A lot of calories have been burned by working artists being replaced by A.I., and there’s nothing I could add to the story. Complaining and fighting won’t do any good- it’s here, and that’s the way it is. We have to adapt.
However, that doesn’t mean I can’t do a little passive aggressive drawing about it!
I will share a quick anecdote, for no other reason than to get it off my chest so I can move on with my life.
I’ve been repped by one agency since roughly 1999 or 2000. They’re great, certainly helped me get my feet off the ground in advertising, and have always been very supportive of me. No ill will towards them.
For this agency’s marketing, occasionally they’d pick an artist in their roster and do a little showcase post via their social media. ‘Here’s Ed! Look what Ed can do!’ and show off some artwork.
In the last few months, (not coincidentally when all of MY ad work dried up) I started noticing that these posts were no long promoting their artists… Instead, they were promoting their new crop of… wait for it…
A.I. SYNTHOGRAPHERS!
*cringe*
In the post would be the person’s name, a little bit about them, and… you guessed it, some samples of the A.I. ‘art’ they’re offering. All the pieces shown are very shiny, have no cohesion, and a shocking lack of character.
It was hard to stomach for a while, but, this is the direction advertising art (and much commercial art) is going. And it makes sense: ad comps, storyboards, animatics, whatever, the client does not care how the images are made. Practically no one ever sees the majority of this preproduction art outside of the client and the agency, so what’s the difference if it’s drawn by someone skilled or someone who’s good at typing in the right prompts into the latest software? Not to mention the latter is infinitely less time consuming, and for all intents and purposes, free*!
*I’m sure the “Synthographers” are charging probably as much as real artists, but that’s only because they can, and I don’t blame them.
So, going forward, Ad agency wants to visualize a new pitch for some campaign that shows… some couple walking on the beach, enjoying a sunset? How about frisbee in the park with a dog? Type it a few prompts, and ChatGPT or whatever will spit out the image, done. (I know it’s more work then that- sometimes it takes a few tries with different prompts to get juuuuust the right image!) No need for me to come in and draw- a computer can do it in a fraction of the time. That the people who figure out the right prompts and keywords to have said computer spit back the closest image to what the client wants are elevated somehow, that’s the part that’s a little hard to swallow. It’s literally something anyone can do, yet it’s being passed off as ‘art’. (Disagree with me? Try telling one of these programmers that a minor tweak is needed to one of the images… see how well that works out.)
Ringling, a big expensive art school in Florida I’ve actually heard of, is offering A.I. art classes. To me, that’s just sad. I feel bad for the kids who opt to pursue a career in art for the same reasons anyone does, and will be led to believe that A.I. generated content is the path forward. There’s for sure going to be a few standouts who figure out that A.I. can be used as a tool to enhance some real art somewhere, somehow, but the majority will see how easy all this is and not progress pass the typing of the prompts stage!
(Not unlike my thoughts on anime art… but I’ll keep those to myself... or behind a paywall!)
I’m so glad I’m not just starting out in art. Being a dinosaur and using ink, paper and paints is absolutely unnecessary nowadays, but there’s something to be said for having an interest in art, then devoting your time to hone a skill that is unique to you, and not something anyone with an iPhone can do.
Rant over!
My first Scholastic cover!
A while ago I got a call from my buddy Ryan, former Art Director at Mad, asking if I was available to do a cover for new Scholastic title. Who doesn’t love Scholastic magazines!
It was a Rube Goldberg themed image- not with the Rube in my books, rather, it’d feature a kid who built a funny machine around his desk to turn the page on his homework. Fun!
I had to come up with the machine, and work it into the limited space on the cover. Sounds easy enough…
What was different about this than all the other Rube machines I've created was 1)the image couldn’t rely on the A, B, C, sequence/patent layout scheme of a typical Rube Goldberg machine, and 2), would not have any text at all explaining what was going on.
Oh man, that was harder than I anticipated! A great challenge, though.
Here’s a little map of the first iteration of this machine I came up with:
These elements would be composed in the layout to tell the story, quickly and easily, starting at the kid leaning back in his chair (A), and rotating clockwise around him.
Wisely, the editors remarked that this was WAY too complicated. It had to read almost instantly.
After a few iterations, here’s the final cover:
Simple, easy to follow and hopefully eye catching. This was a fun one to do.
And a shoutout to the GF, Holly, who recommended it be a frog’s sticky tongue that would turn the page!
Yes, I did try to pass off a book or two of mine for one of those falling domino books, but that idea got ixnay’d. Probably wise.