Say No To AI Images

When I draw for myself, I tend to draw with a Ticonderoga pencil and I use it on typing paper. These two things work really well, and what I really like about them is that I can find them almost anywhere- I can even find those very pencils that I love in a gas station if I need to.

I decided long ago not to ever use a ruler when I draw. I’ve practiced hard to be able to draw a straight line with my two hands, but no matter how hard I try, little imperfections in the line will occur. But, I want those imperfections in there, and that is why I don’t use a ruler. Those little imperfections are humanity.

Maybe some day I will decide to give in and start to use a ruler when I draw- that’s conceivable. But one thing that I promise to anyone that reads this is that in aid of my art, I will never use A.I. generated images.

I’m not going to use A.I. art in in my personal work, and I am not going to use it in my professional work. I spent my lifetime practicing on my talent to develop the skill that I have. And I think that what I can do is quite beautiful. There is no way that I am going to throw that away.

A.I. art is significantly more fast than anything that I can do with my pencil and paper. I could never hope to achieve that level of detail in that period of time that it takes. It would seem that this process would make me obsolete.

But I have seen this kind of threat in the past. I remember a job that I once had where I was drawing high detail tech for the design of structures and machinery for a sci-fi video game. There was another concept artist on my team who would use the method that people call photobashing. I remember that he sat behind me, and while I was trying to draw quickly, I would look behind and see him googling images of jet turbines which he was going to directly incorporate into his next concept piece, and I knew he would be finished with his piece very quickly. I turned back to my drawing, and I felt that I had no choice but to draw the high detailed tech that I was drawing as quickly as he could google search for that same sort of stuff. If I had to draw a turbine, I better draw it in high detail as quickly as he could download such a photograph off of the internet.

Well, I did a lot of work that I was proud of on that project, but I did soon actually lose that job. I believed it was because I couldn’t actually keep up with his speed. I somewhat imagined that I would someday be pushed out of the industry because of this photobashing and speed painting thing. But, I didn’t want to use a different method to create art. Drawing is what I loved to do. To my eyes, it was the most appealing type of art, and that it is what I have enjoyed and have practiced all of my life. If I was going to get pushed out because I would not fundamentally change the way that I did art, then I was mentally prepared to seek out a different career entirely.

But that was over ten years ago. The amount of positive attention for my art that I received back then did not die off, in fact, it increased. I have many people reading this to thank for that unending support and appreciation.

Today there is A.I. art. A lot of people believe that A.I. art threatens concept art as a whole. And they are right, it does threaten it. But threatening it doesn’t mean that it is going to actually succeed in destroying it. Photobashing threatened me years ago, but these days, I barely even consider it to be even a nuisance.

If someone asks me to incorporate A.I. art into my process, I will refuse. If I am told that they will no longer work with me if I don’t, then I will not be working with them anymore. If the entire industry pushes me out because of this refusal, then I will find another career.

I promise, this is how I will respond if it comes to that. I’m not sure what kind of job I may switch to doing, since art is what I am best at in this world. I imagine that whatever job that may be, I would never enjoy it as much as I currently enjoy my career as it is right now. But if it actually comes to that point, the world will have changed so much that nobody else is getting paid to draw either. And I think that there would be dignity in working in a different capacity in a different industry, and not as an artist anymore.

But I don’t think it is going to come to this. I remember when A.I. art was starting to have a more significant presence some months ago, and I saw nothing but dozens of A.I. art created images, each cluster from various people on my facebook every day. I didn’t block them because I generally want to know what people are up to, even if I find it to be objectionable. One thing that I noticed was that I never once saw a highly talented and skilled artist post images of A.I. art. Anyone with chops was apparently not even interested in experimenting with this thing. And now, the tone has changed. These days I see significant disdain for A.I. art coming from the many artists on my facebook, and it makes me proud.