Illustrations and AI

Today I had a juxtoposition of two challenges. On the one hand I needed to create imagery for a project I’m working on.

I turned to AI generation to conjur up imagery, partially for the intended sake of speed, and partially because what I want is hard to find in stock footage. A few hours later and I had a passable solution that we can ship.

It struck me that I spent hours fiddling with prompts to try and squeeze just the right juice out of a dry lemon. It worked, but barely.

Then, in the evening I worked on some quick hand drawn sketches for an idea I’ve had. I wanted to try something that required visuals, but without stock footage and definitely without AI.

The result makes me so happy. It’s messy, I could easily have spent days instead of hours, but it’s a usable solution that solves the problem I need.

Though I’m guessing AI will get better at illustration, stock footage, and the like, I find it has no taste. It doesn’t know the story that you’re trying to tell, and just throws 0s and 1s at the problem until someone with taste and discernment (if you’re lucky) squeezes out something that kind of works.

Illustration, done by hand, is similar. You look at a bunch of ideas, and create something inspired by what came before. If you’re good at it you are working off a theme, building up a style, and identifying the story that pulls the separate pieces together.

I just don’t know if that’s something AI can do, or if I’d want it to.

Much like I could ask AI to write this up, I just don’t see the point (and I just wouldn’t do that). I find joy in the creating, and the hopeful storytelling.