I've recently been noticing that it's no longer ok to properly critique a person's work on DA. For example, this is an example of a proper critique:

I love your choice of color, and your brush strokes really accentuate and emphasize the figure in the foreground. Her arm looks a little odd, like it's bent backwards, and the little bit right here looks unnaturally lumpy. Maybe try doing X, Y, Z?"

I will tell you right here and now, there are people on this site that will take this proper critique, and interpret it as this:

You effing skank, you suck at art! I piss on your artwork!

And likely after receiving said proper critique, if the artist has a fanbase, that said fanbase will proceed to rip apart the critiquer even though he or she was just trying to be helpful. A good critique is not a personal attack. It is an objective observation of a piece.

~~~

The following is a bad critique:

It's so kawaii and pretty I love it!

Why is it a bad critique? While it's a lovely comment and the artist will appreciate that someone likes their work, it does not tell them how they can be better. It will do if you're short on time, but people please feel free to point out something that doesn't look quite right to you (nicely, of course. No one likes a flamer.) If the artist is really an artist, he or she will appreciate the time and effort you take to tell them how they can improve a piece.

Art is about having other rip your shit apart, so that you will know how to put yourself together bigger and better the next time around. Without that, we as artists can't grow. So if someone can't take the heat, they should go into accounting or something and give up on their artistic dream.

/rant
Edit:
I did realize that DA has put in a new feature for critiquing in an effort to encourage useful responses. I don't think that this will cause any major changes in the near future.

Clubs