garyjsmith

Just thinking out loud here about something that’s been on my mind. DeviantArt has its own built-in AI generator and the galleries are filling up with pieces made in seconds. It’s strange to watch. I actually like AI as a tool. It can spark ideas and get you past a block, or even provide ideas for thumbnails. That part feels exciting. Most of us spent years being honestly mediocre: posting clumsy studies, redrawing the same hand fifty times, learning slowly through every failed piece. That long, humble stretch is where taste develops, where you start to see what matters. A prompt can’t give you that. It can imitate the end result, but it skips the part where you become the kind of person capable of making meaningful choices. I’m not saying AI work has no place at all. I’m just noticing how its presence changes what we value in a gallery. When perfection arrives instantly, the slow, imperfect human journey can start to feel less visible, less celebrated. To everyone still drawing