comfort, and sometimes we need solutions.
Today we’re going to start looking into the topic of feedback, as in getting feedback on our illustrations or artwork.
I’m not going to lie, I spent almost a week writing this episode because it just started to unravel in unexpected ways. I thought I was going to give you a list of ways to get feedback depending on your situation, but it turned out to be a bit more abstract — and long.
And what’s funny is this episode was supposed to be the follow up to last episode. So it looks like the whole subject of knowing if our work is good and how to know for sure is turning into a big saga. I’m sorry to drag it on like this. But when you have a podcast called Thoughts on Illustrations, sometimes you get lost in your thoughts. I get lost in My thoughts — and you get to come along for the ride.
So today we’re going to dip our toes in with a reflection on this question of comfort vs. solutions, with a focus more on the comfort side of things. Then, in Episode 8, we’ll get more into the nitty gritty world of solutions. So I’m just acknowledging that this one is a little short and sweet, but I hope the fact that Episode 8 is going to be at least twice as long will make up for it!
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Anyway, We’re gonna get into it, right after these messages.
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HOW TO SUPPORT
If you like what you hear in today’s episode, you can support me by following me and rating and reviewing this podcast wherever you happen to be listening from. If you’re watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe, and maybe leave me a little feedback in the comments about how this episode helped you today. You can also support me on Patreon, where you can get exclusive access to my live monthly drawing meetups and more. Join today at patreon.com/tomfroese
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CONTENT: Do you want comfort or solutions?
Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we stand on stages, risking making asses of ourselves? Why do we need to show everyone the art we made, when maybe people won’t like it? What is it about being an artist, a designer, an illustrator, that we have to put ourselves and our work out there? Why can’t we just create stuff for ourselves? Isn’t it enough to make art in private, say, in our private sketchbooks, or paint privately in our studios? What drives us to have to make work that other people see? What makes us think others even want to see it?
Obviously, art is made to be shared. Art is communication. We express things in our illustrations, our paintings, our drawings, our designs, and what have you. There is something instinctual about making images for other people to see. It is a primal impulse, to etch “I was here” with a key on the bathroom stall, or to paint wild animals on the walls of a cave. Art, like music, is meant to be shared and hopefully enjoyed by those around us. As artists, we are born make and to share.
Why do we make art? Why do you make art? And what drives you to share it? I often think about how children instinctively run up to their parents with their art and say with excitement, “Look what I made!”. Why do we do this as children? What are we doing here?
I’m trying to think back to when I was a kid doing this. There was definitely the excitement of just having created something, simply amazed at the fact that I could create something from my head onto the paper. But when I shared it with my parents, it was all about their reaction — “wow, Tommy! Good job!”. Or Thank you, this is beautiful! Think about it. When you were a kid and you’d show your work to your parent or teacher or other big person in your life, wouldn’t you simply be excited to share it because you thought they’d be excited to see it? Early on in our lives, we develop this expectation that somebody cares about the things we create. When we’re young, it’s often very true that our “big people” DO care. They ARE excited about what we make.
As a father, I can tell you I am deeply interested in what my kids make, and especially when they first start to draw. From around the age of 2, it’s really cool to see how they develop as little artists. As an illustrator and a parent, I’m of course also very interested to see what kind of artistic talent they come pre-loaded with. Are they a chop off the old block?
All this to say, I’m tuned into what my kids make, and when they share their art with me, I do my best to encourage them and to praise them for their creativity — and usually it comes quite naturally! But if you’re a parent, you’ll also know that after a while, the drawings pile up and it’s hard to stay as excited about the 1000th drawing as you were about the 1st. But, like I said, I want to encourage my kids in their creativity, so I do my best to always respond enthusiastically when they bring their art to me.
I think we take this with us into adulthood. Even if it’s not our art — it could be at a totally different kind of job — we want to be told, “Good job.” We want to know that what we’re doing or making is working well, and that others appreciate it. We want to know that we’re good at what we do, or that what we’ve made matters to other people.
I can speak for myself. As an artist, I’m kind of needy! I even say this aloud sometimes when talking to other people about what I want to do in my work — I want to make work that matters! And I go to great lengths to get my work out there for other people to see, and I want them to tell me they like it! I want others to like and comment on it. Even with this podcast, I want people to tell me how I’m doing. Here I am, sharing my thoughts on illustration, and publishing them in as many places as I possibly can and I can tell you, if I never had any positive feedback about it, I would probably stop. It takes a lot of time to do this — time I could be spending developing my craft as an illustrator, or taking on new client work. But somehow I have this drive to share in this particular way. And why is that? Well, I believe I have something to share that will help others, and I believe that I’m good at it, and that by doing this something bigger could happen — maybe I actually become really good at it, and it becomes my main job. Or maybe it just becomes a solid secondary source of income. Or maybe it leads to totally unexpected opportunities in the future. Who knows? Mostly, I’m doing this because I get value out of it myself. I enjoy writing and speaking and connecting to others over what I make. But I wouldn’t be doing it at all if I thought I was bad at it, or that I wasn’t at least on a trajectory of being so so right now to being much better later, in the future. And how will I know? It will be by the feedback I get from others. It will be through the comments I get on YouTube or in my DMs on Instagram. It will be through the analytics that tell me how many views I’m getting, and which episodes seem to be getting the most play.
But I’m getting a little ahead of myself here.
As I’ve been thinking and writing on the topic of Feedback, I’ve realized how much we often seek out affirmation and validation. When we think about getting feedback, I think we often want comfort not solutions. We want to be told our work is good. We want some kind of certainty that we’re on the right track.
At first, when I started writing this episode, my focus was more around the idea of feedback as a way of getting better. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that so often, the feedback I myself want, even if I don’t realize it at the most conscious level, is this sense of validation. I seek out positive feedback, and avoid negative feedback.
Negative feedback is scary because it can be my undoing. I know that if something I’m doing is wrong, it could call into question the whole thing. I’ll be honest and say that so much of my process and practice has been shaped by the need for positive certainty and the need to minimize negative uncertainty—aka doubt. Because there are so many ways to go wrong, I suppose I’ve decided that it’s counter-productive to focus on the negative. Every time I do, I find myself on the edge of despair and even depression.
It’s been helpful for me to focus on my strengths, lean into what I know I am good at, and to avoid what I’m not so good at—or at least to avoid things that are so challenging as to make me spin off into doubt too often. It becomes counter-productive to be perfectionistic or overly grandiose in my aspirations as a so-called “Great” illustrator. It also becomes unprofitable.
So as I’m now speaking to you about how to seek out feedback and how to get the most from it, I have to be honest with you and with myself about the reality for me, which is that I’m a fragile artistic soul and very often just need someone to tell me, “Tommy, you’re doing great!” I’m addicted to comfort.
Now, I want to validate this need for affirmation. How could we go on doing anything without positive reinforcement, without reward of some kind? How could an actor keep performing on stage without applause at the end; how could a comedian keep telling jokes without hearing the audience laugh; how could an artist keep making their art without knowing it means something to others?
A huge reason for seeking feedback is to at least have some sense of what we’re doing RIGHT.
But if that’s all we seek, we’ll never truly get better. And of course, this is really what we need to talk about today. How can we get feedback that will help us grow and improve as artists? And how can we get feedback that doesn’t destroy our tender little artist hearts? I think creativity is a fragile thing, and it requires delicate handling as much as it needs a thick skin. In the last episode, we talked about the question, “how do I know if my work is any good?”, especially in the absence of outside feedback. My take is that this is really the wrong question to be asking. The only thing we can know with more certainty is whether the art is working as intended, and that means the work is supposed to do something, and that means we need to know what our work is supposed to do even before we make it.
Ultimately, when we know what our work is supposed to do, we can stop worrying so much about how good it is (whatever that even means!), and focus more on figuring out how to make it work.
But where we left off from the last episode was that it’s entirely possible to set up very clear objectives in the first place, say, in a creative brief or in a class assignment, but to still not be very good at making whatever the thing is — it’s possible to be great at setting up a brief but not so great at illustrating or making the art, or design, or whatever you happen to be tasked with making.
And that’s where outside feedback comes in. We need feedback to know if our work is working in the eyes of others. But there’s a kind of feedback we need even more as we develop as illustrators in the beginning. And this could be said about anyone who is beginning a new chapter, even if we’re many years into a professional creative career. When we’re creative “babies”, we need the direction and mentorship of others who are at least a little older than us in terms of experience and skill.
So yes, sometimes we need affirming feedback that tells us we’re alright. We want comfort, not solutions. We need solutions. Of course, this is the kind of feedback that will cut closest to our tender hearts, sometimes piercing through our thick skins, and sometimes sending us on the verge of an existential crisis. This is where we’re most VULNERABLE.
But — If we’re ever going to grow up as illustrators, past the five year old Tommy’s who just need to be cheered and encouraged, we have to volunteer to be vulnerable, to stick our necks out on the chopping block and wait for the ensuing butchery.
Okay, hopefully it’s not going to be that bad. In fact, feedback doesn’t have to be terrible at all. Really, feedback can be a very positive experience if we go into it knowing why we’re getting it and knowing what we’d like to get out of it. You may not know for sure all the right questions to ask right now. You may only have a foggy notion that you need feedback, and that’s sometimes all we can possibly know.
But I encourage you to think about the question — I mean really, really think about it, the next time you get feedback on your work. Whether you share it online, or with a friend, or go over it with a teacher, why are you doing this to yourself? What are you hoping for? And What do you really need? “Do you want comfort, or solutions?”
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LISTENER MAIL
Now before we go, it’s time for a little thing I call Listener Mail, where I read and respond to some of your comments that come to me in response to previous episodes.
Today’s note comes from Capivara gorda on YouTube. In response to Episode 3, this is what he wrote:
I absolutely disagree with you 100% without a doubt. You don't know what you are talking about. You are wrong... Because… [and he leaves a long space here] …Your hair looks great.
[respond from the heart]
- Thought this was going to be a really scathing critique of my thoughts
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I love reading your comments! If you want to send me a comment or question, the easiest way is by leaving a comment on YouTube. If you’re a patron, you can always drop a comment or question on the Discord server! You can also send me your questions by DM on Instagram at @mrtomfroese.
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OUTRO
My name is Mr. Tom Froese, and those were my Thoughts on Illustration. You can find links to all my things at tomfroese.com, including my Patreon, YouTube Channel and Skillshare classes. Remember to rate and review, like, subscribe, follow, tell your friends, all those lovely things. Thank you for listening all the way to the end. I’ll see you in the next one.
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THANK YOU
This podcast was written and performed without the aid of artificial intelligence. Adobe Podcast AI was used to improve the sound, and I used Lensa, an AI based photo app, to make me look more handsome in the YouTube thumbnail photo. Today’s episode was produced by me, Mr. Tom Froese. Special thanks to my script editor Julia Herrick and to my audio/video engineer, Mark Allan Falk.