Artist skills being taken out?

[3Deep]

Got a question here, now I'm not anywhere as good of an artist as many of you on here, but I do have some pretty good skills built up over the years in the biz which I'm very proud of LOL.  Now I'm finding that those skills now are almost worth nothing as all the automated programs are taking over and letting anyone with a little knowledge not artistic skill but an understanding can create artwork, might not be print ready but you can tell them that.  Still though the real art has to be created by some skilled artist to share with the whole automated art work so some jobs are still safe or needed, so that brings me to ask this, are true artist getting paid or finding other jobs to offset there true talent?  Now have I or do I enjoy some of the programs yes I do because they really speed up my work, but at times I feel like I'm cheating myself by not doing some things manually that now I can just find a program and hit a button, which sometimes makes me forget some the skills I knew.  So what's your take on this subject Pros/Cons are true artist being pushed in the background for as AI takes over, can a artist still make a good living just on art skills alone now.

[GraphicDisorder]

Got a question here, now I'm not anywhere as good of an artist as many of you on here, but I do have some pretty good skills built up over the years in the biz which I'm very proud of LOL.  Now I'm finding that those skills now are almost worth nothing as all the automated programs are taking over and letting anyone with a little knowledge not artistic skill but an understanding can create artwork, might not be print ready but you can tell them that.  Still though the real art has to be created by some skilled artist to share with the whole automated art work so some jobs are still safe or needed, so that brings me to ask this, are true artist getting paid or finding other jobs to offset there true talent?  Now have I or do I enjoy some of the programs yes I do because they really speed up my work, but at times I feel like I'm cheating myself by not doing some things manually that now I can just find a program and hit a button, which sometimes makes me forget some the skills I knew.  So what's your take on this subject Pros/Cons are true artist being pushed in the background for as AI takes over, can a artist still make a good living just on art skills alone now.

We have 2 artists booking August on art right now. This is typical for us. AI has made literally zero difference in that thus far. 

But that said, AI is going to 100% replace clip art/basic graphic designers in the VERY near future. The shops that adopt learning how to leverage AI with a good artist for a better final product will find themselves in a good position. AI is the worst it will ever be right now, its only going to get better. But AI will always struggle to get all details right specifically in situations that are not ultra popular for it to pull from.

I can ask it to draw me a truck and it will get part of it right and put the wrong front end on it or wrong truck bed or the truck will look like 3-4 different body styles put together into 1, which is not what a "customer" would want. So its more a idea machine for high end art.

[Dottonedan]

Speaking for artist in general, our first thought about AI when you don't know much about it is to think that it will take over all creative art and artist will lose jobs.
After using it myself, I find that it will still be a bit time consuming to really get what you are looking for. With time invested, one can really reduce time and achieve getting exactly what you want. This can take 5-10 min and up to 2 hours of modifications to meet all of the exact customer requirements. A lot of AI art being shown and used, (is taking what you will be happy with without investing too much time). Many of these jobs are "close" but not 100% exactly what your customer may need or look.  You can see a lot of great looking, cool  "blue sky" AI art but not as much of the art that has everything the customer wanted.

As for the time it takes to get good art, It gets time consuming (as it pertains to honing in on what is needed). But it's kind of like getting frustrated in the fast food drive through when getting your food takes 7-10 minutes during lunch. We get accustom to expecting or feeling the need for fast results and get spoiled.

AI, will replace the need for creative artist to spend many hours of time on creative work. Creative artist will also be needed to enhance/add on some of the more unique, specific things needed in the art that was not included in their time invested in the AI process. Also, AI will never replace the need for  "Production artist" since everything needs prepared for unique orders.


For example, I spent about 1 hour of revisions for a Bass fish jumping out of the water in a watercolor style. I went through 48 versions...and out of those, I could not get it to include a fishing lure hooked inside the lip of the bass. Most times, it would not include one at all. If it did, it was flosting out near the mouth, but not hooked in the mouth. I will have to add that in there myself, matching the same look of the style of art.

[Homer]

I had this thought the other day about "high end artists" they are almost equivalent to accountants. Think of taxes, back in the day you needed an accountant to do your taxes and then programs like Turbo Tax came out to allow people to do it themselves. People that want better / more thorough treatment still go to the accountant. I know I do, I want a professional to deal with that stuff, it's not my job... Plus I just might send the tax man a mushroom stamp on my W2..... So maybe artists and AI will be in a similar spot? Still needed, but hey maybe it weeds out the cheap customers that don't want to pay for art?!... We use AI, I can't draw a stick figure with a ruler.... But I do think with AI and DTF, we'll see a massive change in this industry.  Long ways to go but it'll have an impact, someday...

[GraphicDisorder]

One interesting thing I saw the other day. A event that normally has art similar to the type of art we do (not our customer but similar style), had went with AI art for their flyer/event art.

First reply, "This looks like it was made in AI and that the event must not care about standing out". A few more like that when I checked in on it.

Keep in mind the art was good, clearly someone spent a bunch of time with AI to get it there, as a car guy I saw obviously issues but they were not something many would see/notice. AI currently has a "look" to it almost always specifically with anything automotive wise. Until the style it outputs for certain things get more diverse looking I think that is the type of thing you'll see. AI is great but not if it ends up with us all having the same type of art.

[mk162]

All great points, I agree with them.  My wife has been using it more than me, it's all about communicating your ideas with through prompts and we all know, women are generally very good at that.

We had an order for her sister.  15 hoodies for a school ski club.  In less than 20 minutes, we had perfect art.  AI even did the text.

[farmboygraphics]

All great points, I agree with them.  My wife has been using it more than me, it's all about communicating your ideas with through prompts and we all know, women are generally very good at that.

We had an order for her sister.  15 hoodies for a school ski club.  In less than 20 minutes, we had perfect art.  AI even did the text.

Midjourney?

[mk162]

All great points, I agree with them.  My wife has been using it more than me, it's all about communicating your ideas with through prompts and we all know, women are generally very good at that.

We had an order for her sister.  15 hoodies for a school ski club.  In less than 20 minutes, we had perfect art.  AI even did the text.

Midjourney?

yup

[tonypep]

Lines/points/edges dont appear to be clean but perhaps that was by design

[3Deep]

This for sure (Until the style it outputs for certain things get more diverse looking I think that is the type of thing you'll see. AI is great but not if it ends up with us all having the same type of art.)  we all have a style of art we do.  I draw cars and have a style of art design I do and then I have another guy I use now and then to do art and his style is different which gives me little more diversity, but yeah I see AI having a place in the biz, but at what cost?

[mk162]

Lines/points/edges dont appear to be clean but perhaps that was by design

it's low resolution for proofing.  It's not perfect, but it 15 pcs, for a small school with not a huge budget.

[Dottonedan]

The lines, points aren’t really an issue with the AI.  First, with the ai art, you can upsize and get a very large image. One I did was around 38” wide at 72 ppi.  That reduces down to a large print size like 12” wide and gives you a good resolution. Around 300 rounded.
You can even convert it to vector.  I was very surprised at how it took a pixel image and converted very well to vector. Better than anything you get from China or a digitizer. Far better.

[tonypep]

I see. Interesting.

[Atownsend]

This is progressing quickly. Made this yesterday using the Glibatree Art Designer GPT. It gives you the prompt code after your input so you can better refine the image. This is crucial to get it to actually look like what you want. Before we were having a much harder time to get renderings the way we wanted.

imagine prompt:/ create photographic style of two trail runners, male and female with determined expressions, running up a hill away from an old firetower, early May in Pocahontas County, WV, under a stormy sky. Dark, ominous clouds overhead, rugged mountain terrain in the background, a sense of impending rain, dynamic and moody atmosphere. Created Using: male runner in focus, expressive facial features, weathered trail gear, storm light contrast, impending weather drama, high-definition clarity, outdoor challenge theme, compelling storytelling, glibatree prompt, sense of urgency.

I spent a few hours in photoshop afterwards adding layer masks, adjusting blending options between the layers, adding filters, and prepping the art for separation. This is getting easier and easier, esp compared to what we were getting just a few months ago. All in I probably have about 4 hours into this image. Likely quicker depending on your PS skills.

 

[3Deep]

That's awesome, but still where is the art coming from is AI looking on the web and pulling art that someone has posted or does it create the art?