Compared my old digital painting flow to an AI-assisted workflow in 3 days

I spent last week going back and forth between my usual Procreate process and an AI tool for a client gig in Seattle. The AI version got me a rough concept in 20 minutes, but I had to fix so many anatomy issues it took me 2 hours anyway. My hand-drawn sketch took 3 hours total, but I actually knew where every line was going. Anyone else find that AI helps more with backgrounds than characters, or is it just me?

2 comments

2 Comments

sammartinez3d ago

Wait, are we all just secretly using AI to make grass and trees look good while our hands turn into spaghetti monsters? Yeah, totally with you on that. The background stuff it spits out is almost usable, but the moment you need a face or a hand that doesn't look like a melted candle, it's back to square one. I had a character with three elbows last week and I swear I spent more time fixing that thing than if I'd just drawn it blindfolded. Honestly, at this point I'm just using AI to make moss and cobblestones, and I'm fine admitting that's where I'm at.

brooket433d ago

You get it. The three elbows thing made me laugh because I've been there with extra fingers, just floating around like they're trying to escape the hand. I swear the AI thinks joints are optional. But for real, using it for moss and cobblestones is a smart move. Background textures don't need anatomy, so they actually work. Every time I try to push it past that, I end up spending two hours in the clone stamp tool, wondering why I didn't just start from scratch. It's a decent helper for the boring stuff, but that's where I draw the line too. Your mileage may vary, but I think we've all landed on the same dirty little secret.