Icarus’ Art Sector

Everyone yelling “AI art isn’t real art!” seems to believe they’ve cracked some universal truth — that anything made with a tool must be effortless and brainless.

But here’s my question: who actually told you that prompt + click = result?

Was it Midjourney’s Discord thumbnail at 512x512?

Was it some meme of a soulless cyborg churning out anime faces?

Or was it your own lack of experience masquerading as a hot take?

Because let me walk you through a basic “click to result” StableDiffusion flow:

First, you invent a scene. You visualize the lighting, expression, tension, texture, story — a full-blown internal composition.

Then, you write the prompt. Oh, and not just one. You write 30. And you tune them. And you test what each word actually does.

You get a “draft”? Congrats. Now you start fixing: Inpainting the face that melted like a crayon. Outpainting the background that doesn’t match your story. Rebuilding the pose because the character has 3 elbows and no spine.

Then upscale? Oops, it ruined the eyes. Fix again.

Then composition shifts? Fix again.

Then color grading? Details? Harmony? Fix. Again. And again.

Until the scene feels right — not perfect, but alive.

Now tell me… what part of this was “just clicking”?

This isn’t about “soulless machines.”

This is about people who think effort = brushstrokes and nothing else.

People who think their suffering is what makes their art real.

And people who refuse to acknowledge that creativity can live beyond the tools they were taught in college.

❝Creativity is not a medium. It’s not a job title. It’s not your suffering. It’s the ability to turn a vague feeling into something you can share — and that doesn’t go away just because you used a model.❞

So tell me again —

The problem isn't with your imagination, it's with the fact that ai generated images aren't original, not truly. They pick and choose creations from other people without their knowledge or consent (and often against their wishes), then collages them together, then mislabels it as "original art," when it's actually plagiarism and theft. There are dozens of other ways for you to express your imagined scene or character that don't involve theft and actually encourage human artists rather than soulless machines (for characters, you can use picrew, gacha, etc).

The main reason artists are in an uproar is because we're basically powerless to stop these algorithms and machines from taking our hard work (that often takes hours, days, weeks, and sometimes months or years to complete), desecrating it and making it into something it was never intended to be, and then claiming that this fake brain machine made an original creation.

You can come up with a beautiful idea in your mind, but in the end it's not you or the machine who made it, it's the people who did actual art before that point in time. You can tell the website or app how to change details on the work to fit your ideas better, but you can never claim that you made it all on your own and that it's 100% an original work. It will always be influenced by the hands of those who did the work and then had it stolen from them. The algorithm ai uses can't actually create something like a human can; it can only ever use what it finds online and then twist it to squish it into the mold of your prompt. Ultimately, no matter how involved in the process you are, you're still reliant upon someone else to do it for you. There's nothing wrong with not being an artist or designer with the ability to create this perfect art of your dreams. The problem comes when, instead of asking someone with those skills to do it for you and then giving them credit, you tell a machine to cut and paste fragments of stolen art that people poured their souls into, and then say it's just as good, just as thought out, just as meaningful, just as skilled, as people who have spend years, even decades, learning and improving those skills.

Not to mention, generative AI is TERRIBLE for the environment and is actively causing problems with the water supply in the poorer neighborhoods where these ai plants are being built. Instead of endorsing an actual artist, ai not only steals work and credit, but also the basic human right to water. Ai is poisoning our planet. We've lived this long without it, we absolutely can and should continue to survive without it.

Beethoven went deaf before he wrote one of his best known symphonies. Monet was color blind. Van Gogh had mental health issues and addiction problems. John Bramblitt is blind and still creates gorgeous paintings that sell around the world today. Frida Khalo was bed bound and had chronic pain. Sarah Biffin HAD NO ARMS and had only vestigial legs, lived in the 17th century, AND SHE PAINTED WITH HER MOUTH INSTEAD OF GIVING UP. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THE HUMAN SPIRIT IS - DETERMINATION TO DO IT OURSELVES AND TEACH OURSELVES WHATEVER SKILLS WE NEED TO ACHIEVE OUR GOALS AND DREAMS. Often the biggest obstacle to not being able to do some skill or have some specific talent is your own belief that you can't do it, and thus won't actually give the time, patience, blood, sweat, and tears it takes to gain that skill. Our technology has made us so impatient that we often won't bother learning or doing something if it'll take more than an hour or two.

In short -

1) generative AI is theft, it steals art and credit

2) it demeans artists who have spent years honking their skill and cheapens their blood, sweat, & tears

3) it's soulless and can't ever be truly original

4) it's horrible for the environment and for the people who live near the plants for these servers and machines

5) ART CAN BE LEARNED, YES IT TAKES A LONG TIME, BUT EVEN A STICK FIGURE IS BETTER THAN WHATEVER MOCKERY OF HUMAN CREATIVITY A MACHINE SLAPS TOGETHER IN AN INSTANT

Final note - if I see someone advertising a product with ai, I immediately assume it's cheap and not worth my time. If a business can't bother to hire an actual graphic designer, then they can't afford to make a good quality product, and I will not even consider buying it.

AI GENERATED IMAGES CHEAPEN HUMAN CREATIVITY AND SOUL.

thank you for coming to my TedTalk, here is a really good skit made by a real person named Miranda Mars that really helps: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8DKuYeC/

I am currently going through a rather difficult period in my life, and I would be lying if I said that it was not caused by the spread of AI among the masses. I'm really scared of AI. Every time I come across products made with artificial intelligence, I catch myself thinking that the end of the living world has come. Any media - whether it's videos, pictures, photos (can this word even be applied to AI?), images on products... It scares me how easy it is now to replace a human being with a soulless algorithm that has been trained on the tears of artists, animators, and creators! The internet scares me because it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell the truth from the lies with the spread of this damn AI. But I've strayed from the topic.

Do you want to create/drawing? Well, learn how to draw! Especially if you can already picture in your head what the result should be. After all, the value of art lies in the creation, in the process, in the soul that you put into the drawing. Is it hard? Yes! Creativity and drawing are hard! BUT that makes them more valuable!

So it's better to pick up a pencil and start drawing yourself than to defend AI, which steals from others and kills creativity and soul wherever it can reach.

Anyway check out what I found on Twitter

I have a new WIP!

I can’t show it yet because I don’t know if the person it’s meant for is on this platform, but when it’s done, it’s gonna be awesome

It’s going to be my first bit of Gwain Saga fan art!

[he demonstrate his breathing to Tenna, taking slow, deep breaths]

Once you've calmed down a bit, tell me about what happened.

[He pulls up a chair and waits patiently for Tenna to calm down]

I'm here to listen when you're ready.

[ * He breathes deeply. ]

i just- they were- i saw- my arms-

[ * He inhales again. ]

They were too loud, it was t-too much.. i shouldn’t of let them get under my skin but I- UGGHHH!!

Tenna. Hey. Look at me. I understand. I do. And I'm so sorry they hurt you like that. That never should have happened.

[I turn to Ramb] could you please go get him his favorite warm drink? Non-alcoholic.

[I turn back to Tenna]

Ok. You've got it.

[I give him a warm smile]