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quokkawritesarchive · 4 months

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ACE OF HEART — SEUNGMIN. CHAPTER 1

⚾️ synopsis: new school year means new beginnings, right? you are a new student at prestigious seido high school with the goal to become the ace of the baseball team and win nationals. but to your surprise, some arrogant asshole kim seungmin is currently in the position of pitcher and ace of the team. how steel are your nerves and how long will it take you to steal his place?

pairing: seungmin x reader(afab) genre: baseball player au!seungmin, enemies to lovers, slow burn warnings: mean seungmin, reader has ego, underage characters, mention of daddy issues, reader has anxiety, A LOT of baseball terminology word count: 4.9k a/n: yall please appreciate my photoshop skills LMAO. i had to turn “11” into “1”, cause seung is the ace

chapter one | next . . . series masterlist . . . terminology

april — the second month of spring, the second month of the season of love. you hated april. not only because everyone around you seemed to find a relationship all of a sudden, but also because it meant the start of the new school year.

it was not an average school, but a prestigious seido high school with its own baseball team. located in tokyo, it was almost impossible to receive an acceptance letter. your screams were heard all over the house, when you opened it on your laptop. it took you an eternity to finish all trials, so you had zero hope by the end of them. but you succeeded. maybe it was just dumb luck, or maybe you were actually good at baseball. you kept telling yourself the latter.

the sound of endless chatter filled the courtyard as students were trying to figure out where to go, meeting possible new friends, and as well as old friends. senpais were giving glares to new girls, what made you want to vomit.

you were there too - standing in the courtyard, an email with instructions opened on your phone. new chapter of your life was about to start.

since you were a member of the baseball team, unlike ordinary students, you were given the opportunity to live in a dormitory. fortunately, the dorm has been divided into female and male part, so you didn’t have to live with nasty boys who won’t clean after themselves. but you’d have meet one of those type of guys on the field for sure. after all, baseball is a male dominated game.

“seido spirit dorm”

it looked more like an apartment complex. as you walked past the sign, you already noticed bats, basket with balls and other equipment. it definitely didn’t look like an ordinary dorm. it thrilled you with excitement, you’ve never felt so normal before. baseball was a passion of yours that no one around you understood. you’ve made it all the way on your own, and this simple scene with some equipment laying on the floor next to the room, made your eyes watery. you couldn’t wait to meet your roommates, teammates and the current ace. you were ready to learn a lot.

despite all the panic that was thrilling inside you, it wasn’t hard to find your room. you stared at the names on the sign.

“sanada rin

fujiwara aoi

l/n y/n”

suddenly, the door opened and two girls appeared in the doorway, welcoming you in.

located on the second floor, your room had a view right on the baseball field. your roommates turned out to be quite nice. two senpais - year two aoi and year three rin.

they quickly introduced you to the team, best players and the system that your coach uses.

the school was so popular, that current amount of players, including first-years, exceeded one hundred. obviously, everyone can’t play on the team, because baseball is an nine player game (not including the benched players). that is why seidou has two team lineups. first one consists of best of the best. while second one is for those, who are good, but not enough. and the rest, who did not make it even to the second lineup, need to work twice harder, to get noticed by the coach.

these were not a good news. you caught yourself getting anxious. but what about the acceptance letter and the trials? you thought that meant a guaranteed spot on the team. your roommates just laughed at your words, saying that with the number of overconfident players these restrictions are the only right option.

time flew, as you talked up until the midnight over a bottle of soju. it was not the smartest decision, considering that tomorrow was the first training and a meeting with the team at 8 in the morning.

of course, you felt drenched, squeezed out like a lemon, when you woke up. for a future baseball player, ace of the team, it was a bad habit of hating to wake up early in the morning. but you’ve decided to leave your thoughts about your future for now. it was time to leave the best first impression, so the coach would notice you in the sea of first years.

the cold morning air was refreshing. you shuddered as you tried to cover yourself in clothes more. the grass was still covered with dew drops and the sun has just begun to rise. despite your new friends in the faces of your roommates, you tried to stay apart and not stick to any people on the first day. you weren’t here to make friends, you were here to play baseball. and you wouldn’t let absolutely no one to distract you from the sport that you loved so much or your goals of going to nationals.

everyone was asked to line up, and the newcomers in the front row were told to take turns telling their name and the position they would like to play in.

oh you didn't like that. it felt like the coach hadn't even read the profiles of his students, since he was asking for everyone's names and dream positions.

finally your turn.

“watashiwa l/n y/n des! i want to play as a pitcher and my dream is to become an ace of the team! i have years of experience and a lot of potential. i am ready to show all my skills! thank you!” you finished your speech with a bow.

there were chuckes in the back.

“alright. thank you for your honesty, l/n y/n! let’s hope you will show your passion on the field as well.” coach replied coldly, crossing his arms.

if you had daddy issues, you'd start soaking over him, just like your roommates. he was definitely in his forties, but he was quite thin and tall, with a layer of trimmed beard and dark glasses on his nose.

did you say something wrong? the coach looked like he was unhappy about something. and those chuckles from behind hurt your ego a little.

after the roll call, you were approached by a group of guys who looked at least a year older. at the center of this not-friendly looking gang was a guy, apparently the leader and the ace, judging by the way how confident he looked, and of course the number 1 emblazoned on his chest.

“so you’re the kohai, right? aiming at ace position? how cute.” he grinned cockily, scanning you from top to bottom. “i bet you can only throw a fastball. am i right?”

“i don’t even know you.” you snapped back, turning around and getting ready to leave. you were already irritated because of failed introduction.

“i am your senpai, so i’d like to have your full respect.” he folded his arms across his chest, stretching out to his full height to show his dominance even more.

that made you look at him again. right, senpai. why do boys always keep using this as an excuse for their rudeness?

“i am kim seungmin, by the way. current ace of the team.” he turned around and pointed at his number on the back, as if you haven’t noticed it already on the front of the uniform. “i am just a second year, but I became an ace after two months on the team.” he squared his shoulders, braving himself even more.

you were about to reply with something like “so what? i will beat your so-called record, you won’t even have time to react.”, but you couldn’t. because he was your senpai.

“right. that’s what i was talking about. respect your senpais.” he smirked, patting you on the shoulder. you shrugged off his hand, making him let out a small laugh. “okay, we will see you around, i guess.”

not being able to say anything back you just stared at him, hoping that you would be able to burn a hole inside the number 1 on his back.

ugh.

and you hoped that you would be able to learn something from the current ace and even form some bond. maybe you shouldn’t have brought your goal up. but you wanted to show your coach that you were up to a good fight for a place on the team. you didn’t want to stay on the bench for the next three years, like your roommates. you were passionate and hardworking - that’s what led you in this high school after-all.

the training has started pretty light. after a warm-up and a few laps around the field, you were divided by positions. all fielders went to the field to practice and try assigned positions; first and second lineup players went to the pitching machines; the match of the season was already approaching, meaning that both lineups needed to be ready; and all the pitchers were gathered together with the second-year catchers in the bullpen. coach and his assistant were standing in the distance, planning on watching the new pitchers from afar. the main responsibility in spotting new talent among the newcomers laid on the team captain and current pitchers.

as you have already understood from the conversations, the team was short of pitchers right now. three other pitchers were third-years and will leave the team in half a year due to exams and graduation. of course, there was also kim seungmin who held the ace position, but no matter how talented he was, he physically could not pitch the entire match solo. the team needed a starting pitcher. the one who can open the match, confuse the batters with some unique pitching. this was your chance.

senpais looked scary. four pitchers, including kim seungmin, were giving everyone frightening glares, as if first-years were about to steal their spots right now. catchers on the other hand, did not care much about the upcoming rivalry. but they looked intimidating regardless, because of their layers of protection and masked helmets.

you uncontrollably shanked under the condemning gazes and you haven’t even shown anything yet. the atmosphere was tense and far from team spirit. the amount of rivalry within the team was shocking to you.

around three or four pitchers got assigned to each catcher. and god, you were sure that your catcher was the guy you saw next to that cocky kim. senpai kim.

the first-year pitches have begun. you watched everyone with interest, feeling like you were part of kim seungmin's gang.

first-years were really good. they had good ball control and different pitching types. you managed to notice a couple of cutters, of course a lot of fastballs, some were so fast that you only had time to flinch at the sound of gloves, sliders and even one changeup. and with such monsters you had to compete for the place on the team?

standing in line, you managed to get anxious and started overthinking. so when it was your turn, you could barely move your legs to get closer.

your fingers nervously clutched the ball in your hand. inhale and exhale.

out of the corner of your eye, you noticed kim seungmin grinning, his arms crossed over his chest. his gaze was burning a hole in you.

you decided to start with regular fastball, so as not to screw up completely at the first pitch. the key was throw the ball with speed and accuracy. pretty simple, you have done it plenty of time before.

“throw when you're ready, but don't delay it, there's a whole queue behind you.” catcher said. how thoughtful and generous of him. you shot a wry smile.

to relieve the tension you tossed the ball in your hand a couple of times. the anxiety finally got replaced with excitement. time to play.

you sensed the familiar feeling of the ball rolling off the middle and index fingers, creating a backspin.

it went right into the catchers glove with a loud slap. perfect accuracy. feeling the confidence again, you relaxed a bit, shaking off tension in the muscles.

it sounded quiet, but you still heard the arrogant. "i told you she only throws fastballs."

it took all your force not to look at him. can this kim “i am the ace” seungmin shut the fuck up?

feeling the need to show off and shut him up with your perfect pitching, you decided to throw a slider. you placed your middle finger directly on a seam, while the index finger went on the leather. both fingers were important at release to impart the necessary spin that would lead to a slider’s desired movement.

it’s a quite difficult pitch to learn and you still weren’t confident in it. the problem was that it’s not as straightforward as the fastball, and takes a lot more patience and a good coach to learn it. you probably should have chosen to throw another fastball to show off your accuracy and speed, but the desire to shut kim seungmin up was stronger.

getting into the stance, you lifted your left knee in the air, transferring the weight from the back leg to the front leg, generating force and velocity in the throw. as soon as you felt the ball leaving your hand you felt like it’s gonna turn out bad. you heart sank.

slider should be thrown as hard as possible, because of the speed change in the end. depending on your success, the pitch should move towards cather’s glove and drop during the last few feet. but something went wrong. maybe you didn’t throw it with enough force, maybe you messed up with the grip or maybe you were just nervous? the ball just flew to the right, not even in the strike zone, falling awkwardly next to the catcher. silence.

and then there were few giggles behind you. you felt your ears turning red. how did you fuck this up so badly?

you really couldn’t focus on your pitching. the feeling of his eyes burning holes in you was so distracting. you were holding yourself from turning right at him and yelling what’s been on your mind since morning.

“i am waiting.” catchers voice brought you back to reality. he was still holding a glove open, waiting for the ball, eyes looking at you, scolding through the mask.

you took a deep breath again, trying to collect your thoughts. alright, it’s just a simple pitch. forget about others and focus on your goal. your journey has already started, stop slacking off.

deep breath and you’ve got into position again, bringing your hands together. then, a quick kick of the leg and the ball flew out of your hand.

STRIKE!

with a loud slap the ball finally landed right into the glove, cutting the air.

you were so stressed, you didn’t notice you held your breath this whole time.

it was perfect. the speed, the fall in the end, the accuracy. it was…

“next!” catcher interrupted your thoughts.

he didn’t even leave any comments on your pitching. of course, he was a second or third-year already. probably, he didn’t give two shits about a new girl.

the corner of your eye caught a sight of kim seungmin again. your eyes met. he was still looking at you, even though you had already stopped pitching. did you make him nervous with your secret weapon? well, kim “i am the ace” seungmin, get ready to fight for your place.

you gave him a wink, getting an eye roll in response. it made you laugh a little. the displeased look on his face was a balm to the soul.

the training was over. the coach and his assistant said that in the evening they will announce the first-years who will become a trainee for the first and second lineups. it was time for lunch, and then your first school day was about to properly begin.

the schedule was cruel indeed. trainings were assigned in the morning and evening in combination with regular classes at school. baseball players had a special schedule - you had to attend classes in the afternoon. but even with the special arrangement of classes, you had no idea how you’d be able to survive like that. no wonder every player on the team has been rude as hell so far if they have no time to relax. what sacrifices do people make to become a professional player. and the graduates of seido high school were guaranteed a future career.

the dorm had its own canteen, which the baseball team could use for free. after taking a shower, you headed straight there with your roommates.

“i saw your pitching, it was good.” rin patted you on the shoulder.

the three of you were sitting at a table in the corner of the room. it was actually even better that you sat aside, because there was such a ruckus in the canteen. the guys were discussing something at the top of their voices, not holding back in their expressions. many of them didn't even bother to take a shower before lunch. it made you wonder once again why you didn't choose some kind of girls-only school.

“thank you!” you smiled. “actually, i panicked a bit because of the taunts and messed up. i wonder if it will affect coach’s decision.”

“taunts?” aoi asked curiously. “who’s bothering you already?”

“kim seungmin.” you sighed.

aoi and rin couldn’t hold their laughs. “okay. you don’t need to explain any further.”

you smiled as well. “has he always been… like this?”

“hmm…” rin thought for a second. “i was a second-year when he joined. at first i thought he was a nice guy. in fact, he was very shy, and then something changed in his attitude. but he managed to improve his pitching in a short period of time, which, frankly, is impressive. and then he became an ace, which was not surprising, because none of the pitchers we had could beat him.”

a shy guy who turned into an asshole. what happened to you one year ago, kim seungmin?

lunch was over. you said goodbye to rin and aoi and went to classes. to be honest, you could not care less about paying attention, especially when the biggest announcement of your life was about to happen in a few hours. whole time during classes you spent thinking about it. was your pitching good enough to impress the coach? will he count your failed attempt? will kim seungmin somehow sabotage your candidacy? you were fidgeting in the chair like crazy.

it probably looked funny how quickly you stormed out of the classroom. five minutes before the start, you were already standing on the field dressed in a uniform again. you were exhausted, almost falling asleep, but excited to hear the announcement.

as soon as the whole team was gathered and the coach arrived with his assistant, the speech began.

“good evening, everyone. i hope you worked your hardest in classes today, because as i remind you, your academic performance will affect your ability to attend trainings. anyway, with the help of my assistant, our team captain and our pitchers, we have complied a list of five player who will be accepted as trainees in the first and second lineups.” the coach’s voice echoed loudly across the field. “so. the first player who showed themselves at today’s training was-“

your breath hitched. honestly, you’ve never stressed so much in one day. this school will be the death of you.

loud clapping brought you back to reality. you looked around, hoping that your name got called. but no. some random guy walked out of the crowd, bowed and stood next to the coach. of course. and your naive ass thought you had a chance, especially after that failed slider.

everything repeated until only one place was left vacant. you’ve lost all hope, because every player that got chosen made an impression even on you. and you rarely acknowledged other pitchers.

“and the last candidate,” coach frowned. “had a really controversial reputation after just one day. but after some passionate discussion with my colleagues,” coach gave someone the look in the crowd. “i decided to change my mind and gave this person a chance.”

your heart skipped a beat.

“please welcome our last trainee, who has shown great potential and a good slider-“

no way.

“l/n y/n!”

you eyes widened. despite the fact that you hoped to get accepted, you were still surprised to hear your name.

still feeling like you were in a dream, you walked out of the crowd and headed forward under dozens of stares from your teammates. you bet that kim seungmin was the first one to burn a hole in you.

the coach gave you a slight nod and gestured to get in line. you saw two warm smiles in the crowd. aoi and rin. for a second, you felt bad. they had both been on the team for so long, but the chances of them being on one of the lineups were so little. and you doubled their chances in one day.

the coach said a few more encouraging words and let his assistant to step in. batteries were about to be announced. each pitcher was going to be judged not only based on individual skills, but also on the ability to work in a battery.

and here you were - anxious again. you didn’t disagree with coach on this, but still. your chances of getting an actual spot depended on your catcher. what if he is an asshole? what if he-

“takigawa aki and l/n y/n!”

you looked around, searching for someone to approach you.

oh, hell no.

it could have been anyone. anyone on the team, there were plenty of good catchers. but no. it was him, the guy who catched your piches in the morning. the friend of “i am the ace”. without protection, he looked much thinner, but still tall and intimidating. you saw dark brown hair and glasses, that you hadn’t noticed before. to be honest, you recognized him by his scolding eyes. he would actually be quite cute if he wasn’t kim seungmin’s friend.

“just call me aki. i don’t wanna see your grimace every time you’ll address me as senpai.” was the first thing he said when he approached you.

you chuckled. aki was straightforward indeed.

it was honestly impressive how you managed to create such a reputation on the first day.

“i have a question.”

“what is it?”

“are you friends with kim senpai?” you highlighted the last word, making aki chuckle. “cause i think i saw you next to him in the morning.”

“yes, you are right.” he admitted. “he is a good friend of mine, but i don’t really agree with how he treated you on your first day. gladly, you managed to get a spot as a trainee.”

aki seemed to be better than you predicted. maybe you really should stop overthinking.

“listen…” he cleared his throat. “wanna go practice a bit after we’re done? i know it’s your first day, but it’s better to start soon, so you’ll have an advantage. your slider was good, i think you just need more practice and a good coaching.”

“you think so?” you repeated shockingly.

aki nodded. “you are being too harsh on yourself. you are just a first-year, you aren’t supposed to know every pitch and be good at it. so… are you down or no?”

“count me in.” you smiled.

evening training was light. the coach was not so harsh on you on the first day. instead of pitching, you worked on your batting. it was the first time you used a pitching machine and you were terrified the whole time.

after the end of the training session, you waited for aki, and the two of you headed to the gym inside, because it was already getting dark and cold. your muscles felt so stiff. why did you agree to this again?

aki turned out to be a great coach. he explained you the basic of pitching in a way you’ve never heard anyone explain before. then he pointed out the mistake you made in the morning and why your slider failed. it was exhausting to throw over a hundred more pitches, but aki said it was a good start for your stamina training. as a pitcher, you had to be ready to throw that ball at least a hundred times per match, while standing under the burning sun.

even if you were dying when you finished, you still felt motivated. after all, it was your first day and you’ve already made so much progress.

on dying legs you made it to your room. the clock showed 11 in the evening. only having enough energy to walk to your bed, you laid on it and immediately fell asleep without even changing your clothes.

you overslept. fuck. you overslept on your second day and the first day as a trainee. yesterday’s workout really took its toll on you. the evidence of this were your sore muscles. and you still had to take a shower… gosh! you were a mess.

that’s how you ended up hiding behind a wall, thinking about the ways out of this situation. the coach was giving an introduction speech to the trainees and checking on older players in his usual strict manner. you couldn’t just walk out in this atmosphere. what could you even do?

“shit! they’ve already started.” sudden voice came behind you, making you squeal.

you turned around and faced the man himself. kim “i am the ace” seungmin was standing face to face next to you, as frightened as you were. what a surprise. never though you’d see the golden boy like this.

his voice was low, face swollen and eyes half-sleepy. he was still yawning, as if he just rolled out of bed and came here first thing.

“what are you doing here?” you raised an eyebrow. “aren’t you the ace? the best on the team?”

“shut up.” he leaned against the wall, still hiding from the sight of others. “it’s none of your business. i just fell asleep really late.”

“ah, right.” you rolled your eyes.

so now you were stuck in this position with him out of all people. great.

“anyway, why are you here?”

“what do you mean why? i am a new trainee, weren’t you at the training yesterday?” you gave him an evil look. this guy.

“ah yes, i already forgot.” a cocky smile slowly morphed onto his features. “wow. so you are late on your first day as a trainee? you have a big attitude wherever you go, huh?”

“you fu-“

“shh!” he put his hand on your mouth to muffle your approaching yell. “be quiet! they will catch us!”

you slapped his hand, making him to take it away from your mouth.

“i don’t wanna hear your notations, especially, when you are in the same position as me right now.” you clicked your tongue, turning away from him.

“well, our head coach is extremely strict about being punctual, and you’ve just got selected as a trainee. i don’t think we are in the same position, darling. you’d better listen to the discussion of your candidacy that happened in the office yesterday. and now you are about to show up late. worst case scenario, he will find a replacement for you and forget your name forever.” kim seungmin gave you the cockiest smike.

that’s bad. very bad. the wave of anxiety hit you again.

“should i just go there and beg for forgiveness on my knees? i think he will understand.”

“no, just calm down. a tardy is a tardy, even if you apologize. it won’t make your sentence lighter.” he shook his head. “however… what if you sneak into the line without anyone noticing?”

you looked at him suspiciously. what is this guy on?

“look here.” he gestured you to sit down next to him and you both cautiously peeked out from behind the wall. “take a good look at how they’re lined up. coach is talking to every player directly from far end to the close end. once the first row is done, it goes back to the far end of the second row. while the farthest guy is answering coach’s questions, everyone will be looking at him.”

“i still can’t believe i’ll be able to sneak in like that.” you whispered.

“take that chance and run quickly. you’ve got it.” he assured, looking right at you.

“what about you though?”

“i will be right behind you.” he patted you on the shoulder.

“are you sure? wouldn’t we be in bigger trouble if we fail?” you still weren’t convinced enough by his plan.

“don’t worry.” he grinned. “i did the same last year.”

“you’ve done it before?!” you almost yelled in surprise, but quickly lowered your tone.

“just trust me.” he said.

with that he talked you into it. you scooted a bit to the left, getting ready to run as soon as the attention would be on the guy in the second row.

“watch closely. we have one chance.” the ace gave you a thumbs up.

“alright, next is…”

you saw the coach turn his head in the opposite direction.

“c’mon!” kim seungmin almost shouted, signalizing you to go.

holding your breath, you crouched down and started running. the plan was working perfectly, you thought. the coach did not even pay attention to what was happening behind his back. a few more steps and…

“AAAAA! she came late and is trying to sneak into the line!”

you froze in disbelief. kim fucking seungmin was screaming behind you like some kind of alarm system. everyone, including the coach, turned around and looked right at you.

if you don’t get kicked off the team right now, you definitely going to beat his ass.

a/n (2): i’d really really really appreciate your feedback! i want to know what you think about this chapter. and please reblog, because likes do nothing to promote the post!

i wanted to leave this chapter as an introduction to the school, side characters and “y/n”, because i don’t wanna leave that unexplained. i promise that next chapter will have more interactions with seungmin!!

masterlist | taglist

TAGLIST (OPEN): @helloliaaaa @ghostbladee @jihnyah @lonelylandofan @fun-fanfics @anifxa

#skz x reader #kim seungmin #seungmin x reader #skz seungmin #skz series #ace of heart #ace of heart series #baseball #seungmin baseball #skz smau #seungmin smau #stray kids #stray kids smau

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ryuichirou · 5 months

Note

Hey ryuichi, as an artist, how do you feel about Ai art? Do you think that Ai is going to replace artists? Do you think that Ai artists are real artists?

I'm curious to know your opinion on this matter.

Sorry for the late reply, Anon! I wanted to give you a more or less nuanced reply, so it took me some time to think about this topic.

I’ll start with the easy one: no, AI art isn’t going to replace all artists and it’s not going to completely eradicate art as we know it, because art doesn’t exist solely for the practical purposes. As long as people enjoy and feel passionate about making art, art is going to exist in one form or another. But that’s just stating the obvious.

And while there are people who are better or worse at coming up with prompts for the AI, as long as they don’t do any additional work based on the AI-generated image, I don’t consider it being art. I think art is about skill, taste and personality, and this simply isn’t it.

Are people going to lose jobs because of AI art? Unfortunately, it already happens, but it also doesn’t mean that artists are doomed and this is some kind of apocalypse. It’s very important to consider the scale of things, the possible developments, etc. Here are some points to consider…

First of all, if we’re talking about personal commissions and clients that opt to use AI instead of commissioning an artist for their project (or personal use), I wouldn’t say that it’s too much of a loss. I feel like this is exactly the type of clients who don’t tend to appreciate artists’ work and pay them fairly anyway, otherwise they wouldn’t even consider AI as an option. Many of these “clients” would never commission an artist anyway, so they’re not even a part of this client pool. I know that money is money, and some artists would gladly take even a low-paying job from a customer that often doesn’t treat them well (I’ve been there and speak from my personal experience back when I started to offer my commission services), but I am an idealist and think that we shouldn’t spend our time and energy on someone who doesn’t see any value in our work anyway. Not everyone has the luxury of throwing away people who pay you at least something, of course, these artists still need to eat, so that last statement remains an idealistic take from me, keep that in mind.

And if we’re talking about corporations that use AI instead of hiring artists, while it is a problem, I also feel like it’s going to backfire somehow – it kinda does already. Not necessarily in terms of the company getting backlash, but in terms of the lack of quality control over the AI art (if you don’t have any actual artists on board, how are you going to know if the art works or not?) and some other unexpected reasons that are definitely going to pop up.

AI is definitely going to transform the way we think about art and art-related jobs in general. Some jobs might get lost forever, but it happens all the time – there are other brand-new types of art-jobs that are going to start emerging out of thin air. Just like photography and Photoshop influenced the market and art in general, AI is going to do just that.

I’ll note that I don’t think companies are going to stop using AI altogether at any point of the near future though; it’s a very powerful and cost-effective tool, there is no way they are letting it go. AI is absolutely here to stay, and it’s going to evolve and become better and better, scarily better. But this is how I think we should approach it:

People whose work is used for the AI’s learning pool should abso-fucking-lutely give their consent to their work being used, or even better, be compensated for their participation. If there is a new AI that makes a point out of the participation in the learning process being voluntary and well-paid, I think it’d change the dynamic between artists and AI – so far it’s just stealing from them.

Ideally, AI should be used as a base and not the final product. Actual artists could get inspired by it during the brainstorming stage or work over it.

Whoever posts, produces or distributes content that was created with the help of an AI, should absolutely mark it accordingly. In my perfect world, there’re going to be laws about this lol In general, the whole thing needs to be reflected in law, so far it’s way too easy to abuse.

Not only marked, AI generated images should be banned from being sold lol You can press that button and type all the key words all you want, but the result is just a free image that anyone can use and cannot be monetized. I believe this final point would make the majority of AI users just abandon their desire to use it in general – if there’s no profit for them, they’ll drop out, and AI art can be used as a tool like it’s supposed to be.

As you can see, I have avoided saying that people who use AI art are “artists” because I don’t consider them artists. If they don’t transform anything and don’t bring anything new to the table, I, the most important person on this planet, will refuse to give them that title lol

As far as I know, actors and writers have achieved some guarantees against the use of AI during their strike..? I haven’t looked into it, so I don’t know. Also please, keep in mind that I’m mostly talking about illustrations, because this is what I do. AI affects other types of art too, and there might be nuance there that I’m not mentioning here.

In general, I don’t want to demonize AI, because I feel like it’s not a problem on itself, it’s the way people use it that’s brings problems for all of us. This is a very new technology, and we don’t know how to handle it just yet mostly because for the lack of the law system regulating it, this is why there are so many opportunities to abuse it.

Also also, when the novelty of the AI art wears off, we might end up with the resurgence of appreciation for “real human art” or something. We are waaaaay too prone to nostalgia not to go “god I miss it when actual people designed logos” one day, and believe me, whenever it happens, the companies are going to market their stuff as the REAL HUMAN ART by the REAL HUMAN PEOPLE so much that we’re going to get sick of it in 5 minutes lol. But hey, maybe it’ll end up being a reason to pay artists more.

Thank you for reading such a long reply! I don’t want for my blog to turn into a discussion board, so sorry in advance if you address this topic in future asks to give me links or examples and I won’t reply to you, but it depends on the number of asks. I’ll look through everything on my own.

#replies #about drawing

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omnitheist27 · 2 months

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The 40: Catch the Bullet

"To answer your question, you get to be a superhero by believing in the hero within you and summoning him or her forth by an act of will." - Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias

----

@the-ravenclaw-werewolf, @purplemochi20055, @hulkchloron99, and @r3dp4nd4ch1ld

----

I decided to bust out my drawing tablet and use Photoshop again to create a comic for The 40, and I will say...it's a start for me to brush up on my digital illustration skills.

Izuku has come a long way after his year-long intense training regiment compared to his Pre-Character Development self. But the most gracious physical feat he had performed that would make Bakugou jealous and All Might proud, was being able to catch a bullet fired from a revolver.

I was looking over Alan Moore's well-known comic, Watchmen, and was greatly interested in Ozymandias' character and the astonishing physical and mental feats he's able to perform after dedicating himself to training his mind and body by retracing the steps of Alexander the Great by traveling the world. The one thing that interests me about how he managed to become what he is, is through his interview in the second to last issue. Where Adrian firmly believes that anyone can do what he can achieve, as you need to have the belief and willpower to see it through.

And what do you know...Izuku manages to do the impossible after the many trials that await him in the year-long intense training regiment. Reacting immediately upon seeing an unknown assailant pull a revolver on him, and summoning all of his willpower and technique to time his catching of the bullet correctly. However, like with Ozymandias, Izuku's skin was damaged from the bullet due to the obvious friction from the speed it had. But it's still a great accomplishment compared to his pre-training self, as the bullet would've burst through his hand and killed him, never mind the idea that he could actually catch it.

----

Afterward reaction from the other members of The 40.

Spike Spiegel: Shhiieeeeeeeeettt kid...you actually caught it...

Levi Ackerman: Well I'll be damned...

Zuko: Izuku...you did it.

Korra: That...was the most craziest thing you have ever done.

Saitama: ...Good for him...

Mob: That was close!

Edward Elric: How is that possible?

Ishigami Senku: That can't be scientifically possible!

Gojo: Bwa ha ha ha! Amazing!

Hanako: That was close.

Souma: Holy crap!

Mako: Whoo hoo Izuku-kun!

Kobayashi: That was too close for comfort!

Tohru: (worryingly) Izuku-kun!

Chika: Hmm...I must keep a close eye on this one.

Haruka: ...Huh...

Naegi Makoto: He actually caught it!

Ciel Phantomhive: That was...impressive...

Katsuki Yuuri: That took some insane reaction speed.

Shouyou Hinata: Go for it Izuku!

Saiki Kusuo: I knew he would catch it. Looking at you Omnitheist27.

Suzui Ryōta: I wouldn't take a gamble like that.

Heine Wittgenstein: He has come a long way.

White Blood Cell / Neutrophil (U-1146): The medulla oblongata must be very active for him to do that.

Satō Mafuyu: ...

Hasegawa Langa: ...

Killua Zoldyck: While impressive for someone like Izuku, I've seen greater reaction time.

Kamado Tanjirou: Yeah! Izuku-san!

Kuroko Tetsuya: ...

Okumura Rin: I've got to train harder if I want to do that.

Fujioka Haruhi: That really was close.

Emma: Go Izuku!

Serinuma Kae: I've got to read Observepeople again!

L: To possess the will needed to pull that off...

Shiota Nagisa: I'm not sure if I want to do that...

Legoshi: So humans are capable of such feats.

Suzuki Iruma: I wonder if learning to catch a bullet would come in handy for school?

Fujinuma Satoru: That...is something you don't see every day.

Feliciano Vargas (North Italy): I'm starting to get flashbacks of Japan wanting to cut bullets.

----

Canon MHA cast reaction:

Midoriya Inko: (bawling) IZZUUUUUKKUUU!!!

All Might: (in English) Oh my...oh my...GOODNESS!!!

Bakugou Katsuki: Tch! I would've caught it as well!

Uraraka Ochako: You did it Deku-kun!

Iida Tenya: WHILE I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND SUCH ACTION, I WILL ADMIT MIDORIYA-SAN'S EFFORT!

Todoroki Shouto: Midoriya...

Asui Tsuyu: That was reckless Midoriya-san, but good job.

Mineta Minoru: HE'S INSANE!!! Although he was pretty cool.

Kirishima Eijiro: MANLY!!!

Shinso Hitoshi: Could I do that...

Togata Mirio: POWER!!!

Izumi Kota: Kick his ass Izuku!

Eri: D-D-Do your best Deku!

Shouta Aizawa: (to the rest of Class 1-A) If I catch any of you performing a stunt like that...

#the_40 #fan comic #adobe photoshop #digital comics #my hero academia #izuku midoriya #bullet catch

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fairycosmos · 1 year

Note

how did you get that kind of job without a university marketing degree or whatever? i'm kinda struggling here :(((((

it was a (relatively) long process of trial and error and a lot of freelance work/not having a stable income but basically to break it down. a few yrs ago i went to careers advice and asked how to maximise my future prospects or whatever and the first thing they said was add ALLL of ur skills onto your resume even if youve never used them in a job role before. if you're proficient in (or capable of learning) excel, photoshop, adobe creative suite, wordpress, social media, copywriting, seo software....even if youve never used it in a professional capacity its rly good to kind of emphasize ur digital skill set as much as possible and start researching it as much as possible too. then i started a wordpress blog and would write copywriting articles on there (or in google docs) even though i had no one to send them to lol just to build a portfolio that i could send out to freelance content and copy writer agencies who were hiring. there's tons of tips and articles and pdfs online that can help you write great articles and help u learn content design. anyway i did this for a longgggg time and finally got some actual freelance work coming in. from this, i started interviewing for actual full time copywriting jobs, and was hired to intern at a digital agency at the end of 2021. did that for months then went back to freelance but was able to get more projects with my slowly growing experience. while doing freelance i was interviewing for a shit ton of full time copywriting and content management roles, most of which i got rejected from after like the 1st interview. finally i heard back from a team i had interviewed for and they had me give a presentation outlining my approach to copywriting/media managemenet and from that they've hired me and ive been really really lucky that they have. unfortunately that's what i think it was more than anything, like a stroke of luck that they saw smth in me and took me on despite me unconventional background. im rly rly grateful to them for it. i would also encourage you to look for literally any volunteer opportunities in admin, soc media, bookkeeping - it looks rly good on the resume and can sometimes expand into a job. also look up general cv tips cause there's a ton of cheatsheets out there that can help you get yours to the top of the pile or near the top. good luck and im really sorry you're struggling atm!! ive absolutely been there and it's honestly so discouraging, the amt of times i quit job hunting while doing freelance out of sheer despair was a lot. it's hard but there are ways to show what you have to offer in a really favourable light, and the more you interview/resume edit/write the better you will get. it's all one horrible big skill at least that's how it felt to me, and i still suck at it. just clawing my way up TBH. anyway sending you a lot of love ❤️ hope you catch the break u deserve soon. X

#anon #omg sorry didnt realize this was a novel girl just skim it nd take the relevant parts x

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chickenstrangers · 4 months

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2023 gifs in review tag game

tagged by @khaotunq (here!) to post my favorite/most popular gifs throughout the year. thank you!!🩵🩵🩵

I only started making gifs partway through this year, so there was a big learning curve and i still think i'm pretty newbie but it has been a lot of fun and it's nice looking back on how much i think i've improved, though i have so much left to learn next year

i am going to ramble too much because this is my post, fair warning, forgive my self indulgence

april

this was the very beginning, back in the photopea days before i tried photoshop (i am still quite fond of photopea, 1. because it is free and 2, for stills i think it's just as good as photoshop, but i could never figure out how to make gifs look good with its dithering system. i have seen some remarkable gifmakers using photopea tho so that's a my limited skill problem, and i'm glad i used it to dip my toes into the process!)

i only posted 1 set for abaab this month which looks not good but is still a very fun scene, but this was not actually the first thing i made (see below).

may

most popular: msp finale, tinn knowing all the words to gun's song <3

favorite: moonlight chicken, my first ever gifset and the reason i got into gifmaking because i wanted to capture the way moonlight chicken visually returned to locations and shots to underline its theme of loneliness being replaced by community, which is the mlc repetitions series

june

most popular & favorite: kiss me again (2018) and the lovely way june say's goodby to his friends (i learned how to add text to gifs for this one, and not only that but timed text! i thought it would get like 5 notes. it's very messy and doesn't look great, but i'm proud that i learned something with it, and i think its very funny and that's all that matters to me)

july

it's photoshop time now!! photoshop beloved you make such beautiful gifs and also you are So Slow and my computer cannot handle you.

most popular: only friends original trailer set

favorite: jimwen looking at each other set (the start of my most belovedest of series, the followup to the first ever meta i wrote)

august

most popular: part 1 of the can't i look at you edits, cool tones edition

favorite: part 2 of the can't i look at you edits, warm toned edition (i love them both but this has two of my all time favorite wen faces)

hey its my profile picture and also i find it very funny that the Os line up with his eyes, and the second gif i love how impossibly happy they look

september

my busiest month in terms of gifs, in large part due to only friends

most popular: topmew and fire

favorite: alanwen poetry edit i spent soooo long learning keyframes for the heartbeat effect and then the ghosting effect was a happy accident thank you person in the background walking past at the right moment

(i also love my charn laws of attraction set because he was a surprise favorite character this year, i loved collecting the quotes for how he speaks of himself)

october

most popular: only friends sandray finale parallel set (it is. very very close to 1k which is. so many).

favorite: he's coming to me edit because it was so fun to make for @dudeyuri

november

most popular: not me sean and black getting along super duper well!

favorite: moonlight chicken haunted house edit, accompanying this meta/creative writing thing. i loved choosing liminal feeling shots for it and i liked how the simple typography turned out

december

most popular: a little jim and wen set i am very fond of

favorite: the moonlight chicken new years set i posted today. i love this little chicken diner

hey look i managed to mention moonlight chicken almost every month (i swear, i watched so many favorite shows this year but i loved making mlc gifs so much)

and that's that! thanks for reading if anyone read til the end.

no pressure tags for some amazingly talented creators who have made some of my favorite sets this year (if you feel like talking about some of your highlights, whether monthly or not, because you all make so much incredible work and i'd love to hear about it) : @hoppipolla @sollucets @icouldhyperfixatehim @celestial-sapphicss @chinzhilla @krystaljungs @moonkhao and anyone who wants to, consider yourself tagged <3

#tag game #bl superlatives 2023 #rambling rambles #*mine #this was a fun retrospective!#thank you to all of the amazing creative people in this community that inspired me and taught me so much

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attyattlaw · 7 months

Note

heyyy I'm new to digital art, would you mind sharing some tips regarding programs and tutorials and etc? also on how to turn a real life piece into a beautiful and clean digital piece... really love your art

oh good luck with your art journey! my experience with digital art is pretty dated (as in a decade + levels dated) and i might be too out of touch to give beginner tips but regardless, allow me to attempt

Programs: it would help to know which hardware you have for digital but ill put down some i have experience in 1. Clip Studio Paint Pro - PC/Android/ipad/everywhere i think? unfortunately they betrayed humankind and its now a subscription everywhere but on PC. i bought a one-time license years years years ago on sale and its probably the best available on my end. I also got it on subscription on android so i can sync works between my PC and tablet. its very flexible in a way that you can draw with it in the most basic way single layer sketches or whatever but they have so many features and keep adding more.

2. procreate - ipad only never been an apple user but my friend is, and he's been a procreate user forever. he recently tried CSP on ipad though and he still claims he likes procreate better for ease of use and compatibility with tablet ergonomics and apple pen

3. medibang paint - pc/android/ipad

free forever. and out of all the free programs i recommended my other digital art newbie friend this is what he liked best.

4. adobe photoshop - dont even look at this the only reason i have one is im leeching off company license. its still unfortunately the industry standard tho but CSP is much cheaper and has the same controls and most of the basic functions 5. Paint Tool SAI - my first art program but i haven't tried it again. honestly still think this has the best brush flexibility and pen pressure control ----- As for tutorials, i find digital art has such a steep and high skill ceiling and its a challenge im still tackling and probably will forever tackle haha. I'm trying to osmosis painting techniques from splash art painters from League of Legends who most of them post complete timelapses (my favorite being Bo Chen) where you can study not just their techniques but like, art directions that make their pieces striking. Anyway, I also promised a friend I would make a simple coloring tutorial so maybe after inktober hustle, I would look for a piece there I'd use for the guide.

---- Traditional to digital is never a satisfactory process to me but if you can, invest on a scanner. I use an epson v39, had it for years.

scanned vs edited. the goal is to at least get the white of the paper as white as possible and the blacks the blackest, without whitewashing/burning the rest of the colors. Level correction function is your best friend here and most art programs have that.

Then i just clean dust and errors and slide the contrasts around until it looks as close to the original piece

If you have a decent phone camera, you can get away just posting instagram aesthetic pics with materials framing it or smth and just edit as usual. natural light tends to be a lot more forgiving than the harsh light of scanners anyway.

Anyway I hope this helps and have fun learning!

#granpa voice: back in my day we didnt have phones or tablets capable of drawing #we had to use dodge and burn on pirated photoshop apps using a mouse on the family computer #i think i also started digitals a bit late in life so unlike younger millenials and gen Zs its not easy as second nature to me #compared to traditional mediums at least

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calico-heart · 4 months

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Creativite Growth Discord

I have set up a little discord for folks who want to set daily/weekly/monthly goals to create and improve their skills in different arts! :3

It's for artists, writers, 3D modeling, knitting, really any art endeavor! Human, fantasy, furry, fanart, it all goes!

The idea is to both help break down the impulse to only post "complete" or "good" content (which is often a barrier to creating at all), and provide a space where there's a sense of "accountability" by setting a clear, specific goal and having a community gallery to share and celebrate each bit of progress in (though no one will yell at you for missing a goal, this is still ultimately self-paced)

This is a pretty small server right now, with channels specifically focused on creative discussion/tutorials/prompts/etc. Depending on how big it gets, chats might be further added or divided, but it's not my intention to have a bunch of random unrelated chats included, in order to keep the focus of the server clear!

I will also probably cap it if it starts to get too big to manage or moderate effectively so it will never be one of those places with 1000s of members LOL

🔞 While not our focus, we allow explicit and dark content as long as it is appropriately spoilered/tagged, so this server is 18+ ONLY and should also not be joined if the existence of explicit sex, whump, BDSM, gore, etc makes you violently angry. 🔞

Discord Join Link

RULES PREVIEW UNDER THE CUT

Transcript:

Welcome to the Daily Do! The best way to build skills in anything artistic is to practice, and that's what this server is for! To encourage us to create and buddy system our way into improvement and better habits. You can decide for yourself how often and how much you want to set a goal for, and post in our gallery as you complete each one! We can celebrate each success along the way! Once you've complete a Daily Do, post it in #⁠2024!

You can make a single topic to store all of yours together, or post a new topic for each piece individually, it's up to you!

RULES

Group is LGBTQA+ friendly.

Server is 18+, we do not allow underage users. Circumventing this rule is grounds for permanent removal and ban.

Be polite and respectful. Maintain healthy boundaries.

No real life politics, religion, or social justice issues; no callouts posts or promoting drama.

Human-made art, writing, knitting, sculpting, 3D modelling, sewing, etc etc is all allowed.

No AI art or writing, these are not in the spirit of building personal creative skills and habits.

Tag and spoiler work that contains graphic, dark, heavy, or nsfw themes, so people can choose what to engage with.

Explicit real-life or (hyper-realistic content that cannot easily be identified as fake) is not allowed (i.e. Pornhub videos, lewd photography.) This is mainly to prevent any inadvertent violations of Discord's ToS.

If work appears to be created in bad faith, i.e. to be deliberately inflammatory or target other users, it will be removed.

Everyone has a different social battery, but as this is a 'buddy system' type group, please try to also acknowledge other people's contributions, even if just with an emoji reaction! Don't just post your own work and completely ignore everyone else.

Rules may be added or changed as necessary.

You set your own goals based on your own situation, we're just here to encourage and offer a kind of "accountability" to it by having a place to organize and post each Do!

If your goal isn't working for you, you can change it!

✅ Good - Simple, direct action to take and time frame to do it:

Draw x amount of time per day

Write at least x words a week

Sketch something in Photoshop with a different brush every Tuesday

❌ Bad - Vague overarching goal, no accountability or specific steps to take:

Get better at art

Do more writing

Learn to use photoshop

#wyn gabs #discord

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indiemedley · 4 months

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Undertale Orange Concepts

Okay, so, after binging every piece of content I could squeeze out of Undertale Yellow, I found myself inspired to write some concepts for a possible Undertale Orange game, and I sorta got carried away. Made an idea for the main character and the main antagonist, but still working on the rest. If y'all like it and wanna see more, tell me and I will continue to think really hard

My concept for a theoretical Undertale Orange named the human Jessie, which was derived from Gesture, because in the Photoshop Flowey fight, the healing attacks from Bravery was a thumbs up, a gesture of goodwill.

My concept for the main antag of Undertale Orange is named Masquerade (pronounced Masker Odd), a tall humanoid figure who wears a large tophat and an elegant black and white mask. He's a very enigmatic figure, and only appears when Jessie is alone. He's got a very vested interest in seeing them succeed and seems to be the only one who hasn't attempted to kill Jess. In fact, he was actually the one with the medical skills to patch Jessie up after their fall into the Underground, since the flowers hadn't grown in yet, so, they broke their ribs. When the player gets far into the game, they'll eventually see popular fiction books with a character who looks startlingly like Masquerade. Eventually, it's revealed Masquerade is a robot, the only successful one of many failed prototypes, of the character built by a mourning roboticist.

The roboticist's partner was the one who wrote the successful fiction book, and when they fell down, the roboticist was heartbroken and tried to replicate the characters to keep a vague legacy alive. Eventually, their lab was shut down when the Core had to expand to power the Underground, sorta taking over the lab for the Core's maintenance. Masquerade, however, was activated, and spent the first year of his life clawing his way out of the scrap heap of his clones. Upon learning the nature of his existence, he was stricken with a need to find a purpose, one he ripped pieces of from his fictional counterpart.

He was programmed to hunt humans, as that was the cause of the author's death, but he quickly grew to hate monsters as well due to his isolation and ostracization. He planned to goad the human (Jessie) into killing, thus sparking further tensions between humans and monsters, ensuring the war between the two species would never end, mutually assured destruction. So, he saved Jessie when they fell from above. If Jessie goes pacifist, he's pissed and tries to take matters into his own hands.

This leads to another character walloping him with a blast that breaks half of his mask, exposing the machinery and wiring. Then he engages them in combat, using physical attacks rather than magical ones, that way, Jessie can't just heal with some crummy food, instead inflicting serious actual attacks. Or, well, he would if he didn't get blasted into next week, damaging his body beyond repair. His wounded form inches off as the cast regroups, only for the Core to start heating exponentially. They know it's coming from the Robotics Lab that got assimilated into the Core, and pursue Masquerade there. He's plugged himself into the systems and has started to Overclock the Core. He explains that he alerted the citizens about the Human heading to the Core before he started heating it up. He aims to cause a full scale meltdown, Chernobyl level destruction, that would all be pinned on Jessie, which would cement humans as the enemies for good, at least, for whatever monsters remained.

There IS more for this concept and final confrontation stuff, but mainly just testing the waters to see if y'all like the direction it's going

#indiemedley #oc #writing #undertale #undertale orange au

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lexart-io · 2 months

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Hello! I am a traditional and digital artist, and I see you post a lot of images and works that have been generated through ai, and consider yourself a part of the art community here on the internet.

--Prefacing with the fact that I dont want to debate and am not here with the purpose of gatekeeping the art community. This is purely for my own curiosity, and understanding all sides of the Ai argument.--

I mean nothing judgemental or malicious by asking, although I do acknowledge it may sound that way by the nature of my asking. As someone who plans to pursue my own artworks made traditionally and digitally on software (like procreate) for a living, the questions I have to ask are:

- What do you gain or learn from creating images with Ai? what do you take away from it?

- What meaning do you find in creating those images? What do you want to say with it?

- In what way do you find yourself an artist? What are the unique skills that you have because of this method of image creation?

Thanks for your time and consideration in this, and Thank you for sticking around to read all of that. (I acknowledge that its a bit of a wall of text)

hello! no worries, i don't think your questions come off as judgmental or malicious at all, and i'm always more than happy to offer my thoughts / perspective on this topic to anyone who inquires. i think there's A LOT to be said on it, so hopefully my own incoming massive wall of text isn't too much haha.

i'm going to answer your questions in a slightly different order than you asked because i think it will help the overall flow of my explanations:

In what way do you find yourself an artist? i have a lifelong background in art. in high school and college, acrylic paint on canvas was my primary medium. also, i first downloaded Photoshop when i was 13 years old and started teaching myself to use it so i could create forum "signatures" for people on a gaming forum that i frequented at the time haha. in high school, i nearly maxed out the number of art classes i took and won a Scholastic Gold Key art award (the highest regional award) for a digital piece i made in one of my art classes. the other form of "art" that i've always been passionate about is computer programming. i started when i was 12 years old (with Visual Basic 3, which i taught myself) and continue to take on programming projects as a hobby to this day. currently i have over 10 years of (ongoing) professional graphic design experience, both freelance and in marketing director roles.

What do you gain or learn from creating images with Ai? what do you take away from it? my interest with AI began not from an artistic motivation, but rather from a nerdy computer programming motivation. working with AI is wildly fascinating and fun. it's an odd mix of creative outlets (visual, verbal, programming), which exercises a creative spot within my brain that i never even knew existed. click here to check out my previous post where i describe my workflow with ai. i'm not just typing prompts into a box and hitting generate. to me, that isn't creative enough and i don't really find the results to be all that interesting (though there are a few prompt-artists whom i find their work to be extraordinary, for the most part that whole direction is kinda boring in my opinion). i train ai models myself, often on really obscure or abstracted ideas / concepts / aesthetics. then i use those models to combine these unrelated concepts, rendering a batch of images which i use as a dataset to train a new model, which i then use to repeat this process ad infinitum (so my work is a constant evolution built upon everything preceding it). the work that i post here are my daily experiments, as i test out models and combine ideas. so what i gain from this is a deeper understanding of how machine learning tech works, a means of keeping up with generative ai technology as it continues to quickly advance, how to visually train ai models on concepts that are increasingly detached from visual reality, and (most importantly) a creative workflow that really, truly vibes with my soul's deepest passions. it's hard to really describe that last one... but you know that feeling you get as you're actively exercising your creative impulses on a medium that really connects with you on a deeper level? training ai, as nerdy as this sounds, is that for me. the "art" is not necessarily in the images themselves, but in the act of training ai models (because the process of training ai is not a standardized thing whatsoever, there are hundreds of settings and variables at play and every single person has their own methods which generally evolve with experience) and how you interact with these models on a verbal level (through text prompting) to render your imagination.

What meaning do you find in creating those images? What do you want to say with it? honestly, i think a lot of the "ai art" scene is made up of "delusional artists" who think whatever they generate from a basic text prompt is somehow deep and meaningful art haha. but that said, i do stand firm in my belief that even THAT is by definition still "art". there is human creative impulse behind it. ai is the tool and the human is the user of said tool. this particular tool can make creating things very easy, but at the end of the day it does still require some level of creative human input to do anything. as with any artistic tool or medium, i think that what you get out of it depends entirely upon what you put into it. more effort and time = more quality and meaning. text prompting for ai generated images is sort of the most "superficial" layer of the "ai art" scene. the phenomenon of delusional artists exists across ALL forms of art, so it's not just unique to ai. it seems like there is a large percentage of the population who, upon starting to learn a new creative outlet, have an overly grandiose view of their own work after they first start making things. they're so proud of what they created that it blinds them from seeing it for what it really is. they'll gloat about it online, they'll try to sell it for outrageous prices, etc and look super cringy in the process. some people eventually grow out of that and suddenly gain the self-awareness that "oh shit actually that art kinda sucked and i looked super inexperienced", but other times they never realize that and stay cringy. because ai art is so new and so many folks are just now jumping on, i think we're seeing a much higher percentage of this delusional artist phenomenon within this field at the moment, where everyone is so proud of what they're making and not realizing how lame it actually looks to people who know what they're doing. and, again for the record, i do still consider that stuff to be art (and so i mean no offense to anyone when i say these things). it's just really basic art, and i think most people will either grow past this phase (and learn to take these tools a lot deeper) or lose interest in it altogether - just as they do with other artistic endeavors like painting, ceramics, using Photoshop, making music in Ableton, etc, etc. i would classify 99% of my work as under the "concept art" category. it exists as a result of my daily experiments as i learn / discover my way deeper and deeper into machine learning technology. it generally explores scifi themes (robotics in particular) because i find that to be most creatively titillating, but it is not necessarily meant to convey any deeper meaning beyond purely imaginative visual pursuits that look toward the future. which is also why i don't sell my work or push the idea of it being profound in anyway. it's just daily exercise, but i absolutely love that so many other people enjoy looking at it (i'm somehow up to nearly 9000 followers here, which is kinda mind-blowing to me). i've been putting nearly every single spare hour of every single day for the last several years into this so it really means a lot to not only see my skillset improving over time, but to also gain such an audience for it in the process too. 🙏😭

What are the unique skills that you have because of this method of image creation? for me, the WHOLE point of all of this is knowledge and experience working with generative ai tools. this technology exists now and it won't be going away. the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak. i think absolutely any artist (but digital artists in particular) would only be doing themselves a tremendous disservice by not learning to use this tool immediately. being a stick in the mud about it is not going to stop this technology, nor will it save you in 10 years from getting let go at your job and replaced by some younger artist who learned this technology while getting a degree in graphic design and can pump out quality assets 100x faster than you ever could. don't wait until then to start learning this stuff because you will already be sooo far behind at that point. get involved right now, right this second; you will be on the ground floor of an incredible technology and able to keep up with the advancements as they happen, putting you in a much stronger position in the future. don't take it too seriously, just do it for fun and then thank yourself in 10 years when you're 100x more experienced than the younger artist who recently graduated with a graphic design degree. i recently met a graphic designer who somehow never learned to use Photoshop. they do everything the "old school" way - literally cutting, pasting, and drawing things by hand. that was fine 30+ years ago, but now they cannot get hired anywhere. they put off learning Photoshop for so long because they assumed that their excellent skills and truly beautiful eye for design would be enough to carry their career forward forever, without needing to keep up with the technical advancements. but in the modern world, no business wants a designer like that anymore; having strong Photoshop experience is a bare minimum. old school designers who did not keep up were ultimately pushed out entirely. in 10, 20, or even 30 years from now, you don't want to be that old person taking night classes at the local university to try to save your career. get ahead of it, jump on board and invest in your future! i truly believe that you will start to discover creative new ways to integrate it into your current workflow and you will become a stronger (and more marketable) artist in the process. :)

sorry for the huge post and hopefully everything makes sense lmao. feel free to reach out with more questions any time. particularly if you want help getting started in the realm of ai-assisted art and design. i'm always more than happy to help!

#stable diffusion #photoshop #digital art #ai #artificial intelligence #generative art #ai art #synthography #ask

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treasureplcnet · 2 months

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do you have any drawing tips? i'm just starting out and your style inspires me to keep going fr!!

HIYA !!! thank you that is so kind of you, i would say to keep drawing with references and do studies!! typically art studies (in like art school lol) are of old masters (da vinci, etc) but doing studies of styles that you like, like trying to copy a certain artist you like, also helps you develop skills !!

for example, lots of people (especially fanartists lol) do studies of artists like leyendecker while making the models their favorite characters/ocs, so it helps to make studies fun. literally look up leyendecker study on tumblr dot com and you will see hundreds.

(gets a bit long and rambly so i've thrown it under the cut :')

style studies can be anything! above was done while watching wolfwalkers, just loose sketches that copied the style as the movie went along. i love the design and style in that film, wanted to incorporate it in my character design work, so i tried it out myself! it let me know the kinds of shapes used in the construction, the way it moves (wrt to animation) and silhouettes. by copying something, you learn how to do it on the way (so the kinds of colors used, what works best with shading, etc) it's like. reverse engineering

even very loosely copying something to identify what you like about the style helps! these were modelled after the way slimsense on ig paints (her work is 2nd + 4th examples below, my attempts at 'paint' 1st and 3rd lol), but doesn't really look like her work. i'm not necessarily trying to make perfect copies. i liked that her paint didn't blend perfectly, was blocky, and the additional lineart over the painting, so i brought that into my own art. i tried to create a painting style that was 'my own' off of lots of trial and error, and seeing what stuck!

also find brushes you like! adobe has a bunch on their page (if you have photoshop, but i know there's some for procreate and other programs) and if you want the adobe brush files, lmk. i will send a drive link to you LOL (sketches of the same characters, using different brushes below. the two i used the most often, one being a solid inker and the other being a paintbrush)

generally doing figure drawing is good too. i've heard advice about art where you can only start breaking the rules after you understand them, and a good grasp on anatomy, proportions, etc is definitely a good place to start! good sites to use for this are line of action for poses, and the morpho books (if you need pdfs of this let me know, though you should be able to find them if you look lol) !

i would also say learn perspective early on. i have no tips for you here i am so sorry. i didn't and now it bites me in the ass, but there has to be a youtube tutorial for this out there that can help you AND me. same goes for color theory. quickly dropping my favorite van gogh quote of all time:

(quote is from a letter to his brother) just everyone needs the fundamentals first. don't worry about a personal style: that just comes naturally as you develop as an artist, and i was certainly inspired by a lot of the things i watched/consumed and artists i admired which absolutely shows in my work i think (manet. western comics. fma. avatar. pjo fanart. there are tells. you know how it is.)

also flip your canvas !!! like see below ... frankly this marcille is so lopsided (her entire face should shift to the left) LOL !! flipping horizontally makes the anatomy mistakes obvious, and shows you you what you need to fix. i should never have posted this as is but sometimes it works for humor and an artist is lazy </3

AND ALWAYS USE REFERENCES WHEN YOU CAN!! i should use more references tbh!!! it helps with posing, getting anatomy correct, etc, and my friends use pinterest a lot, though i tend to just google when i need to LOLLL

also draw what you like. there is genuinely nothing that is better for your art than getting into something REALLY BAD and then non stop drawing it. time + practice will lead to improvement no matter what the subject is!

i hope this was not too much information all at once !!! and some of it is helpful!!! it's a lot of basic improvement tips that i try to practice and use when i can :) so sorry that this got so long!!!!

#everyone and their mother is doing leyendecker studies like i should do one too #i would also kind of say 'find out how you like to draw'#i feel like lots of artists start by thinking you have to be able to do perfect realism but its not necessarily true #realism ofc helps. like ive said. its the foundation to start and it's good to know proportions and such #but if you realise you like to paint more like a impressionist than a preraphaelite . then its fine! just keep creating!#textposts that are like 'you should be creating for yourself and possibly 5 others who are into the same niche shit as you'#its true!!!!!!!!#this is actually so rambly. if this is not what you meant please let me know #i am also still learning and trying to get better. grind never stops. the only grind im happy to keep going at #answered #anon #also ok not sure also if there are manet tells . like there honestly arent but still. his art changed me.#ok goodnight. i shouldnt be awake. best of luck anon :)

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midnightrings · 8 days

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So after Tumblr finally allowed me to post my recent santhony gifset, I want to take a moment to give myself a short pat on the shoulder here and celebrate my gif-making process^^

I always wanted to learn how to make gifs, but I just never had the patience nor a good program to work with. A bit more than a year ago, I saw a post mentioning photopea as a great alternative to photoshop – and as I always wanted to create gifs, I decided to look up some tutorials on how to make gifs with photopea. My first attempts weren’t that great, but I’m glad that I still chose to share most of my gifs - because now I can look back at them and see the process I made, plus I still received a lot of love on my older gifs.

At the same time, I started watching Bridgerton – and as I became obsessed with that show, I used it to practice my gifmaking skills.

Recently, I saw someone like a gifset I made of that scene where Anthony asks Siena to go to the ball with him. When I first started creating gifs, I often made several gifsets in one day and then just scheduled them – which meant that by the time I opened photopea again, I basically forgot how everything worked lol. But the past months I’ve made gifs more regularly and as I felt that I’ve definitely improved, I thought I could redo that santhony gifset again.

So here’s the same shot from my first attempt a year ago, and below my most recent gif.

I really love how smooth the new one looks. I’ve never been a fan of grainy gifs, but I often had to use a noise-filter to make the quality appear somewhat better. I’m glad I found a way to make them look less pixelated but not super grainy either.

Also adore the difference in coloring. The second one looks way richer and warmer. I’m not sure whether I even colored the first gif tbh. I was super careful with coloring and lighting in the beginning, because I didn’t want the gifs to look too saturated. And making them too bright usually just showed how awful the quality was lol

So yeah, I’m really happy with the process I made. Also, I feel like learning to create gifs made me appreciate gif-makers more. I mean, I was always impressed by it, but I also always assumed that once they learned how to do it, it must be quite easy – now I know that every gifset is its own struggle lmao

So that’s also a good reminder to always show support to your favorite gifmakers (and gifmakers in general, of course). And if anyone read all that and also always wanted to make gifs: just give it a shot and keep practicing. I’m so glad I gave this a try – not only because I always wanted to, but also because this is just so much fun :D

#at this point i just want to gif *everything*#i know my 15-year-old self would be so happy i can make gifs now :D

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fishboneart · 1 month

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Fishbone #005

They weren't kidding, that history can rhyme

Only 9 layers and 5 source images this time. Things don't always have to be a federal fucking issue.

With how much ai art wank discourse is rooted in purity politics, especially but not exclusively on tumblr, I was amused by the mental image of slipping into a hazmat suit before venturing into the dangerous and repulsive wasteland of ai art to retrieve alien salvage like the stalkers in Roadside Picnic. It doesn't feel like that, it feels like being a grabby little corvid in the shiny trinket factory, but I still enjoyed the concept.

The rest of the image is about art as alchemical process and I'm not going to explain it.

I've been observing for some time that the objections to ai art are indistinguishable from the objections to photoshop ~20-25 years ago (including the one about "it's different this time bro trust me") so I want to look at some of them a bit closer.

It's not real art

Stop getting your talking points from fascists.

But-

I don't care how you justify it, it's a fascist talking point. Stop.

It's stealing

At risk of resurrecting stupid bullshit I was already bored with 20 years ago, I honestly think there's a better case for this regarding PS than machine learning. PS artists actually do use elements from existing images, lots of them (ideally with permission/license). However, consensus opinion has long since concurred that PS artists substantially transform and recontextualise those elements and the result is an original creation, same as physical collage.

As I've come to understand it, ML doesn't use elements from existing images, just mathematical descriptions of image attributes. It doesn't incorporate images on any level, or even pieces of images, so I'm left wondering what's being stolen here? I'm not being shitty I genuinely can't see anymore what is stolen when ML simply does not use any part of any existing image to generate an image.

There's no skill/creativity involved

The first time I ever used adobe photoshop (I've long since switched to GIMP, change the name, FOSS 5evar, etc.) I spent about fifteen minutes excitedly stacking filters on a picture of a butterfly, before the person showing me how it worked dismissively explained that filters don't make art.

Elements and principles of design are learned skills. They're taught at art school because they're not innate and they're important as hell. I often feel like people are tacitly arguing all that stuff's just padding--and if you're staunchly anti-ai-art I promise that's not an argument you want to make, it will backfire spectacularly on you.

And yeah, I think everyone still agrees that just piling filters on a photo isn't very creative and takes no particular skill. I doubt anyone thinks instagram filters take a good photo for you. I think (or hope) that we all understand now that complex image editing and manipulation does in fact take skill and creativity.

I can't help but wonder how much of the vapid trash we're seeing in the explosion of ai art is the equivalent of the 2000s explosion of shitty filtered photos.

The computer does it for you

There's so much more to PS art than filters, and the computer emphatically does not do any of that stuff for you. It doesn't do composition or colour theory or concepts or art history for you. It just does what you tell it to, you still have to make the art good. Fishbone #001 involved manually isolating dozens of fucked up hands from ML images, and I complained about it the entire time and the computer didn't even get me a cup of tea.

A lot of people used to actually genuinely believe that photoshop was a magical plagiarism machine that you stuck stolen art in and it automatically made perfect composites for you. Probably some people still do, it's a big world. But it never was true, no matter how hard they believed it.

Is there more to ML image generation? Idk I'd have to try it to find out for sure and I'm very tired. But the more I learn about it the more I think there could be. The frequency with which I see very elaborate and specific prompts with garbled and all-but-irrelevant images does at least suggest that the magical ease of making ai art has been somewhat oversold.

Using it in any way is cheating/cheapens your art

I think the cheating idea mostly came from the photography community, who thought PS was a shortcut to better photos for undisciplined talentless hacks who couldn't be bothered to learn to take a good photo. The irony. But for me, since I wasn't using it to improve photos, this was such a weird take. Cheating at what? At photoshop art? I'm cheating at photoshop by... using photoshop?

And the idea that using PS at any stage in your process irredeemably sullies your art is just stupid on its face. It's not radioactive. It's not a PFAS. Sin isn't real. Santa isn't putting you on the naughty list for photoshopping. The Galactic Council of Artistic Integrity aren't checking for pixels.

Needless to say, since 100% of the source images I use in this project are ML generated, I also think it's a bit of a silly objection to ML image generation.

It has no soul

I am not and have never been christian. I do not and will never care what your imaginary friend thinks about art.

Also, this is a repackaged fascist talking point. I told you to stop that.

It sucks

Most of everything sucks, what's your point?

People are going to lose their jobs

Unfortunately this one had some connection to reality. By about 2010 there were almost no painted book covers, and painters who'd made their living from them were forced to adopt PS or find a different job. It wasn't just book covers of course, commercial artists across the board felt the pinch of automation. That's not exactly PS's fault, the parasitic owning class will simply take any opportunity to fuck over a worker for half a buck, and PS art is generally cheaper because it's generally faster to make.

I actually have some questions about how this will play out with ML though. Currently, yes, it's looking very much like in ten years there won't be any PS book covers any more, but I think the parasitic owning class are going to quickly remember they don't actually want art that they can't hold copyright over, and human artists will remain necessary. No one wants a logo they can't trademark. No one wants commercial art if they can't control the licensing. I don't even think it'll take a wholeass test case, just a few things like selfpub novels using the same cover image as a major release or folks using pure ML images from the big stock sellers without paying, and as soon as they realise they can't sue anyone about it they'll come crawling back, cap in hand, to hire you back as a contractor at an insultingly low rate.

People will lose their jobs or find their billable hours severely cut, but, unfortunately, as the brave Luddites showed us, you can't stop automation by fighting the machine, no matter how noble your motives. You need to actually change society somewhat.

But I think this should be enough of a concern without having to also make shit up. You can just object to ML on the basis of tangible harms it will be used to inflict on individuals and society. That's plenty to be mad about, you don't need to put lipstick on it.

It's different this time bro trust me bro

Plenty of people sincerely believed that rise of PS was fully automated skill-free art theft and the sky was falling, and pointing out that all the same things were said about the invention of everything from the photocopier to home video to the printing press to the camera didn't even slow them down because this time it's different, this time it really is that bad. It wasn't.

And I honestly don't know anymore if it is.

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