There are many different opinions in the wild about the use of AI and I felt the need to clarify my stance.
Pro & Anti AI artists are very vocal but do a lot of harm to the public perception. Many users of AI make it appear better than it really is and artists on the opposite denying it, miss out opportunities to improve their work or productivity.
That is why I believe a healthy and neutral position is the key. My reasons will be explained in this post.
I found this amazingly well done video to get a good overview about what happened in the last couple of months/years:
AI is not Art!
At its root, art is always about visual communication. AI is not about Art, it is a new medium - a faster channel for communication. As medium it does not compete with anything else because there was nothing like it before and like everything in this world, its far from being perfect..
Even though it seems to be more of a threat to illustration it isn't going to replace freelancers because of this; "An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process" (source Wikipedia) There is nowhere in the world stated that illustration means hand painted.
From experience I can say that in the illustration-business, people hire you because of what it looks like, not what it really is.
AI is not going to change this - it needs a creative person to come up with the best possible style and/or illustration to communicate a style, medium or message.
This tool just brings more people into the creative field and they all have to learn about art history the same way we did. As a medium, it will not replace artists, it will strengthen connection to artists!
Viewed as communication-medium, AI has certain advantages if used correctly:
- Its helpful against creative block
- It serves instant inspiration
- Gives alternatives for ad-powered platforms like Pinterest
- Creates rights free novel work as a base-painting (if desired)
- Enables disabled to be creative or communicate better
- It helps to better communicate ideas between art directors and artists
- AI can help to find your artistic style faster or explore new styles
- Will enhance visual prototyping
It always depends on how you view things, a thing is not inherently bad by itself.
Why AI is overrated right now
In case you wonder - I decided to change this article to a more readable and shorter version that I can refer visitors to, when it comes to the question on "How I use AI- tools".
I did handpainted Inceptionism, a kind of style transfer, long before Stable diffusion and Midjourney was invented. Now since everyone can do that - I focus on things the AI can't do - and believe me, there is a lot the AI can't do!
Here is some explanation on why I would not rely on AI in its current incarnation:
Right now I can't carry an AI generated output into a final piece without a lot of post work. Work = time that I have to allocate.
Just look at this particular output below, on the first view it looks great:
Upon closer inspection you will see what I mean:
In every generated output there are so many fundamental flaws, it could easily take 20 hours alone to just fix these issues in a landscape piece upscaled to 300 dpi. Depending on style that I want to go for, a piece like the above could only serve as a base-painting, a sketch.
I have experience working with masterpieces in the past for my "Ancient Kaiju Project" and even there the bare re-painting of an existing piece could take between 30-40 hours, so I know what I'm talking about.
From my work with artworks from the Hudson River School, I also learned a lot about composition, the thing AI's rely on are usually rule-of-thirds and diagonals - simple composition techniques and guidelines that nearly every photographer uses, accepting these standard composition principles makes sure you stay in the huge pool of "me too" images. Better composition = better chance to stand out.
Below is a recent work where you can read a bit about my process and where I highlight "one" method of many to make sure the composition is on par with my established standards: https://fantasio.artstation.com/projects/Ke60xr?album_id=1466018
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| One way to analyze a composition based on coincidences in a root rectangle |
I have 2 Ebooks about composition available here, in case you want to learn more about this matter.
So if I was going to use some of the images, it goes without saying that there would be a vast amount of work involved to make this on par with the quality I expect from myself and my other art.
General Misconceptions
People often think the longer you work on a piece, the better it becomes, but that is not how art and the creation of art works. I have seen great sketches from students and the longer they worked on it, the worse it became. So there is this thing called "lifetime experience" that helps to take something mediocre and make it great.
Sketching is a kind of Note-making! Whenever an artist draws a sketch it is a communication to their self, to make a note on what to improve in the final version. The same principle is necessary working with AI, sorting out that process will leave you with blunders.
Many AI-enthusiasts take an AI-image as it is and since they don't have this "lifetime-experience" yet, they don't see the flaws the AI produces.
Once you realize the flaws, there is no end to it! You have to question your whole body of work - but don't be afraid, every artist knows this feeling, it is just a difference if you are ashamed for 1000 pieces you have put out or just 58 ;)
Any tool that helps to get work done is an asset but AI is like a "little-autistic-artist-friend-in-a-machine" kind of tool that is not reliable.
That may be the reason it has not yet found widespread use in companies. Also the fact, that companies want someone who is responsible for the art - so if someone is going to sue them, they can't refer to the machine or a prompter who has no ties to the artistic community or art history in a way they could defend themselves.
For artists like me who embrace "happy accidents" it can become part of an experimental workflow because I can see potential where others just see a crappy output.
How I use AI :
I use it as a rapid-prototyping tool to get ideas out of my head.
Concept ideation, selection process, sketching and base-painting, that is how I can use AI without having to worry about public-domain status, fundamental flaws, ethical debates and many other issues.
As it is now, AI replaces Pinterest for me and an extended image search but goes along with my usual research about a certain topic. There are many things the AI lacks understanding of, like perspective, foreshortening, anatomy, folds, composition and especially copyrighted characters which are restricted in Midjourney due to corporate interests.
The final work benefits from this explorative process but it does not save me time, it takes as long as it takes, that is Parkinson's law.
Why some people can use AI and others not
There are several reasons for that:
- Because of social pressure
There is a lot of social pressure within the artist communities, luckily I have a very loyal following - for which I'm very grateful. But I am also not dependent on social media as my output is more like a life-signal once a month. - Because of your process
It also depends very much how you work, I for example have to see things and always match things in my curative-minds-eye - in a way that no one else would think of - and AI can only enhance this way of being creative. - Because of your own ethical restrictions
When it comes to the ethical questions, I see it this way: My work is also in the datasets that were used to train these AI's.
Instead of waiting 10-15 years on a court-ruling that could result in receiving 0.05 € for any piece included in the dataset, I will find other ways to get a compensation - its my right to do that as much as every other artist included has this right. - Because your audience is different
Since I work independently and have built a business around my work, the final result is more important for my customers. If you are stuck in a company where your work is a part of a long process-chain and all your colleagues are artists afraid that AI could steal their jobs, that is a very bad environment to be in if you want to play with AI.
Fear of the machine
I understand that many artist are afraid of the tech while others jump into my shoes and become accidental artists by getting hyped on the interweb...
This is also the good thing about it; now all newborn AI-artists learn how it is to be an artist!
A world where everyone around you monetize your "output" without even asking. Or being used by artist-hubs on Instagram, to build a million following and then starting a business around that - the work of other people without paying a dime on it. Fancy, isn't it?
Welcome to my world!
And as fast as they came, as fast they will go. Only true artist hang in there and go to a convention for 200,- a weekend for years or want to learn the basics so that they understand whats going on instead on being dependent on a machine.
Conclusion:
As you can see, I will keep a neutral stance on the AI-discussion. I would encourage seeing it more as a communication-tool that will speed up conception, unlock creative potential and strengthen ties to visual art and artists.
If you haven't already, go watch the video lecture from Stephen Silver!
Bad things come from bad people. As a society we could gain a lot from this development if we start talking about ideas instead of talking about people. But hey; we are what we do.
My usage of AI is limited to conception and productivity and in its current incarnation it is a Tiger without teeth, nothing to be afraid of because all it does is to replace Photo-bashing. I am more terrified about an AGI that understands how to create complex 3D-Models and apply physics to them from scratch in realtime, but I guess we have a few years until this happens.
But it also does not hurt to be prepared and work on diversified income strategies.
Maybe this little write-up has helped you to get a different opinion about AI with less fear and a critical eye for social media and vocal minorities. Please do your own research, find your stance and keep on doing what you are great at!
Edits:
Feb. 18. 2023 small text edits and added link to the x-wing painting for reference
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