I Feel Like After A 🌕, Remus Would Think One Word Only - 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳. But Then, Little

The black and white 🦢

kinda dissapointed on this one but it's my first time drawing both, yep.

Sirius writes dumb love notes in the margins of Remus’s textbooks. Stuff like “I’d let you ruin me with your grammar corrections.” Remus finds them during class and turns beet red every time.

I've seen your posts about AI. I also know it's a pretty polarizing topic and what the majority opinion is, especially in regards to art and writing. And being an artist myself, I totally agree that it sucks, like you have to pay attention and all, but.... I hardly dare to say this because I know how emotional the discourse around AI is, especially on a platform like tumblr, which sometimes seems so strong that I don't participate in a discussion about this topic at all because I feel like people here would hound me for it, but I still use different AI software, but not in the way that I use it to create something that I can publish and pretend that I spent hours creating it myself. I think it can be really helpful.

If I need information about something quickly, it's more efficient than spending a lot of time searching different websites for a particular piece of information.

I also like to think of it as a group member when I'm working on projects. That doesn't mean that I get the ideas from it and then just copy them. In the same way that group work is beneficial, you pass the ball to each other with the AI and exchange ideas that you can then develop further. Or it can help you if you're looking for another word to describe something better, like a dictionary. And I still know how to use real dictionaries or do proper research, because I know that AI can make mistakes and you shouldn't believe everything. Just like it is with information from the internet in general. Anyway, now I come to the actual “confession”, which is that I also use it, not to let the AI create the art, but as a tool to help myself creating it. I usually use reference images for drawings to help me get the scene itself or the anatomy correct etc. Andy capture it properly. But sometimes I have a very specific scene in mind and can't find a suitable reference, and it can take me hours to find something that fits. So I like to use AI to create that reference for me, because unfortunately I don't have people modeling for me and personally it helps me extremely to have examples to work from.

Idk where exactly I'm going with this. But since the general opinion on generative ai seems very clear here, I wanted to finally get this off my chest because I always kept my moth shut being afraid of how others might react, even though I think that my methods are still quite legitimate, as I still do the real work myself. Anyway, I'm looking forward to your opinion.

Ahhhh okay, well, thanks for the vulnerability here.

You know my opinion on AI. I’m not going to tell you you’re a terrible person or anything for using it, but I’m also not going to justify your personal decisions. Instead, I invite you to change your perspective.

My opinion is this—and it’s more of a question: why are you creating the art? I’m going to hit a few of your main points and just pose questions because I think this gets to be more philosophical than a cut-and-dry “if you use AI, you are a bad guy.” Because I don’t think that—I also don’t think you should use it.

The reason I don’t blame people for being attracted to using AI is because as human beings, we’re designed to find the most efficient way to do things. Thinking and using creativity is a huge caloric expenditure. Right? Naturally, we’re attracted to ways that things can be done FOR us and reduce our cognitive load. Your brain is working as it was designed! But this is also a really cool way to take away your voice and mold you into someone who cannot think for themself.

(This is also what you’re doing by “confessing” to me. You’re unloading your cognitive/emotional burden so you can keep on doing the thing you know is probably a bit shady.)

First of all, I don’t know you, so I don’t know what your art training is. However, you need to train your brain to start coming up with stuff on your own. I am really sorry, but I don’t buy the “I don’t have enough references.” When there are free resources like Unsplash.com and even just looking at buildings around you, the furniture in your house, etc, you DO have the references. But you need to learn how to use them. This is a tool.

Second thing, if the reference isn’t exactly what you need, then you need to start learning volume and shapes. You need to study anatomy. Eventually, you will be able to look at a reference and understand how perspective works and be able to transform a reference in your head to what you need. OR - start combining references. If I’m doing a full scene, I probably have about 5-6 reference photos I’m working from. This is a tool.

Third, start taking photos of yourself for reference images. If you can’t find what you need, do that. I periodically have to go into my camera roll to delete the god-awful reference poses for myself. This is a tool.

Fourth, start a collection of things that “strike you.” Start a reference blog. Have a folder filled with images that intrigue you. Personally, I take an insane number of photos when I’m traveling. For example, I went to a mansion for a tour and took photos of all the early 20th century objects and rooms so I would have these in my arsenal. This is a tool.

My fundamental question is this—why are you having an algorithm create what’s in your head for you? Why not learn how to do these things instead? Your imagination is so cool. The process of creating is making happy mistakes. What do you think Bob Ross would say to you? When you use AI, you’re just copying. The imaginative part has been done for you. You’re just a tool of the robot.

We do so much to avoid frustration, but frustration is the part of creating. When we can see the skills we need to learn, that’s how we know we’re improving. It means you’re trying, and when you press through that discomfort, that’s when you grow. Stop seeing this as a block to your end goal but as an opportunity to continue your infinite journey as an artist. Celebrate that there are so many beautiful things to learn.

Additionally, please don’t see AI as a group project. A group project indicates that all parties involved consent to participate, and I know most artists do not want their art to be used in this way. Imagine if you learned to do all the things I’ve described above and taken time/years/frustration/love to develop these skills, and someone years later then took your work and said “It’s okay - we ALL contributed to this.” It’s just not true.

The artists you see online don’t simply sit down and draw a bunch of cool stuff without practice. I watch Youtube videos of professionals. I draw a gazillion sketches of just MOUTHS or hands so I can create my own references in my mind. Why would you deprive yourself of this?

Look, I think it comes down to this: if you’re looking for efficiency and ‘getting it done’ quickly, then why are you doing it? Are you enjoying the process? If you aren’t, why are you even doing it?

If you need a robot to imagine something for you, then you don’t actually want to do it.

Random friendless guy spends his birthday clowning about with his dog.

What’s this? A new chapter of BRTC???

Remus finally gets his haircut!

omg what’s this? a new chapter of love on the fly???

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63646900/chapters/165362197

this chapter fought me every single step of the way and i’m very proud/relieved it’s finished HAHA

sunday snippet!

sneaking this in just under the wire. thanks to @madefortherain for the tag!

(just a short one today because lotf chapter 3 has been giving me Issues)

And that...that earns a laugh out of Sirius. A real one, Remus can tell. He finds himself staring at the way Sirius's smile widens until it breaks open, the way his eyes flutter closed. Every single thing this man does is beautiful.

np tags: @quiethauntings @moonysentropia

hey!!!!! it's super uncool to reblog art from people who are stealing it from other artists!!

I've seen more and more accounts posting other people's fandom art and putting "credit to artist" in the tags -- that isn't real credit, especially if the artist doesn't know!!!! that is scummy behavior!!!

reblogging that stuff happens on accident sometimes for sure (I've done it myself without realizing!!) but I think we should all try to take some more care to make sure that the actual artist is getting credit and appreciation for their hard work and not someone who is ripping down other's art, reposting it, and de facto passing it off as their own!!

☆

this is also why yes, Remus Lupin is canonically disabled (i don’t give a fuck if he only uses a cane in the movies, someone not using a mobility aid doesn’t make them nondisabled?? that’s such a ridiculous argument, plus just because harry didn’t mention him using a cane in the small amount of time he saw remus doesn’t mean he literally never touched a mobility aid. not to mention the movies are part of canon) and yes, it is ableist and really shitty to erase that and write him as able bodied. and this is why he will always always always be queer AND disabled in anything i write or draw.

I think some of y’all missed several days in queer history class so I’m just gonna put this as simply as I can:

If we accept the fact that lycanthropy is an AIDS metaphor (JKR has said she intended it as such so idk what to tell you), then it’s actually NOT queerphobic to extrapolate from that that Remus should be read as queer. I would argue that it’s more of an issue to read him any other way.

I know some of y’all like to make a big fuss about how it’s problematic because AIDS isn’t a gay disease. Babes, idk how to tell you this, but in the historical context in which Harry Potter was written, in the real fucking world during the AIDS crisis, for all intents and purposes, yes it was.

The powers that be in the US and UK governments knowingly and intentionally let the AIDS crisis get as bad as it did because of their belief that it was a gay disease. Were they correct? Did it ONLY kill gay men? No. But did it disproportionately affect gay men? Yes. Did we lose MASSIVE numbers of gay men during the 80’s and 90’s because the government was letting them die on fucking purpose? Baby, yes we did.

And to erase that from a text which is ostensibly a metaphor for that disease is to erase the violence enacted upon that specific population. They died quietly, and without fanfare, and so you have been allowed to forget that their deaths were targeted. They were targeted with inaction on a deadly disease and they were targeted because they were gay. It doesn’t matter if you like it. In the 80’s and 90’s, when the lycanthropy metaphor was written, when the books take place, AIDS was a gay disease.

Further, in that context, it only makes sense to read Remus as queer. The “one good werewolf” in this lycanthropy=AIDS=queerness simply cannot be read as straight.