Imagine you have slaved hours over writing a book. Diligently worked long days and stayed up late writing. You are so proud! It takes a lot to write a book! You should be proud! It is no easy task to create something that holds a reader’s interest. It is hard work to be a writer and takes skills, patience and tenacity.
And it is the same for illustrators and artists.
Personally, I have spent many hours at my easel practicing my craft. Taken classes in person and online to learn how to improve my skills. I have submitted my work to groups online for critiques, sometimes taking quite a beating, in the hopes of making my art better. This learning process hopefully extends to my illustrating where I spend hours on my iPad working to create colorful, appealing images that will hopefully captivate a reader.
When I first heard about AI infiltrating the arts I did not pay much attention, as it was so new. But now it is everywhere. And authors are using it more and more. The excuse is that illustrators cost a lot of money. And they cannot afford one. So instead, people are learning to put prompts in a software and create beautiful images that they then put into their books and sell. Which is fine, but I am not buying them.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that this is progress. There is always going to be new inventions and ways to do things differently. But it does not mean that I have to accept them all. And something that takes away from hours of an artist’s work is not for me. I think I now get how music artists feel. The Beatles were so ground breaking. So many tools were not there for them to use, so they figured out how to do things themselves. One time John Lennon wanted his voice to go in and out on a song, so they rigged something up that flew around the room recording him. Ingenious. And now this same method is probably done by pressing a button. And this is where art is going as well.
I am sure eventually I will give in, or maybe I won’t. Time will tell.
But until then my stance is that I will not support it.
By now you may be wondering how do I even know if it is AI? And you are certainly right, it is definitely not easy to tell. But you can tell at this point if you look closely. AI cannot yet get hands and limbs right. Most times you can look at fingers and see disfigured hands, as well as extra fingers. If you look in the background you will see things that may not make sense. One time I saw a ballerina in an illustration with a third leg! So, at this time, you can see the difference if you look closely.
AI learns its skills by sampling art and photos it finds online. Is that really fair? Using work that others have spent years perfecting? And then there is the issue of copyrighting. Can the illustrations be copy righted?
The way that alerts me right away to possible AI illustrations is the perfect oil painting look. A loose look that looks like beautiful painting. No whimsical look. But one that a master painter possibly created. And then I look closer. Of course, at this point many people are starting to fix the hands, and whatever else is wrong so skilled illustrators can’t tell. But we can still tell. As for art that will be printed for wall art, etc there is no name on the print.
And yes I have used Grammarly to help edit my book. So I am guilty of using AI myself. But at the end I still use a human editor, and always do. Grammarly helps me keep my book going and cuts down on some of my mistakes. But I never publish a book without an editor. Never.
The other place that AI has infiltrated is social media. Now when you see an incredible photo of a home with a stunning landscape or setting you have to wonder if it real. Sure they are nice to look at, but I tend to save my photos to inspire me to maybe visit. Where am I going to visit something made up? Obviously I am not going to. If they are going to create images like this they should at least be labeled. And then we get into videos… oy! So many videos of celebrities saying things that they would not normally say. But how many believe them? That is also a scary thought as well, and another discussion all together.
As always we are fortunately free to do as we please. But at this point I am not purchasing anything illustrated by AI and unfollowing authors on Facebook that create their books with it.
Happy creating!
More blogs to help you self-publish!
1-Do you need help beginning to self publish? Click here!
2-A publisher has contacted you? Are they a Vanity publisher? Click here to learn more!
3-Ready to start your files? Here is a blog that will help you set them up! Click here!
4-Need tips for finding an illustrator for your book? Click here!
5-What is a blurb? Click here for help creating one!
6-Feeling overwhelmed? This post will get you moving… Click here to get started!
7-Your book is done! Do you need an author page in your book? Yes you do! Click here to see the reasons why.
7a- How to upload your book to KDP… the actual platform that you publish from! Click here to visit!
8- Your masterpiece is complete! How do you get printed copies of your book? Click here for some ideas!
9- If you have published on amazon you need to advertise! Click here for tips!
10- Want to submit your book to a literary agent? Click here for info!
11- Musings on using AI to create your book. Click here to read more.
12- So you got a bad review… click here to soothe your ego.
Need an illustrator? I have illustrated many books of my own and other authors. Please visit my website by clicking here, to contact me or see examples of my work.
If I have helped you and you feel inclined to purchase a book of mine, please click here to visit amazon. Thank you!
I am also available for hire to help you publish! If interested, please contact me at artistmarnie@yahoo.com.
Art and Musings by Marnie 