Introduction

This post is for those of you who are saying something along the lines of, “ There’s no such thing as an AI artist.” I’ve been using AI to draw lots of different pictures. I may not qualify as an illustrator, a cartoonist, or a painter, but I think the category of AI artist has a place in the world.

Background

I am congenitally blind. That’s blind since birth for anyone not in the know. The result is I’ve never been able to draw in any form. Elementary school art classes were my fellow students drawing quietly while I was to play with clay time after time from first to fifth grade. Boring doesn’t even begin to describe the experience.

When someone did help me draw, I was to hold the crayon, pencil, etc., in my hand. My hand was then manipulated by someone else’s cold or sweaty or pudgy or grimy hand, and I just hoped their mouthwash was working that day. Also, my hand was sometimes grasped too tightly, a phenomenon I call GRRR hands.

Enter AI

Why am I sharing this? To set you up to buy into my perspective of why there is such a thing as an AI artist.

Why do I feel so strongly about this? Because I have been playing with AI models designed to draw things since 2022, and getting the desired results is more work than people realize.

First Thing’s First

First, we need to talk about tech bloggers/podcasters. They’re giving the wrong image to this technology in the name of clicks. Do an internet search for the drawing capabilities of any AI model, and you’ll find post after post where the blogger in question has given the model a prompt like, “ Draw an anthropomorphic elephant playing ping-pong,” then rag on the defects of their first result. They finish the whole shit show by writing a review around this one experience and titling something like, “ AI sucks at drawing,” before posting it to the internet so they can go about the business of advertising cannabis gummies or whatever.

What it Means to be Congenitally Blind

I never cared about things like lighting, camera angle, aspect ratio, etc., until 2022, and I didn’t master them until February of this year. This is because it’s difficult to explain to someone who’s never experienced it how these variables affect the finished product. The result has been some interesting attempts over the years to go along with the successful creations. One day, if AI capabilities advance, I may even be able to try my hand at cinematography.

The work

I have been out of work since January due to illness, and the result was that I had time to really buckle down and experiment. I decided to make different versions of my avatar, starting with a ’90’s-style action figure. I grew up in the ’90’s and owned many such toys. Because nobody ever told me how the packaging looked and I never cared enough to ask, I couldn’t just tell the AI what to draw. Instead, I had to tell it what I wanted to do—create a version my avatar designed as a ’90’s-style action figure.

I was a bit overwhelmed by the AI’s response. I was asked for everything from what action pose I wanted to what font I wanted on the packaging. I was asked all of these questions in one message, with no clear indication of which to answer first, let alone how to make sure I answered all the questions. So, I told it to ask me each question one at a time, and I answered them. Some questions were multi-part and I had the AI break those down, too.

The Result

First, I was more likely to get the picture I wanted using this method. Second, dressing my avatar as one of my favorite characters is now one of my favorite pastimes. Third, after my tenth or eleventh creation, I realized that my brain was analyzing pictures in a way it never has, and doing more than two or three of these in a short amount of time makes my brain tired, so it must be work.

Conclusion

People should do what they believe is right when it comes to AI. I personally feel that the landscape is changing so rapidly that I find it near impossible to keep one perspective. But is there such a thing as an AI artist? I think so. It takes time and patience to get the result you want, and you may not get there sometimes—just like a painter that can’t get the colors to mix in just the right way, or the musician who just can’t get that sound from their instrument.

I do feel that people could stand to broaden their horizons, generally speaking. There’s a lot of work to do concerning the ethical use of AI art—primarily defining the ethics of AI art. If, however, society is going to continue to insist a thing doesn’t exist when it does, we’ll have outright banishment instead of useful ethical guidelines. The result is I make posts like this for my echo chamber, someone else rails against AI artists in their echo chamber, and nobody—I mean nobody gets anywhere. Please feel free to browse and enjoy my creations here