Oooh. People are gonna be assholes, man. I think it's best to ignore them because you're adding fuel to the fire if you tell them to piss off or get angry. My mother is also an artist. She's the one who helps me with my art. She once painted a realistic portrait of Johnny Depp and it looks exactly the same as a black and white photo of him. She didn't take a career in art however. She's a teacher. For her, painting is a pastime. She doesn't paint that much anymore. 
Every artist has their own distinct art style and people who are unexperienced in art and are immature enough to make another artist feel bad are pieces of shit that don't deserve to have their opinions about art validated. I used to get picked on because I drew heads bigger than the bodies but I never listened to them. With time, the teasing stopped. I still get picked on for drawing Beauty and the Beast or any LGBT+ paring. That's why I avoid drawing in public places all together. I have GAD (General Anxiety Disorder) and it makes me ill when people bash my art because they don't like it. I get nervous and I start to freak out and I shut myself off from the rest of the world. Because of this, my mom said that I should draw for myself and no one else. 

Like I said, just ignore the hate, and go forward. There are millions of people who are going to support you, weather they're in real life or on the internet (like me ^w^)