LeadPoisonArt Update

You may have noticed some of the art is somewhat different in this month's art term offerings. I had somewhat addressed what I've been up to in the Lair channel but never gotten to my conclusion after only a few weeks in familiarizing myself with AI tools. The best ethical way I could think of to move forward is to declare with transparency how much I did vs the machine with each image. In the first rip, I was mad with power and ultimately made some Supergirl compositions with paint quality that I felt was above my current skill level. With that, I did challenge myself to redo the face, hands and other areas to match it with human lines and paint strokes as best as I could. The feedback I received actually wished it was closer to my personal style which I processed before moving forward.

With Black Cat, I had already drawn all the figures and colored most of it before feeding it into AI. It broke some things while improving others, but with some experimentation, I redid the piece that resulted in a heavily human drawn picture with digital color assist.

The last exercise was to make an entirely new Starfire art with my lines and colors like I have been this summer for her image folder. I wanted the style to match, so I used AI for lighting reference while my human hand made every pixel a viewer would see (background excluded). To my astonishment, I discovered I had already leveled up in artistic skill by spending all that time trying to paint match on the pieces before!

I actually still love the drawing process and hope to have the opportunity to do it for years to come, however after weighing the pros and cons, using it as a tool to install some afterburners in the content creation process just seems like the way to go. To accomplish some of things that I'd like to create, I'd either have to hire some employees or explore this emerging tech that I could harness rather than hurt me.

You all have trusted me for over 10 years as a content creator and I have no intention of betraying that, which is why I think it's important to address this. As always, thanks for your support, and I'll be getting back to some art rewards while reserving some time to revisit something horror-themed for Halloween.

Catchya in the Lair,

-Lead