Being An Artist And Revisiting Media You Liked When You Were 11 Is Like. Oh Ok. This Shaped My Sense

Lots of thoughts recently. Everything feels plastic.

I could go on and on about why all that AI "art" is bad. I could mention theft, lack of creativity, it's impact on the work field and environment, but countless people have already said all that. I wanted to touch on something that to me is the most utterly wrong about all of it.

Art is more than just something pretty to look at or listen to. It's therapeutic. It's a form of communication. A tool for human connection. It's a pure, human need.

Support real artists ☀️

that new generative ai thing is breaking my heart

Appreciation post for all the beginner artists who work hard despite the AI ​​looming over us. You are fabulous. You are precious. Keep up the hard work, you are needed.

So earlier in art class today, someone drew a characters hands in their pockets and mentioned that hands are really like the ultimate end boss of art, and most of us wholeheartedly agreed. So then, our teacher went ahead and free handed like a handful of hands on the board, earning a woah from a couple of students. So the one from earlier mentioned how it barely took the teacher ten seconds to do what I can’t do in three hours. And you know what he responded?

“It didn’t take me ten seconds, it took me forty years.”

And you know, that stuck with me somehow. Because yeah. Drawing a hand didn’t take him fourth years. But learning and practicing to draw a hand in ten seconds did. And I think there’s something to learn there but it’s so warm and my brain is fried so I can’t formulate the actual morale of the lesson.

Snoopy watching me draw after a meal at a restaurant (I love drawing food)

Snoopy my beloved

Strawberry 🍓

What could they be saying…?

Saw a video of all these people doing super impressive sports things today, and it was meant to be inspiring (which it still kinda was, the stuff was very cool) but it got me thinking about what would happen if the way we consumed sports and art were inversed, like:

"Ah, the artist chooses another brush! Things are about to get crazy, folks." "The crimson? Oh, no, she swerved at the last moment and chose the vermillion instead! An interesting choice, we'll have to see what this does to the painting in the long-term." "He drank the paint water! This will be bad for the season, folks, we may have another hospital visit on our hands. ...And looks like he's down for this painting session."

vs.

"That backflip turned out so well! Can't believe it took you five hours." "Oh you like, play sports, right? You should kick a ball for me right now!" "Yeah I was thinking about hiring a professional, but just anyone can shoot a few hoops, you know? Plus they have that new AI thing these days... sports are just so much more accessible now."

Anyway there's a lot of interesting comparisons you can make with art and a lot of things, just kinda funny to compare it to sports especially given recent controversies I think

A banner I made bc I’m working on opening commissions (through vgen!!) and it’s strange to see my art next to each other like this for some reason