As we have previously mentioned, Hatelabo: Anonymous Diary is an anonymous blog where Japanese users can share opinions and receive feedback about it. Let's say it's like Twitter, but completely anonymous. Recently, on a popular comment forum in Japan, a peculiar post was shared in which a subject narrated his transition from being a client of illustration artists to being a user of an image-generating AI :
- « Conclusion: My need to use Skeb has disappeared. I am someone who has been commissioning illustrations at Skeb since around 2021. I would set a monthly budget to use at Skeb and ask for 1-3 commissions each month, or up to 5-10 commissions when I was getting more money at work. The reason I did commissions at Skeb was simply because I wanted an illustration of some artist I was a fan of. Also because I was excited by the idea of having drawings of my favorite characters made exclusively for me. There were many times when my applications were rejected or neglected, and sometimes they accepted my applications but rejected them after the deadline ».
- « And around the fall of last year, when NovelAI became a topic of interest and there was a lot of buzz on social networks about AI images coming out and filling the catalogs of Pixiv and other platforms. On the anniversary of my Twitter account I was still an AI denier and I still had the idea that the most valuable thing was what was done by hand by an illustrator, but in reality I was starting to get interested in the work done by AIs, both I started using them secretly. At first I was a mess, with weird fingers and three arms, but over time, little by little I was able to produce the image I wanted ."
- « There has been a lot of talk on social networks about annoying users who alter photos and illustrations with some programs, but now you can generate high-quality illustrations without doing this. And now an artificial intelligence image production environment has been built in your local environment and can produce 500 illustrations every day and more than 2,000 on weekends and holidays ».
- « Quite frankly, AI artwork is a revolution. As a consumer of illustrations, I can only say that it is a revolution. Whereas before you had to order from SKEB, pay a fair amount of money, and still be lucky the artist did it, now you have an endless supply of girl illustrations of your choice every day . If you have an illustration idea that you want, you offer money to someone who can draw it. Depending on the artist, you might get a positive or negative response. And then you have to wait without knowing if they are going to deliver it to you.You can't even complain when the deadline is over, since the artist will put any excuse and show you the progress saying that “it was more complicated than I thought”, taking advantage of the fact that you don't know about drawing » .
- « SKEB rules put the client who puts the money at a disadvantage. But AI-powered artwork is virtually free as long as you take care of training it. An illustration will appear in just twenty seconds, and you can make unlimited versions of it until you get the expected result. I myself take care of making the scenarios in another request. Now it is the customer who has the advantage. Even as I write this, the AI is making alert noises and generating illustrations of my favorite anime girls one after another ."
- « Last time I looked at SKEB after a while, all the new creator artwork lined up on the front page looked a lot alike. Last year I would have been excited to see the new illustrations and hire some artist for a commission. Now what I think is all the money that I paid in this, or even that the fund does not convince me and that it could be changed in seconds, that for something like that I would have paid like ten thousand yen. I had feelings similar to disappointment and discouragement ».
- « They say that all AI illustrations have the same style, but that is a lie. To be precise, the hand-drawn illustrations by the same artist are all the same. Successful popular artists converge on a similar pictorial style. And the AI illustrations are developing that style . The more the popular pictorial style of the moment is requested from the AIs, the more the AIs conform to this same style of drawing ».
- « These days I have been making illustrations with AI, while on Twitter I still praise the works of artists who insist that handmade illustrations “are better” and that “AIs are a threat”. I saw that artist doing commissions for SKEB and being unusually hostile towards image-generating AIs, I didn't know what to feel so I decided he hadn't seen anything. These types of artists are the ones who feel diminished by AI, and prefer to complain rather than improve their techniques to offer something better than what AI offers ».
- « Handmade illustrations by artists have their own charm. It's like comparing homemade food to fast food. But as consumers, we want as many high-quality illustrations as possible. If they're expecting a home-cooked meal and there's no guarantee it'll be made, they buy a bowl of noodles at a convenience store. It is the ego of the client of illustrations. I understand it ».
- « What they say and what they do is diametrically opposed. But the customers are honest. Because it is comfortable. Because is cheap. Because it's fast. If I had unlimited income I would have continued with the commissions at SKEB, but unfortunately this is not the case. It's like a vegan eating meat on the sly. Spring is just beginning and this year I did not ask for any commission at SKEB for Valentine's Day or cherry blossom illustrations. I gave my parents a gift with the money that I now saved, they were very happy ».
Source: Yaraon!
