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lobotomous

lobo = O. Bannon
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For over ten years, I have commissioned talented, hard-working artists from around the world. It has been my pleasure to be a patron of the arts. During my tenure as a commissioner, I have learned from the artists and I value their labour. I never had the ability to render design to visual art except through photomanipulation collage. My own creations are inherently amateur and the craft I practice is that of a hobby only.


It seems that other hobbyists such as myself have a penchant for vindictiveness within the art community. A lot of the "prompt stars" warring against real artists are thinly veiling the contempt they have always had for those with a talent that they lack - that I lack as well. Where I admire artists, these prompt stars loathe them, and it is all based in their own lack. A pathetic state of affairs and AI Art is not truly related to democratic values or technophilic zeal as many Wankensteins would have us believe. The debacle of AI Art is an outgrowth of the reckless laissez-faire capitalist and irresponsible liberal values of contemporary society.


And so, I now present a piece, "Wankenstein", to be added to the protest against AI art as an ubiquitous aspect of the visual art repository online and as a legitimate form of commercial art creation. My father has always said, "the more you do, the more you can do; and the less you do, the less you can do". He is a workaholic. I have been allowed to eat and sleep comfortably my whole life because of his hard work. I don't agree with everything about my father, but I can't knock him for working hard.


Wankensteins, or Prompt Stars, do not work hard and they don't want to work hard. They are symptomatic of our times. Perhaps, we need to be more blunt about what is at stake when we protest the degradation of societal values. The rise of illiteracy, activism, and apathy are a thundering juggernaut crushing the spirit of personality and good character. At the rate we are going, in two decades, almost all humans will be as useless as Wankensteins are today. AI will do all the work and humans will be dilletantes at best, and most often, hacks, in everything they do. It will be a Dystopian New Bad Futurescape. It is coming our way, fast and furious.


I hope to see the artists continuing the good fight against Wankensteins.

Wankenstein, or, The Modern Prompt Star
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I have noticed a horrifying trend in the past six months, both here at Deviantart and also at ArtStation. Real art is worse than it has ever been.


Since 2010, I have followed over 5000 artists and viewed over one million pieces of art each year. I would like to think that I have become decent at analyzing visual art.


AI generated art is looking so good sometimes - having a technical sheen and 'pureness' that almost no living human can re-produce. Perhaps, only a Warren Louw or Stanley Lau can really keep up with AI art. The real thing hindering AI art is the dilettantes creating it. Eventually, real engineers will take the work of those prompt stars and convert that data into the basis for a program that enables AI self-learning, and then the AI will create billions of images each day on their own and the machines will create only great looking images of the highest aesthetic quality. Prompt stars will be Finito Mussolini.


But to my point... real artists are resisting AI as a "tool", in fact they are protesting it actively. I can see why - the AI products are much higher quality. It is a sad state of affairs.


However, artists who I have followed for over a decade are still publishing art, yet it is their worst pieces by far. What's going on?!!


My theory is this: artists feel betrayed and terrified, however, they are also being pragmatic. They are producing the worst garbage in their portfolio since they started training and there is a good reason why - they want to use AI, but they want to feel it was a last resort for them.


They are intentionally, yet unconsciously, creating art pieces that are far below their skill level, and this will eventually lead them to embracing AI as a tool.


Sakimichan is already using AI as a tool whether that will be admitted by the artist, or not. Just look at the work in the past six months as compared with the last five years. The style clearly has the markings of AI "refinement". Personally, I think it looks terrible and trashy. Sakimichan use to have a rough-hewn aesthetic that was unique and endearing... and most of all, attractive. Now, the work looks like it is pandering to some "ideal" in the zeitgeist of prompt stars ffs.


I feel great sympathy for the artists and I am not here to berate them.


I guess the silver-lining is that in five years this will happen:


1) Real engineers will create self-learning programs for AI art generators that render prompt stars redundant,


2) Real artists will learn how to use AI as a "tool" without it diminishing their unique aesthetic style. It will be a learning process but those first pieces with the Ai tool will clearly be better than the last works without the AI (as I have written here, I believe this ruse or self-deception was intentional).


I would like to believe that in five years visual art will be a healthier and happier community than it is today. Today, it is at its lowest point since the Black Plague. I can't even use dA or AS anymore. It's a bad joke.

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Deviantart was founded by a nice guy named Matt Stephens. The site was created for graphic designers, specifically for the sharing of skins for media players on MySpace and related social media sites. Matt had some partners and they allowed the site to expand its mandate until all the pro comic artists were here and many digital painters and illustrators, as well as photographers had joined the active community.


However, Stephens and his partners sold the site. The new owners don't care about art and artists, and they are not artists themselves. They care about money. Almost all of the professional artists left this website starting in 2011 because amateurs were being very rude and presumptuous with the pros and it was intolerable and insulting to the pros. Deviantart owners did nothing to educate the amateurs on etiquette, decorum, and general appreciation of professional artists being in the community.


The owners wanted to maximize their profits and they discovered that letting tryhard amateurs overrun the site and gatekeep was the best way to make money because these lazy, amateur kids were all buying premium memberships as a means to gatekeep and gain status on the site. The MLP community was a huge burgeoning clique on dA during the mass exodus of pros and secured the attrition of the lowest common denominator on this website.


Eventually, dA has become the top amateur artist site while Artstation won a war of attrition with other sites such as CGHub as it took over as the top site for professionals. Now, dA owners recognize that the amateurs are turning to AI generators and fast becoming enamoured of their own creations which reflect no talent and virtually no original vision. These vainglorious amateurs will now spend more on premium memberships than ever before because they are deluded and believe that their AI creations are worth something monetarily. Additionally, they will spend on services through dA to create prints and such. dA owners will be making more money than ever before off of these dilletante AI "artists".


As such, dA owners have ZERO incentive to alienate their cash cow and instead will do as little as possible to protect "haptic art" or shame AI art. In ten years, visual art on planet Earth will be the same as music today - generic trash created slapdash using digital software by poorly-trained engineers who rarely practice yet petulantly claim a superior understanding of the craft. What a joke the world has become since 2000.


Don't agree? Change my mind...

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well the time is now and the :icondrawsumcircles: contest winners will be announced.

The prizes are awarded 100% based on the votes of the judges. (scroll down for vote breakdown)

co-winners
1st PRIZE of $100 goes to :iconquelico:
1st PRIZE of $100 goes to :iconjasonlanart:

Here are their entries

Mature Content

Tangled by quelico


Runner up PRIZE of $50 goes to :icontiwali:
Runner up PRIZE of $50 goes to :iconzine-r:
Runner up PRIZE of $50 goes to :iconskribblix:

Here are their entries

Floride by tiwali:thumb258799294::thumb255345945:

I have also taken the last allotment of $50 and decided to award two particular pieces with $25 prizes each.

Massifesto Special Prize of $25 goes to :icong-david:
Massifesto Special Prize of $25 goes to :iconstrickart:

Here are their entries

Reign by G-David Chainsaw Girl bg by strickart

(i will provide my rationale below)

Here are the judges

:icongenzoman::iconwhitehowler7::iconmichalivan::iconmancomb-seepwood::iconelgunto::iconketka::iconfrogbillgo::icondarkereve::iconbentanart::icondstpierre::iconelsevilla::iconpaulabrams::iconhungerartist::iconwaldemar-kazak::iconaleksandracupcake::iconshwann::iconqinni::iconcamifortuna::iconkidchuckle::icontakumy::icongrimphantom::iconraffaelemarinetti::iconjohnrokk::iconnecroscension::iconstman::iconraultrevino::icontyleredlinart::iconartgutierrez::iconquirkilicious::icontonyperna::iconviccolatte::iconhelmuttt::iconalextooth::icondonmonroeartstudio:

The way that the judges decided was by providing me either their top 3 or top 5 selections. My special feature judge :icondarkereve: provided 10 selections. The other consideration was that some judges provided their selections in order and others did not want their selections in any particular order.

I then devised two points scales that operated differently. The results turned out the same through using both scales.

Here is how I did it...

If a judge provided a top 3 in order... i awarded points 4, 3, 2 respectively

If a judge provided a top 3 in no order... i awarded points 3, 3, 3

If a judge provided a top 5 in order... i awarded points 4, 3, 3, 2, 2 respectively

if a judge provided a top 5 in no order... i awarded points 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

with darwin's top 10... i used the "top 5 in order" system

then that gave me some tables of results

one table was the points totals and it looked like this for the top 16 finalists

1) quelico            - 54 - 108
2) jun-k                - 52 - 104
3) stealthmaria    - 31 - 62
4) tiwali               - 29 - 58
5) skribblix            - 25 - 50
6) raku                 - 20 - 40
7) alto                  - 19 - 38
8) tony t               - 18 - 36
9) cosbinator       - 18 - 36
10) sorenka          - 16 - 32
11) elentori           - 16 - 32
12) arcanux          - 15 - 30
13) strayed            - 13 - 26
14) g-david           - 12 - 24
15) kkaduken        - 11 - 22
15) megaween     - 11 - 22

the first column is the total points and then second column is just a multiplier 2x to better illustrate the gap in the points between finalists

I then decided that perhaps the point system was not good enough.. to test this theory I decided to award one point for each time a judge selected a particular piece in their list regardless of order

here are the results

1) quelico           - 18
2) jun-k               - 15
3) stealthmaria   - 11
4) tiwali               - 9
5) skribblix           - 8
6) raku                 - 7
7) alto                 - 7
8) tony t              - 6
9) cosbinator      - 6
10) sorenka         - 6
11) elentori         - 6
12) arcanux        - 5
13) strayed         - 5
14) g-david        - 4
15) kkaduken     - 4
15) megaween   - 4

as you can see the order is identical. the points system was 100% accurate and there was a very strong positive correlation between the top methods of determining an order for the finalists.

this made me feel better because it is difficult for me. There were many many pieces that i had in my final list and i never would have been able to chop it down fairly. I am very appreciative and honored that the judges took time out of their busy lives to provide me with their selections. It was an honor to me, the artists and to the group and contest.

very awesome and much thanks to the judges

one final scale was to look at situations where judges put their selections in order. I assembled a list of the top "first place" vote getters

1) jun-k        - 5
2) quelico      - 4
3) tiwali       - 3

there were more entries that all got a single first place vote.

I was satisfied with the results. I feel bad that it was a close race and that means some people don't get awarded for their time and effort... i only hope that they enjoyed drawing my IP girls and that they will show the pieces with pride in their galleries and bloggers.

now... i also awarded two personal prizes based solely on my own selections.

I chose to award :icong-david: and :iconstrickart:

it wasn't political at all and it was very hard to narrow the field of pieces that I thought deserved special consideration.

In the end I chose these two artists and these are my reasons

G-David's Reign - I thought that the piece was beautiful with wonderful detail and a great pose. However, what really made me decide on this piece was the theme of Reign as the monster slayer. That was in my description of Reign's story - she craves adventure and her number one personal mission is very much to slay a dragon. I found that his piece captured Reign's personality and story very well.

Strickart's Chainsaw Girl - I thought that the piece was well executed and once again the artist took some initiative in researching my character and not just using the visual art reference alone when composing their entry. His rendition of Chainsaw Girl is thus very accurate to how I envision her. I also appreciated his courage in drawing her chains as it was an element than many others have shied away from as Chainy's design is unusual and comes with certain challenges. I thought this piece was a lot of fun and deserving of extra consideration.

:):):D:D:):)

I just want to thank everyone who participated in this contest. You are of course free to display the pieces on your websites and online pages. Please just give me the IP credit :D

As I said before... I am hoping to compensate the finalists through commissioning them sooner than other artists in the dA community. Not sure how long it would take to get to everyone.. but i will make my best effort to give something back in that regard... so charge with the full rate for your work when we link up! :lol:

thanks again.

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Contest WINNERS!! by lobotomous, journal