I was once in a seminar where the speaker said an amazing thing. He told the group, "You're opinion is not the truth." This is especially true in this hobby. I hate to see statements like the above one because so much in life is totally subjective-Eye of the beholder, and all that. Some men like boobs, some legs, others butts. Some women like nice teeth, or blue eyes, or good manners. We don't all see the same things in the same way.
I once read that some scientists are not even sure that the world is actually the way we perceive it to be. The human brain filters the raw data being fed in through the eyes and creates a mental picture using that data. How can we be sure the brain uses all the data it receives or doesn't extrapolate in some way that creates an entirely different view of the world around us than the one that is actually "real"?
I had a peice of advice for a close friend from these boards. He was trying to figure out which head to use for a figure. Neither head looked that much like the character he wanted to represent. I told him it was his toy and to use the head that suggested the character to him when he walked by it. That these weren't real people and were only objects we used to remind us of the enjoyment we got from a particular film or TV show and that it was ok if it did't look exactly like the character but reminded him of how much he enjoyed the character from the show. He thought that was cool and instead of trying to painstakingly and minutely reproduce the character he used broadstrokes to make a figure that spoke to him and him alone.
With that being said, constructive criticism is a great thing. Try this paint technique or try that body. We all grow by getting help from people with more experience or a different view on things. But that too is subjective. Case in point-I recently made a Daryl Dixon figure using a Blitzway scarface body. The comments I got were to the effect that the Blitzway body was too small for the head and I needed a TTM 19. I opted for the KP01 body as it wasn't as big as the TTM 19 and am very happy with the results. Another member just posted a Daryk figure using the same head I used but on a TTM 19 body and the first 2 comments pointed out how beefy Daryl looked.
So, I guess the short version is, constructive criticism is great because we learn and grow and make better figures because of it but blanket negativity is pointless and wasteful because the creator sees something different from the person who loves it and from the person who hates it. Just because you hate a head or figure or whatever doesn't make you any more RIGHT than the person who loves it.
"Your opinion is not truth"
