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There's a great sickness pervading the online sharing of creative content. It's the false flattery. The fake adulation. The bogus blarney that's piped into every comment section and quoted retweet on everything from a simplest of sketches to the results of years of labor. It's the making of a wholesome post just for the sake of being positive. It's the rejection of criticism, whether it's intelligently argued or bluntly stated. It's the maintenance of a status quo that encourages mediocrity and worse: downright shoddy craft.

If I ever give any of your work a critique, you should get down on your hands and knees and praise the heavens above that someone had the courage to tell you exactly how they felt. I expect the same. The only thing that the fake, happy-crappy, propping-up-of-the-spirits, "I'm leaving a comment because I hope you come and check out my own work", nonsense platitudes accomplish is leading an artist down the garden path to ruin.


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