Art in the infancy of AI

The day before yesterday, I posted about a digital collage that I created to represent the alien world of Vokhtah.

Yesterday I posted about the very hands-on, delicious art of Robbie Cheadle.

Today, I want to talk about the AI assisted reference pictures created by D.Wallace Peach for her new WIP – The Weaver’s Tale.

All of Diana’s images were beautiful, but this one captivated me the most:

You can find this pic, along with many other entrancing graphics on Diana’s post.

Every time I look at this graphic of the Winter King [from Diana’s WIP], my heart sinks because it is so beautiful. And I know I could never create anything half as good.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy with the digital collages I create, but each one takes me weeks, sometimes months to finish. Why bother putting in so much effort when an AI can do it better, and in a fraction of the time?

That is the question that has been haunting me this morning, and instead of opening up Corel Draw X8 and working on the next image, I’ve been distracting myself with social media. One of the sites I visited was the blog of John Scalzi, a famous, traditionally published science fiction writer. And that was when it hit me – his book covers are created by professional illustrators…professional human illustrators!!

I’ve known that simple fact from the very beginning, but it didn’t bother me because, well, they’re professionals, right? They have the training and the kind of crazy skills that I could never have. Of course they’re going to be better than me!

But then…if I’m not discouraged by professional illustrators, why should I be discouraged by an AI?

I think the answer to that question may be important for all content creators: I believe we do what we do because we love what we do.

There are other, creative reasons too. For me, writer’s block is a big one. Ever since the pandemic began, I’ve found it almost impossible to write fiction. I’ve tried, but my writing energy seems to peter out after just a few weeks. I either can’t drum up the interest in fiction, or I can’t complete the story floating around in my head. It’s felt kind of…pointless?

That’s where my digital graphics have been a boon because they allow me to ‘storyboard when the words won’t come‘. Something about the process of focusing on visual images instead of words gets past the mental block I’ve created. And the proof is that finally, after at least six months of total block, I wrote 273 words yesterday. And I owe each and every word to the graphics I’ve been creating.

Would an AI have been able to break through my writer’s block?

I don’t think so because when it comes to fiction, I’m a pantster, and that means I don’t know what I want, or need, until I’ve created it. So how would I instruct an AI when I don’t know what I want?

Getting back to Diana’s fabulous reference pics, this one is another favourite:

Like all of the reference pics Diana created with the help of an AI, each graphic came after the creation process, not before.

I think that ‘before vs after’ distinction is incredibly important because it means that the AI is still just a tool. Like a pencil, or a pot of paint, or a chisel…it merely translates a mental creation into a visual one. And it still requires skill from the creator.

There’s a saying in old school computing: GIGO – garbage in, garbage out. Diana got beauty out of the AI because she put beauty in.

I can live with that.

Meeks