Criticism is really important to *any* artist, but where it's coming from really needs to be taken into account. I'm sure we all have our trusted individuals we go to who are willing to tell the brutal and honest truth, to help us make whatever we are working on that much better.

Not to be rude, but generally people don't know what they are talking about. If the criticism compromises your whole style, then it's something that really isn't that helpful. I remember showing .some friends online a. couple of sketches I drew in a class one day, and one of them decided he was going to show me how to draw anime *correctly* (i.e. the most generic way possible) I wasn't entirely going for anime, other than the eyes were big, but I was quite pleased with the stylistic touches I had on my piece, I didn't want it to look like it would have come out of generic anime#39824534.

Criticism should help you better a product (unless it's just a complete mess to begin with, but that happens to everyone sometimes) It should come from a place of knowledge and not so much of opinion. I wouldn't listen to jow blow over an artist friend. I personally show my stuff to a range of people, take note of all of the criticism recieved and then pick and choose which pieces I feel help me the most in making the product better.

Opinions are a dime a dozen, and not entirely worth that dime to begin with. My artist friends come to me because they know that I will give them good advice, and I won't pull any punches to feed their ego. I know when I want criticism, I want to know everything they see wrong with the product, so I give that courtesy to the people who come to me for help. But really, you don't have to take every bit of criticism to heart, that would kill any artistic motivations I get.