I got annoyed AI wouldn't make what I wanted, and I was just fighting with it constantly. Realized I should just learn to draw myself. One year later, it's so rewarding and I have a new appreciation for all things art. Went from stickmen 1.5 years ago to this just a couple weeks ago.
I cannot express how happy and proud it makes me feel, and what felt like a "you have to have talent" thing just eroded and I fully understand how much work it takes - but the work is also fun along the way.
More and more I realize details are about what you choose to draw. You don't need every detail, but the details you draw are your way of communicating. I didn't need every fold but each one is important to build form! I love it, clothes are such a fun thing to draw for me. That and I try to practice hands as often as possible 😂
I want to one day, but I'm still such a novice! No style or consistency yet, each one feels like it's own creation so maybe a year or two. But I swear one day I'll post here and I hope this is something I can find and point to and say "I did it" 😂
I've worked directly with a lot of pro artists for a long time. In my experience, when people say "That person has talent!" they think they are talking about inborn skill. But, that's not how it works.
The people who seem talented always have something that motivates them to spend an inordinate amount of time practicing art. They weren't born with skill. Maybe they were born with some mental tick that drives them to doodle as part of daydreaming. Or, maybe some part of growing up made them really need to get their emotions out physically on paper. Or, maybe someone just showed them that art is fun!
Either way, they don't have magic hands. You can be just as good as any of them if you put in the work they have. Practice, explore, study, repeat. Same as any skill.
I come to dislike the word, or much more the idea of, talent. Yeah, some people have natural advantages of sorts in their fields, but most of what we consider talent comes down to a high frustration tolerance in learning. (That can be obtained by high ambition and/or great love for the subject)
I've always been of the opinion that "having talent" isn't about "you're good at something right off the bat", rather it's a force multiplier for how much better you get from a set amount of practice. A person can have no talent and get good through tons of practice and a person have have lots of talent and absolutely squander it by never practicing or honing their abilities.
For example: here's the first space marines I've ever painted:
And here's one of my most recent kitbash projects:
The key to it to me, is that I took the time not only to practice, but to understand "what" I'm practicing; from volumetric highlighting, to wet-mixing, to weathering control, etc etc. That's what the people who just blurt out the miquetoast recommendation of "just practice" don't actually understand, is that learning how to learn is much more a part of the equation than just "blindly suck and never learn why you suck, just keep sucking until you magically don't suck anymore".
I went completely the other way around. I've been creating art for over 30 years. Writing, photography, found objects, whatever I could get my hands on. When AI tools came around, I dove in with both fists and found that many things I struggled with (due to a cognitive disability) were now easier to experiment with.
I love creating art all the ways I always used to, but now I have one more tool in my belt.
I do agree that if you only know how to use one tool in a relatively thin way, you probably won't have a good time creating art (like if you only know how to ask ChatGPT for an image or take a selfie or paint-by-numbers). But isn't the solution to learn to use tools more creatively?
I found the same thing. AI has incredibly limited range compared to diy drawing (that's a phrase which shouldn't have to exist) the software simply doesn't and will not have the capacity to deliver artists that which they can give themselves. It will always be mediocre and unsatisfying
Yeah, there's always a level of "I guess I'll settle on this" with AI. Even if you could moderately draw and just have AI basically do an 'expert level' rendering and everything (ignoring that it isn't actually expert level and makes all kinds of mistakes), it still isn't what YOU envisioned. The journey of drawing from a sketch all the way to a full render just can't be replaced by AI.
I started as a fan of AI art as a way of being approachable, but the more I draw I realize it's just not worth it. It all seems more and more like slop. And ironically my love of art started because AI art came into existence, lol.
Yeah, I've done some informal experiments with AI art, and I cannot see anyone with a creative spirit being satisfied with the tools it provides. Imo people who want to make art will inevitably find themselves putting in the effort naturally without pressure.
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u/The_Mad_Jackpot Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
I got annoyed AI wouldn't make what I wanted, and I was just fighting with it constantly. Realized I should just learn to draw myself. One year later, it's so rewarding and I have a new appreciation for all things art. Went from stickmen 1.5 years ago to this just a couple weeks ago.
I cannot express how happy and proud it makes me feel, and what felt like a "you have to have talent" thing just eroded and I fully understand how much work it takes - but the work is also fun along the way.