Chris, the reason I have trouble with 'mistress' is due to its modern connotation of being the side woman of an important man who's married to someone else. I have never felt it's a fair modern woman comparison to 'master'. Don't worry, man, I'm teasing you a lil. Don't look at us as masters but as friendsssssesses.

Quote Originally Posted by Kellerica View Post
And we don't interact on this forum just because we want to get better or build reputation, but because this is a wonderul community and we enjoy chatting about our mutual interests in with like-minded people.
Hm, from my perspective as a long term low participation member, people seem to be focused on getting reputation and badges/awards here. That may be the reason you participate though, which is an excellent and pure-hearted one. Anyway, it is a wonderful community compared to many others; this is one of the few forums I've maintained a membership and participation on for a decade. I don't mean to discourage Chris from participating but instead to encourage Chris to keep drawing as his primary form of development.

I'm not saying critique isn't potentially a valuable part of improving your skills as an artist, only that someone shouldn't feel obligated to solicit it. If Chris loves the idea of forums and sharing his art and soliciting critique then he should totally do that instead of lurking! But for me, I can't actually think of a single piece of criticism on my maps that has ever helped me more than several hours drawing, reading a generic tutorial, or really getting up close to stare at someone else's work and try pick apart how they did it.