Prompts don’t make you an artist.
It’s difficult for me to get the right words out about this. Partly because I’m jacked up on caffeine and the shakes are setting in, but more because of how infuriating the entire concept of AI-generated “art” is.
AI “art” is as much art as almond milk is milk. And feeding Midjourney prompts makes you as much an artist as pressing play in iTunes makes you a musician.
We’re right back to shortcuts. Lazy people unwilling to do the hard f***ing work. So, they feed prompts to a service that is aggregating REAL artist’s work, and patting themselves on the back for their effort. It’s at least plagiarism, and probably worse.
I have spent the better part of 40 years working at my craft. Forty years. Spending 40 seconds on dreaming up a prompt does not make us equals. And thinking it does makes you more a**hole than artist.
Sorry for the rant, but I assure you nearly every artist feels this way.
There is nothing wrong with using technology to create something. I often use the iPad or Intuos for a piece. But these are just tools, instruments in hands that have put in years of work to be able to do something and do it well.
And you know what? I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction and joy out of being able to create these things. Dumping prompts into a text field will never give you that. Maybe it’ll give a quick hit of dopamine (shout out to Andrew Huberman), but it will be short-lived and ultimately dissatisfying.
Getting good at something is worth the journey and the effort. Breakthroughs give a permanent lift, unlike the temporary high of a shortcut. And failure makes you not just better at your craft, but better as a person. I promise.
Pencils not prompts, everyone. Get to work.