mmrempen's recent activity
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Comment on The Oatmeal: A cartoonist's review of AI art in ~comics
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Comment on The Oatmeal: A cartoonist's review of AI art in ~comics
mmrempen LinkI’m also a cartoonist and illustrator by profession, and though I’m happy the Oatmeal is speaking up, and I personally feel exactly the same way he does about AI, I think his argument is...- Exemplary
I’m also a cartoonist and illustrator by profession, and though I’m happy the Oatmeal is speaking up, and I personally feel exactly the same way he does about AI, I think his argument is conflating “art” and “imagery” and I think most people make the same mistake when arguing about this subject. As a result a lot of these takes are not really going anywhere.
Here’s my take, for whatever it’s worth. “Art” is something important, something we feel. It’s Christina’s World. Imagery is just a picture of something. Sometimes they are one and the same, and this is why we so often conflate them. But imagery doesn’t HAVE to be art. It just needs to be a picture to fill a space. I think there are corporate logos that are works of art. But they don’t have to be. At the end of the day, a logo just needs to be recognizable. Art museums, however, DO need to be filled with art, because the whole point is to look at what someone else thinks is important and full of feeling. This could be an exhibit on corporate logos. Either way, the context matters.
Until now, basically the only way to get imagery was to hire an artist or illustrator. Because we in the modern age have such a massive demand for imagery - we need logos and clipart and banners and flyers and ads ads ads ads and tabletop games and comic books and newsletters and memes and the background art for animated TV shows - artists and illustrators like me and the Oatmeal have had it pretty sweet. If you, person who can’t draw, need a drawing for your card game ripoff of Uno, you need to pay me, person who can draw a bit better than you, to get it. You could also hire a photographer to make photos for the cards instead, though. Or even just put some flat colors (like Uno). You don’t NEED “art.” You need imagery so that the cards aren’t otherwise blank.
But now you can just generate images. This is a godsend for people who need imagery and don’t actually need art. The people making the thing can decide whether they want art or not, but for the people who don’t, they now have a viable option.
And here’s why AI art is here to stay despite most people disliking it: for imagery, MOST PEOPLE DON’T CARE. That includes me! And probably you. If I see an ad for a monster truck rodeo, something I have no interest in, how much do I care whether there was a human artist involved? Same goes for musical jingles for canned ravioli, or flyers for a BBQ, or memes about AI art. I’m happy to see when something is drawn, I like cool drawings. But if it’s not a cool drawing, I don’t care. It’s not a comic book. It’s just imagery. And even comic books - my son reads Donald Duck comics. Those artists are all just copying the same Disney style that’s been reused for decades. How much does he care whether that imagery is drawn by people or generated? How much do I care? It’s not Calvin and Hobbes. It’s yet another Donald Duck comic. It’s imagery.
At the end of the day, most people just don’t care whether something that isn’t “art” is made by an artist. It’s just that until now there was not really any other option. The background art for the TV show in the comic is the perfect example. It’s an amazing work of art. But most people would consume the show anyway even if it wasn’t.
So I predict that art won’t go away, and AI imagery won’t go away. I predict there will still be a demand for artists and illustrators. But that demand will crater, like the demand for oil painters for family portraits and live bands for events. Some things just don’t need to be made by artists. Speaking as the artist, it sure was nice for us while they did, though!
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Comment on Looking for a simple lists app in ~tech
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Comment on Looking for a simple lists app in ~tech
mmrempen LinkI use Workflowy and can highly recommend it. It’s extremely minimalistic (speaking as a fellow easily distractable and annoyable goblin brain), it has infinite nesting, a drag and drop UI (or easy...I use Workflowy and can highly recommend it. It’s extremely minimalistic (speaking as a fellow easily distractable and annoyable goblin brain), it has infinite nesting, a drag and drop UI (or easy keyboard controls if you prefer that), the lists can look like a simple list or kanban board (including nested inside each other), and it has other features like tags and such that I never need but which I’m sure are useful. It works great on mobile and desktop (including in-browser if you find yourself on a foreign computer) and syncs across everything. I used to use the apple notes app but Workflowy is my life now.
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Comment on Are there any of you living off of creating original art? in ~creative
mmrempen LinkI'm a self-employed cartoonist and game designer. I publish a weekly web comic which I've done since 2011, and in 2020 it was picked up by an app for publication, and now they pay me for each...- Exemplary
I'm a self-employed cartoonist and game designer. I publish a weekly web comic which I've done since 2011, and in 2020 it was picked up by an app for publication, and now they pay me for each strip I post. It's not crazy money but it's one revenue stream. My other major revenue stream is self-published tabletop games. In 2017, on a lark, I crowdfunded a card game based on my web comic on Kickstarter, and it was surprisingly successful. I've made a few more games, all illustrated, designed or co-designed, and published by me, all crowdfunded on Kickstarter, and I've since quit my job to focus on that full time. I don't know what your definition of art is, but if board games and illustration for them counts, then I guess I do make a living off my own creative endeavours, directly to an audience of fans. I'm my own boss.
But here's the first caveat: I wouldn't call it "uncompromising." I wear multiple hats, as a publisher, designer, illustrator, graphic designer, marketer, logistics manager, product developer, etc etc etc, and each of those roles are in communication with the other roles, so it's a give and take. There are compromises at every step of the way. My creative ideas are always being scrutinized by my publisher self, and vice versa. I do have a lot of freedom and I do only publish things I'm happy with, but my bar for satisfaction is not "great art," it's "a thing people will get excited about and buy and play and enjoy." Personally I quite like this about it; I find it much easier to be creative within those restrictions and requirements than having complete freedom to do absolutely anything and no external metric for success.
The second caveat is, comics and games were never my dream or passion. I always wanted to be a film director, since I was a kid. I went to film school, I lived and worked in and around the film industry my entire life - until the comic started getting a somewhat serious following that eclipsed my film work, and especially after it started making me more money than my film work ever did. I love working in comics and games now, don't get me wrong - the industry is kinder, the stakes are lower, the pond is smaller and easier to be a big fish in - but it was entirely unexpected. I started the comic as a small thing for friends and family to read, and I published the game expecting to print 100 copies and that would be it. Instead, I got a bit of luck, and I took the chance to turn that luck into something more steady. In doing so, I effectively closed off the route to my true lifelong passion.
So it's worth thinking of creative work like lightning rods: you want lightning to strike, so the more rods you put up into the air, the better chance you'll have. If you work really really hard on a single rod, the chances are lower than if you spend the same amount of time putting out many different rods. This is why in my experience, more prolific creators are more successful, and also why quality =/= success. But of course there's always the chance that NONE of them will be struck, and that's just the way it goes! And then, even if lightning does strike, you've got to be able to actually run a business, as well, which has vanishingly little to do with artistic craft and almost everything to do with understanding the marketplace. And even THEN, you've got to keep putting up rods. It's a neverending struggle to get hit again and again and again.
But it's possible, and I gotta say, I wouldn't give it up for the world. Every day I'm grateful that I get to go down to my at-home office to draw my weird little drawings and dream up ways for people to play games. I'm living the dream :)
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Comment on An Israeli and a Palestinian discuss 7 October, Gaza – and the future in ~society
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Comment on Which board games have you been playing? (to 24th July) in ~games.tabletop
mmrempen LinkThis week was a family get together in the mountains, and as usual it fell to me to bring the games. I brought a bunch, mentally preparing for none of them to get played - and all but one did!...This week was a family get together in the mountains, and as usual it fell to me to bring the games. I brought a bunch, mentally preparing for none of them to get played - and all but one did! Thanks, rain.
The only one I hadn’t played before was Ra, the new 25th Century Games edition of which was brought over by my brother from the US. It’s SUCH an amazing production. I especially like Ian O’Toole’s use of vibrant blues and turquoise in the artwork. So many ancient Egypt themed games just go with bland beige. This is the first one that looks like how hieroglyphics must have actually been painted. Or at least, how they were in my head! And of course the game is an absolute banger, but everyone knows that. Modern Art is one of my favs so I had a feeling this would be a winner as well. It was the only game my family requested playing multiple times.
Others were Star Wars: Outer Rim (fun but I really need to get that expansion to ease some of its rough edges. Just can’t find it here in the EU right now!) and Pan Am (picked this up at UKGE this year, my mom worked for Pan Am toward the end of their reign and, as I was hoping, she had many fascinating anecdotes to share during our game. The game itself is pretty good, a nice TTR replacement, if punishing at 4 players with so few actions and so many opportunities for other players to waste yours). Lighter games that hit the table were Fantasy Realms, Cockroach Poker and Cat Crimes. All solid light family winners.
The only one that didn’t see table time was The Quiet Year, which I’ve not tried but I’m very curious about. We didn’t find the time. Maybe later this week…
No shade to Carl. What I meant was, how many people will care if tomorrow’s edition of Donald Duck comics are drawn by actual artists in Carl’s style, or AI in Carl’s style?