Art Class (compliments, spray paint for Angola, and my favorite DC supervillain

If someone comes up to me and says "That's pretty good" or "that's cool" my first instinct is to be offended. The way I see it, "pretty good" is code for "hey, that's almost good" or "I want to be nice to the girl drawing after the bell rang over there, so might as well say something." In comic geek mode, I was drawing Harley Quinn, and it hadn't been going too well. Look at the picture for the post below, and you'll see some red, black and white. I had the idea to make the background sky red, with black clouds and some blue. There'd be a dark street, with a rusted manhole, and she'd be smack in the middle of the picture. The only problem was the face and the right hand, which I had to look away from, focusing on the black and red pastels for the sky and street, which was when the guy comes up to me and says "that's pretty good." When it comes to art, I'm a perfectionist, and like to be told my work is "really good" or "great" if I'm that lucky.

Another time, after I'd finished spray-painting the side of the supply container that my school sends to Angola I'd designed (the container had 4 sides, 4 designs were chosen) and I'd gotten help from my class, who drew awesome peace signs and flowers, and this girl who's a talented graffiti artist, I felt proud. But while my chorus was watching the Angola project slideshow, and showed the beautifully-painted '08 supply container compared to the image of my spray-painted side of the crate some kids right in back of me said loudly "I wish our container was last year's. They did so good and our's was so bad." They hadn't known how hard others and myself had worked on that crate, and how last year, only art teachers painted it. I felt defeated at first, but then I realized, they don't know anything about the crate. They weren't out there every lunch and free period, climbing a ladder and working graffiti magic.

So I was determined after art class to make the supposed ruined drawing better. It I fail with disgrace, I can always make it abstract. I can and will fix the hand and mask, and maybe even get the "that's great!" I've been hoping for.