Fuck AI

If I were on my computer I'd do that immediately. Perhaps I'll remember later

This has real "draw the rest of the owl" vibes.

The "mind's eye" (if ygu've got such a thing) doesn't really work that way. You usually don't have a fully formed image in your mind.

Your brain will leave out stuff without noticing that something is missing. Also: you can't really get proper proportions from your "mind's eye". Also: what you're imagining usually also shifts a bunch.

interesting, I have aphantasia, and drawing/creating is how I can see things from my imagination.

That's the thing. I don't have a mind's eye.

Did this work for you? I'm earning my living as an illustrator and designer and for me it's part of the process that what I envision and what ends up on the (digital) paper is never the same. And that is ok, sometimes I feel it was better "in my head" but almost always whatever ends up in reality takes over / erases what I thought I wanted to do. Which is ok as well.

I also think if you never drawn before you could for sure just draw stuff in your head but it might be a good idea to at some point (or even start with) doing classic "learn to draw stuff" like doing online or in person courses, copying others (DO NOT PUBLISH THESE ANYWHERE) etc, to learn about perspective, colour, anatomy etc. But then I've drawn since I was a child and have no idea what the best way to learn drawing would be (I'm also sure this is different for different people).

nobody is using AI to generate images because they're scared of drawing.

That is a lie

I dunno, it feels like some amount of the wanting ai to do it comes from knowing that it takes actual effort and maybe practice and there’s maybe a bit of fear in feeling bad because yours won’t be good enough on the first try.

Maybe some people do just undervalue art and the effort it takes but it seems like a lot of people want to feel like artists but don’t want to be bad at it by trying and failing.

When I draw I draw because I wanna draw. I wanna do the motions, create something, basically express myself in a way.

If I use AI it's because I want some art, quick and dirty, right here right now. Sometimes later I do my own version, which is shittier, but again, then it's about drawing, not about wanting a picture.

I have no problem with folk who use AI images for their personal use. Just A) Don't pretend it's yours and B) Do not use it commercially

I was going to disagree at first with the first sentence, but the rest of your comment is exactly what I was going to say.

Gen AI is for the middle managers and CEOs of life. The people who want the reward/recognition for doing a thing, but don't want to put in the effort to accomplish the task.

That's cool, but it sounds more like a useful tool for your work. If we're talking about artistic merit, upscaling and noise reduction isn't getting you there.

Clients expect a clean, high-res image because they're paying for it, but no one has ever been a great photographer just because they had a lot of megapixels.

"AI" is a shit term. there are many different models and types of AI, the AI used to fold proteins are vastly different to GPT... and calling them all "AI" is a marketing stunt to lump the useful models with useless LLMs or diffusion models.

AI tools are useful and amazing, but "Generative AI" are just useless slop machines

I'm more fixated on the belt buckle that says "Pizza"

what you refer to as comics books is one style. I assume you mean DC/marvel...

try not focusing on the end goal, but the steps to get there instead

I could start doing cyanide and happiness art within a week or two with no prior art skills.

one of the hardest things is just trying and putting in effort to get better at something you're interested in. giving up before you even try is the real failure. telling yourself it's not worth the effort is just denying yourself the payoff. set aside any amount of time you want at whatever interval you can manage (30 minutes a day, an hour a week, whatever) and you will only get better over time.

don't sell yourself short. if you want to do this, you can and the best time to start is now.

It takes years to get good at anything worth being good at. That's just life.

If you want to be good at something you'll find the time. Especially if you like doing that thing.

Getting to the level of a top-tier pro is hard, sure, but getting decent enough to derive satisfaction from the activity and make images people can enjoy isn't really all that hard if it's something you're actually interested in.

"Unless you have hours and hours to give for years, you'll never be able to draw anything like you see in comic books." And there it is.