Secrets Revealed!

...Actually it's pretty damn easy.  Just request critique in your artist's comments.  Use < h1 >< /h1 > tags around your "critique requested" note (sans spaces, of course) if you want it to be extra visible.

When I first joined dA, there was a nice little check box on the art submission page that you could check off if you wanted to encourage critique.  I always checked it.  A nice 'Easy Button' for requesting critique.  Those were the days.  But later on, that nice little item was replaced with the Premium-Only Critique Request Feature thing.  A new, special (or speshul) platform was created to request and deliver critique.  Because I guess comments were only good  for undue praise and bitch fights?  And also getting real feedback on your art was something that dA thinks that you should pay for.

When you utilize the special critique platform, a big note shows up beneath your artist's notes saying you've requested critique, with a button for providing critique.  When this was new, I searched through the Critiqueable section and saw an atrocious piece of art and thought, 'My gosh, I'd like to help this kid out by offering some genuine feedback and suggestions for improving!'  Then.. access denied.  I had to be a premium member to give critique.

This was recently changed, and that announcement inspired me to think about it.  Now, everyone can give critique though the special platform, but you still must be a premium member to request it through the special platform.

What it boils down to is, why the hell do you need a special critique platform beyond artist's notes and comments?  ConceptArt, for example, doesn't have some silly platform for critique, they just have posts in forum threads (and you get way better critique over there too).  Also, what's with the star rating system?  I've been at the receiving end of many critiques, and the best ones are completely qualitative, because quantifying the level of 'impact' or whatever is dumb.  My professors never gave me star ratings on my class work...

PS:  Been pretty strung out at work, been sketching a good bit and have a WIP kiriban that I owe from forever ago.  Have work to do tonight, so I'll hopefully be able to kick back tomorrow and scan.  Guh..