If it weren’t for a how to draw portraits book my mom bought from the library, I probably would have the same perspectives as many people have on the prospects of AI art.  Currently the masses are on their phones discovering very impressive aggregate images fed into a search engine to compile, replicate, calculate, filter, color, shade, and deliver something that resembles their desire. Unfortunately, it’s all off of the backs of hardworking, struggling, unappreciated artists learning, unlearning, and becoming part of the creative space expressing themselves in ways that are slower, and now even less appreciated.

Innovation

It’s not like there isn’t precedence for trading skill for convenience. I used to have to buy blue boards and pencil and ink my own attempts at creating comics. Now I have an Ipad with the incredibly affordable and easy to use app Procreate. It implements an Ipencil which replicates ink, charcoal, micron mechanical pencils, rulers and straight lines, a copy machine and a light box.  This is a ten-dollar program on a $300 device using a $100 pencil! It feels like cheating. Photoshop does that now along with the Adobe Art Suite which has Lightbox, and you can save under and over exposed photos as well as deleting unwanted bystanders and using the healing or clone tool to keep the backgrounds seamless.

I understand the sentiment that AI art is a “tool.” However, when I use Procreate on my Ipad, I am still utilizing all the skills from design, composition, strokes and discovery to innovate and grow as an artist. When you plug words into an AI art program you’re ordering from the menu. You are a consumer. I’m averse to terminal creativity much like I’m averse to terminal intellectualism. I can’t accept the fatalistic outlook on creativity as an inevitable demise of the craft required to guide a visionary to create.  When we learn the intricacies of the world we become better for it.   

Representation opportunities

A positive outcome from AI art that I’m witnessing is seeing marginalized representation in the form of concept art. The Marvel African Warriors and reimagined X-men that is produced by the AI evoked an emotion from me. They didn’t just look good. They look amazing! I know that the anti-woke crowd will say, “But there already is more representation in comics and films.”

We aren’t there folks.

The representation we have now is still problematic during production, culturally ignorant, and casting choices. It is sad that America supposedly the melting pot where a nation of immigrants came together and demonstrate the positive outcomes of collaboration and sharing culture is still anchored in gate keeping, by nepotism on all the major platforms. Thankfully film making is much more accessible to the general public, with of all things cell phones, viral social media platforms, and Studios making an effort to tell more stories. I can see if someone is limited financially and doesn’t have the talent to draft concept art this is an option.

Final Thoughts, Future Predictions

At the age of 12 I went to France and saw all of the French Impressionists work at the Louvre and I knew it was revered but I was still an amateur, so it was lost on me at the time. Throughout my travels I’ve talked to people who are art historians, curators, artists who make installations, comic book creators, animators, computer graphics renderers and photographers and it’s those people’s passions that give me hope. I think there will still be many great artists. And even though much of the art will come from a heartless mechanical thief, there really isn’t much for me to do about it. Somehow, we still have music after Napster, we still have movies and tv after Pirate’s Bay, we still have donuts and croissants despite there being the cronut. Doom scrolling does nothing but waste time on despair. We’ll be fine or we won’t. It’s up to us to support and promote those Indie comic artists, our friends, and of course ourselves as we tell our stories for the potential future creators of the next millennium.