Critique Clinic – July 12-14, 2013
How does it work? For three days a week (Friday-Sunday midnight), I will open the clinic to any artist who wants an honest peer review and critique of a card which gets plenty of clicks but no sales, so something’s probably not quite right, or you’ve got a new design you want to test drive, or you’re unsure about the marketability of a card. Or perhaps you’re a newbie who isn’t sure if a card is up to a marketable standard. Anyone is welcome to participate. In fact, I encourage everyone to at least look at the cards in question and read the critique comments – you may learn something. The purpose of the clinic is to help artists improve the commercial appeal and marketability of their cards.
THE RULES
- ONE card per artist only.
- Card must be intended for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- To submit a card for critique, post a link to the card at GCU in the comments section of this clinic post. Allowances will be made if you’ve had a card declined, or made a new design you’d like advice on before submission. Give us the link where we can see the card, such as your private gallery, Flickr, Tinypic, etc. If you do give a private gallery link, be sure your private module gallery is ON. Please do not post links to your Manage Cards section – do you really want strangers tinkering with your cards? And please don’t ask us to critique a card that’s pending review – we can’t see it until it’s approved.
- Any artist is free to comment and/or give a critique of a submitted card. HOWEVER, post-and-run comments like “great card” or “you suck” will not be tolerated, nor will abuse. Criticism should be constructive, not destructive. Play nice or you will be banned.
- I also won’t tolerate temper tantrums if you decide your “artistic integrity” is being stepped on because you asked for a critique, and someone told you the photo you’re using isn’t in focus. If you can’t take honest criticism, don’t submit. Once gets you a warning; twice and you’re banned from submitting in the future.
- Artists who critique may do so by giving their opinion, posting an example of another card, or pointing the submitter to a video, on-line article, or other helpful suggestion.
- Don’t forget that artists who are giving you tips and helpful advice are volunteering their time and trouble. Be nice. A link back to their store on your website or blog is appreciated (but not mandatory).
- You are free not to take any advice offered. There’s no guarantee any card will be a bestseller, so don’t come into the clinic with unrealistic expectations.
- Rules may change as we go along and we see how things turn out, okay?
So without any further ado, I declare this week’s Critique Clinic open!
GCU Community 
I’m jumping into the pool this time. The little boy in the picture is my husband. He’s not as cute now, hahaa. I’ve been working with my new photoshop program and trying to be more professional. Thank you ahead of time for any comments or help.
Here is the link. http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/thank-you-cards/help-support/shoveling-plowing-snow/greeting-card-758678
I can’t really speak to the photo. The colors are good and I like the snowflakes in the background. One thing, though: I was under the impression that you should use an actual placeholder name on a card as opposed to a “your name here.” Doreen, you want to jump in here?
Corrie
Agreed, you need to use a name … no “your name here” allowed – seems as though you’ve already fixed that 🙂 My concern with the vintage photo is that it seems to be very ‘hot’ in the whites. In other words, severely washed out highlights and that (even in a vintage piece) is not likely to be accepted. I wish I had a magic fix for that, but the only thing you can do is attempt to tone down the whites without losing overall contrast. It’s a really cute card and fun concept! Sometimes, if you take an old photo like this with bad tonal values and turn it into a Sepia toned image, the lack of details in the white is not so noticeable and you keep the vintage feel. You can try that 🙂
Yes, Doreen, I see what you mean! It is bad! I will have to see what I can do with my new handy dandy photoshop program and bamboo tablet. Thanks so much for the advice. I definitely think that may be a problem. If I can get it better, I’ll resubmit so you can look.