AI Clipart: Let's have some fun!
After my last foray into an AI art discussion in my Facebook group, you'd think I'd leave the topic be. LOL. But that's not me. I love to talk about current events, even better if it's related to art and technology. And honestly? I really want to use AI art myself so I wanted to clear up a few things before proceeding and showering you with cute AI animal clipart - a freebie.
OH my! This makes me giggle!
But first the bit that some may find upsetting... let's just put it out there. The ethics stuff. I've been an artist for many years and I've made a ton of art, some uploaded to DeviantArt, some on Dribbble, Behance, my own sites. A bunch of my art was taken without my consent to train AI systems. I'm not OK with the taking without asking. You know how you feel when you find your designs in a dump group? It feels like that. That's theft and artists are 100% allowed to be annoyed and upset about the non-consensual use of their art. And even to sue the AI developers if they want. I fully support them in this. HOWEVER (and this is the important bit), if these AI systems ever have an opt-in option for artists and give them a choice, then I will definitely opt in and allow my art to be used. And so will many of my fellow illustrators! We love progress too, especially art progress and new tools to play with. I'm old enough to remember when digital painting became a thing and people were up in arms about that too. We all adapt and progress. This is a good thing. I simply wish artists were given a choice to opt in or not. Saying this doesn't make me anti AI art. And it's not a judgement on anyone who uses AI art. I am going to use it too! I hope that's all clear and positive, yes?
Let's also talk about copyright. Right now, in the US at least, courts have ruled that AI art is not eligible for copyright. If a human didn't create it, it won't be eligible for copyright (great article here). But, the good news is that most of us creating designs are not going to be using that AI art as is. We're making designs out of it and adding in our own elements, colors, lines, etc. We are making it our own. Or we are taking that AI clipart and using it as part of a design. And that is eligible for copyright protection, for now at least. Many things about AI art is before the courts so who knows where we will be next year or in five years. But it seems safe enough to use right now and that makes many of us happy.
Like many of you, I've been playing around with AI art for a few months and I've tried most of the AI art systems. Right now, I am using Midjourney on a private Discord server. This seems to be the best one for the moment and provides the nicest art. BUT it's not perfect! For every image I generate (4 per text prompt), at least two of them are worthless, often 3 or 4. AI art tends to do weird things right now - you'll get 10 fingers on a hand or an arm that's backwards or hair that morphs into a shirt. It's a bit weird and often really funny - that cowboy makes me giggle! As the technology improves, I'm sure that will change. But it takes a little getting used to to get what you want. And you sometimes have to fix things up!
So close! Short a few legs but still cute!
Now that that's all out of the way and I have hopefully cleared up a few things - here is some AI stuff you might be interested in - A FREE set of AI clipart animals! I have removed backgrounds and adjusted color levels. In some cases, I've fixed a wonky eye or two and added flowers. If you use these commercially, please use them as part of a bigger design to make them your own. Added to the Jan-Mar2023 drive for drive members. I don't plan on making batches of AI clipart until the consent/copyright issue is a little more clear but I will occasionally offer up some freebies that I've edited.
Tip for drawing artists - generating AI art to use as a reference is amazing! This may be my favorite thing about it.
