Anonymous
asked:
wHY IS YOUR ART AMAZING???? FUCK YOU????????????? You'ree great give me your talent
chirart-deactivated20181203
answered:

Thank you for the sentiment! But, while I realize this is a funny compliment, I feel I should gently advise you to re-evaluate your approach in sharing your praise with artists. In general:

  • Try not to swear at strangers, even if it’s joking and well-meaning, it assumes a level of familiarity you may not have and the other person may not appreciate. Swearing between friends is something that you agree on as, well, friends!

  • Phrases like “why are you good” or “give me your talent,” while (again) well-intentioned, can be surprisingly dismissive of their experience and grind. Try not to quantify their skill as simply ‘talent.’ Approach artists already assuming they worked their asses off and aren’t born magically gifted. Artists in general are really tired and brain-dead from all the work and dedicated navel-gazing, and just the simple acknowledgement their hard work is paying off is a great thing to hear.

  • Not all artists are English speakers, and depend on form-translations. Try to avoid any negative-sounding phrases (especially slang, as English is FULL of negative-sounding slang that actually mean the opposite), and keep things simple, so tragic miscommunication doesn’t happen in translation.

  • Try to give specifics about what you like about the artist’s results, and what those results make you feel (that isn’t jealousy, envy, or defeatist). You are offering compliments about a creator’s work, try to make this as little about you as possible.

I know there are people out there who don’t mind, and that’s perfectly fine! But, also, in my experience I know far more people who can get exasperated by this, and nothing sucks more than your good intentions being fumbled by miscommunication.