Friday, May 31, 2024

Mermay, Digital Art, and Re-Learning How to Paint

I really, really wanted to jump into "Mermay" this year. I took out a sketchbook, and in about 15 minutes, I had a scribble I was happy with. And then it sat there. For WEEKS. May got away from me. The boys got me a set of gouache paints and I really wanted to paint this. That did not happen. It's been so long since I painted that I just didn't have the right paper. Undaunted, I popped it into Procreate and wrapped it all up this morning!

I follow a lot of creators online and many of them are digital artists with traditional art backgrounds. If you're over the age of 30, chances are pretty good that you learned how to create on paper! I know I did. The problem with digital art right now is AI. How can I prove this art is mine if the original is just a file on a device? And if I share it, it'll get scraped into the AI model. It's already happening. There are AI generated paper dolls floating around. They are neither good nor convincing but they're out there. Many of the creators I admire are getting back to paper, pencil, paint, etc, because handcraft is becoming more important than ever. I am absolutely not giving up on digital art - I love it! I love the freedom, ease of use, the ability to zoom and undo, and the clean crispness of it.

So on this last day of May, enjoy my only pink haired mermaid. I'm going to learn how to use those gouache paints and share that here even though I've been hesitant to share much.  Having my art stolen but individuals AND robots gets to be a bit much! If you want to see what I'm up to, feel free to follow me on Instagram - it's where I post my most current work, most of the time! 


2 comments:

  1. AI Art is certainly odd. The 'paper dolls' I've seen made by AI are a far cry from any made by human hands as the clothes don't really fit on the doll, the computer doesn't really have a concept of play, tabs, proportions , or even what a paper doll is, what's it's for, that one would cut clothes and place them onto the doll, these are things it 'hasn't 'learned

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    1. I agree that the AI art is odd. Knowing that Instagram and Facebook are scraping every image and all of the text ever posted is a bit unnerving to me and also means AI will get better at this. Adobe has had a bit of a scandal lately, too. I don't know what all of this means in the greater context of creating and sharing art.

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