I told my buddy his AI art generator was killing his creativity and he clapped back hard

Last week my friend Mike showed me some images he made with Midjourney for his indie game concept art. I kinda rolled my eyes and said he was cheating himself out of real skill development. But then he pulled up his sketchbook from 2 years ago and showed me how he used the AI to iterate on his own rough drawings way faster. He said it was like having a brainstorming partner that never got tired. He admitted he still draws but uses the AI to fill gaps in his technique and try color palettes he would never think of. That hit different because I realized I was treating it like a replacement instead of a tool. Has anyone else had to eat their words about AI in creative work after seeing how someone actually uses it?

3 comments

3 Comments

river_hart1822d ago

Gagged a little when you said "brainstorming partner that never got tired" because that's honestly the best way I've ever heard AI art described. It really does shift the whole argument when you realize people use it to level up their own sketching speed instead of just typing prompts.

paige87022d ago

Saw my buddy use it to nail down character poses he always struggled with!

jamesmason22d ago

And I totally get that, because I had the same breakthrough with hands (which are notoriously the worst). I used to spend like 30 minutes erasing and redrawing the same grip pose over and over. But once I started throwing a quick rough sketch into an AI just to see how the fingers should actually bend, it cut my frustration time way down. It finally clicked for me when I treated it like a digital reference photo, not a final piece.