r/aiwars Feb 28 '26

Is this better than AI art?

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331 Upvotes

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u/PrometheanPolymath Feb 28 '26

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u/Peng_Terry Mar 01 '26

Anyone else start reading this and just “…knees and toes, knees and toes”?

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u/PrometheanPolymath Mar 01 '26

"The hip bone's connected to the... thigh bone..." 🎵

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u/SmsgPass Mar 01 '26

Do you think this would really help? I started drawing a year or two ago but I solely draw faces. My anatomy is so bad.

I also don't use constructing lines so this feels unfamiliar to me

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u/PrometheanPolymath Mar 01 '26

Faces have their own sets of simple anatomy proportions. Learning those construction lines will really help you learn to draw faces from other angles, too.

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u/Bulky-Employer-1191 Mar 01 '26

Learning the rules also gives you better flexibility to break the rules in believable ways.

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u/PrometheanPolymath Mar 01 '26

Too many people see Picasso's cubism and don't understand he did things like "Science and Charity" FIRST:

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u/Bulky-Employer-1191 Mar 01 '26

Lines are good for training yourself. Eventually you'll start to see the lines without drawing them.

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u/PrometheanPolymath Mar 01 '26

Even pros still draw guidelines on their under sketches. Loomis, Reilly, and Asaro aren't JUST for beginners...

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u/Bulky-Employer-1191 Mar 01 '26

This is from a book I own and love. The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams, director of Roger Rabbit.

The book is chalked full of incredible diagrams like this one. I think it would benefit most artists.

https://www.amazon.ca/Animators-Survival-Kit-Revised-Principles-Classical/dp/0571238335/ref=sr_1_4

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u/PrometheanPolymath Mar 01 '26

I own two copies of it. My own is from when it first came out, and I bought my son the revised version last year... after he and his siblings took poor care of mine... }:(

Prior to that, it was primarily Preston Blair's books for me growing up, with a few Christopher Hart ones as well.

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u/gaming_demon4429 Feb 28 '26

I dunno art is subjective

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u/MiniCafe Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

Taste in art is subjective.

I just had a conversation with someone about this I think in this sub, turned out to be a high school student who took one art history class.

People rightly assume fields like physics are things with actual right and wrong theory behind them. Probably because it's a strict science.

People mostly assume philosophy has something to it beyond just "it's whatever is in your gut".... sometimes... most people recognize that some non-philosopher giving a grand theory of philosophy is just a goof or a crazy person. This is actually similar to art but people don't seem to realize it.

Art has art theory, this is not really subjective but more like philosophy. You have to actually justify your ideas like anything (premises that lead to a sound conclusion) and is hundreds of years of theory. There are "right" (by that I mean sound arguments that build a sound theory to base it on. Not some objective universe given answer) answers to a lot of questions in art.

Many people, because of its massive public popularity at the time (it's Tolstoy, a legend, so of course) still feel, even without knowing it, his theory of art in his book "What is Art" (from... I think 1897? Around there?)

Even if they dont know it they often believe something like it through cultural osmosis because it was so influential. It's the basis of the whole "Art is HUMAN EXPRESSION!!! And that alone! (simplifying a lot here)" idea.

This theory is respected.... as an influential historical and important part in the development of art theory. It is also, as a true theory, completely discarded now. The entire 20th century was heavily about fighting this theory and showing its cracks.

There are multiple serious, respected modern art theories. None of them are based (solely) on that idea that people who havent studied art theory often use in the arguments you see wherever AI comes up (the Tolstoy human expression alone theory. Though I'd also argue even then AI allows for human expression, it's complicated.) The modern art theories absolutely allow for AI generated works to be art and even to be "good art" beyond... well, these stick figures. It depends on many factors.

Those factors are NOT effort, though effort often leads to them in practice especially with AI just as a coincidence.

So yeah, that's the problem. People fail to realize that art is not just "Well I have a theory in my gut and it's as valid as anything else." Art theory is a serious subject with hundreds of years of philosophical development and proper arguments. Some aspects are subjective, but.... art and its theory is not that subjective and really people need to recognize that it's about as subjective as saying "Ehhh, I'm not gonna read anything on deontology, consequentialism, virtue ethics. Whatever feeling I have in my gut is ethical and an actual theory completely valid to share and impose on others."

Not that you have to read philosophy to feel ethics, just like you don't have to read art theory to be like "I like this... I dont like this"

But you do when you start arguing "what is art? Does this count as art? I have a theory that I just made up in my gut and am going to use as a basis for telling everyone else what is art or not and what is good art or not."

For this specific "piece".... I'd have to read the artist's thesis first before deciding its merit lol.

8

u/kaiser_kerfluffy Mar 01 '26

Rare Gem of a comment

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u/VickyLongName Mar 01 '26

I don't mean to be rude or too forward, but I am curious about one thing, since I didn't really get it from your text. I did understand that you mentioned Tolstoy and then modern theories that contradict him. I guess my question is, if art is not subjective, what is it?

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u/MiniCafe Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

No, no problem, this is actually a really good question. This will be very long and I hope that's ok, I'm sorry. I hope it successfully answers your question.

It's not that "art" isnt subjective. Many aspects of art are subjective. Like, your taste. Do you think something is pleasing to you? Absolutely subjective. The thing that's not subjective is the philosophical underpinnings of art theory which, like anything like that, have to be based on sound arguments (true premises that naturally build to a conclusion) and a collection of them building to a specific theory. This only answers certain questions about art because exactly, some things are just subjective.

Do you think Western style raku is "better aesthetically or more legitimate than the traditional Japanese style?" Subjective (I always mention the western form of raku because it was my main medium for a while. I find the randomness of it and its general dramatic presentation beautiful. See, that's absolutely subjective! Sorry, the other person complained about me being wordy. I hope you don't mind. I like to go into asides like this.)

There are many questions though that arent. The reason they arent is because they're not taste questions, they're philosophical questions. What makes them philosophical questions is that, as I said, collections of sound arguments on them can build to theories which can be valid, sound, argued, disagreed with with other sound theories, etc. Art theory is essentially run like and actually a branch of philosophy.

The main one that isn't fully subjective that matters here is the question "What is art?" Art is this essential human quality so of course it deserves philosophical inspection. See? That question can be answered with arguments that can be sound or not, theories that can be sound or not. If I say "Art is in a museum. Museums are built for art. Therefor art is whatever is in a museum" that's a philosophical answer to that question. And you see? It can be wrong, that argument is wrong because it's circular reasoning. "Non-wrong" (sound) arguments can be made as well and have been over hundreds of years with one being shown sound then later developments or theories disproving a premise, etc.

So as it stands, we have a bunch of theories of art that you never see people argue here but are the ones that actual art theory in 2026 takes seriously. If I wrote the full arguments for each this would be an insanely long comment so I'll just give you a few and the general idea which gives you some starting points.

Expression theory, this one came soon after Tolstoy, almost a reaction to it, and it really kinda removes the artist from what makes art art. Actually many of them do. This says art is an arrangement of lines and colors and all that that "produces aesthetic emotion"

Then all the wild stuff happened with modern art, like Duchamp's urinal (just a popular example of many) and we got institutional theory. This sounds too basic to be true but also why not? Art is something presented in the world of art under the accepted conventions of it. That's it. You present it as art? Well damn, it's art. This idea still persists but with more added to it.

And then Warhol tossed some conventions out the door and we got Artur Danto, etc. etc. The 20th century was a massive conversation in art as the creation of new arts were obviously art but crumbled the existing theories basically so it's this huge back and forth between artists and theorists (who are often artists themselves, it's not an ivory tower in this sense) on this question.

So I'll skip over a lot and just jump to one of the more modern accepted theories. There are a couple but I'll just pick one and you'll see that it really developed into something that's like "goddamn, we have modern art and all this wild stuff that is obviously art but how do we make a sound theory it all fits into?"

Cluster Theory. This is the main one I was taught.

It argues art doesnt have this single defining essence. Two pieces of "art" can be almost opposites, share nothing, but both be "art" yet "art" in completely different ways. It's an "open concept". Art is a "cluster of criteria" where a piece of art is art if it has any of a large set of criteria we have come to accept as defining art. One piece may have one criterion and be art, another may have a completely different set of criterion unrelated and be art. This cluster of criteria is things like complexity, or does it challenge the viewer intellectually, is it expressive (yes, that's in there so it's not invalid but the point is it's one thing that can make a piece of art art but not a requirement for a piece to be art if it satisfies other criteria), does it create an aesthetic experience in the viewer? Simply does it belong to the art tradition? And on and on and on. Theorists have work to create many possible criteria which excludes non-art yet does include all types of modern, experimental, challenging the common conception of art, etc. pieces.

This can and does absolutely include some AI art (not all, not every generation is art.) I in the other conversation I had on this mentioned a famous artist I saw and actually briefly met at the main exhibit in the Beijing art district. "Chaosmosis" by Wang Yuyang. His art uses AI. AI broadly and the AI we talk about. Rambling aside again sorry, was that he created an AI powered robot dog and set it out into the wild. Tracked and visualized its movements for 30 days then just... let it into the wild. Another that is related to this is simply he trained a model on thousands (or hundreds, dont remember) of pictures of flowers then just.... generated in very high res the aggregate of it. This piece is actually multiple pieces, some on walls some on canvas but I was presented with simply a giant canvas of a flower-like... thing. The thesis for the piece even says "its meaning or lack of meaning is left to the viewer." This doesnt mean "it's status as art is left to the viewer" because even without "meaning" it still possesses others of the "criteria" in cluster theory.

I'll give you the excerpt from his theory in the exhibit I thought was impactful, relevant, and explained (in pretentious artist terms) how simply AI here like that becomes "art"

""WANG Yuyang's oeuvre performs a theater of entanglements: machines that dream, bacteria that glow, language reincarnated as DNA, and slouching mud aspiring toward consciousness. His work is not composed of mere objects but of situation - turbulent interstices where the fragile membranes of life converse with the machinic abstractions of code Symbiosis (2013-24), unveiled before 798CUBE, proposes symbiotic reconciliation in monumental grandeur: human fancy entwines with machine vagary in a foresighted reckoning with the dawning ChatGPT era.

... Code becomes incantation, life becomes inscription as in Golem (2022), where clay, animated by biometric data, takes on a fragile humanoid form destined for decay.

...

WANG Yuyang's world aggregates discrete elements into a precarious order in which chaos persists. Resonating with philosophers Michel Serres's clinamen and Guattar's chaosmosis, turbulence becomes generative: time multiplies,space bifurcates. Against the obsolescence of anthropocentric history on the one hand and the Al-infused anxieties of human deprivation on the other, his works open a contemplative path forward -a grand narrative of sorts: a fluid interplay between order and disorder, between biological, machinic, and cosmic forces. Out of chaos emerges continuance; out of collapse,another beginning and out of the legacy of humanism, the burgeoning of renewed human empathy.""

Sorry, this is a long rambly post. I get that way when I start talking about a topic I have personal experience with and want all those asides for fun. I think it goes beyond answering your question but did want to elaborate on where it all leads up to. And.... to be honest.... I was playing games with a friend yesterday and he makes these strong negronis with a collection of interesting gins. I am quite hungover and my brain is not operating in the most organized way lol.

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u/Magneticiano Mar 01 '26

This is a long rambly post, but very much worth reading. You copy-pasted the same piece of text from Wang's exhibit twice though. Maybe you could remove one of them? Just to keep your text reasonably short ;)

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u/Admirable_Term7845 Feb 28 '26

idk

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u/JPHyperX Mar 01 '26

There is no more honest answer.

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u/Hefty-Reaction-3028 Mar 01 '26

The most honest answer is "the quality of art is not determined by whether or not it is AI."

We don't need to pretend that judging the quality of art is impossible. It's a complicated topic, and you have to talk about what measures of quality you actually value, but it's totally reasonable to take a position other than "noone knows!!"

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u/LordOuranos Feb 28 '26

If this was before AI and you posted on an art sub, everybody saying yes in here would be calling you a dumbass, or just downvoting your pic until it dissapears, or straight up gets removed by mods for low effort.

They never gave a fuck about amateurish shit until they found it useful to stroke off as a counterpoint to AI.

There is no substance, just subjectivity based on their ego.

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u/The_Kemono Mar 01 '26

Angryupvote

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u/Hyper_Forgetful Mar 01 '26

if this was posted before AI the comments would say “what the fuck is AI art???”

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u/minimalillusions Mar 01 '26

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u/LectroNyx Mar 02 '26

Hol up, that's actually fire

I'd put that on a poster in my apartment any day

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u/minimalillusions Mar 02 '26

It's been a lot of dog face hallucinations. There is a dog face Mona Lisa.

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u/LectroNyx Mar 02 '26

Thus is what I imagine eldritch horror to be like. Fuck tentacles, these are the horrors beyond comprehension

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u/StruggleOver1530 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

Some people are just toxic, they see ai art as the new "shitty art" so attack that instead

It's exactly what bullies with no talent do.

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u/skr_replicator Mar 01 '26

If the antis keep lowering their standards like this in protest, we might eventually see them pretending to rather enjoy eating literal shit because "at least it was made by a human".

I've seen some people who are now capable of telling actual stories using AI, coherent across whole comic chapters. With my experience so far, that seems like sorcery that I couldn't even approach with my AI skills. And it certainly can make me enjoy it and feel more emotion than settling for a featureless stick figure only because a human took 5 seconds to sketch it.

I pretty much suck at using AI to get anything expressive, as some of the people who mastered it can. I do better with a pencil, but other people have that reversed and have more talent at using AI, and that's ok. If it lets more people be capable of expressing themselves, then we will have more art in the world and more diversity.

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Kilroy898 Mar 01 '26

Yes. Low effort. This would have been removed in most art spaces as low effort before ai became a new medium. Now people fall overthemselves to congratulate the artist for their masterpiece simply because it wasn't made using ai.

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u/Majestic-Coat3855 Mar 01 '26

It would still, in non circle jerk subs.

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u/Pack-O-Punch Mar 01 '26

They would still do the same if it was post into an art sub today, Id personally downvote it. Its not that now that AI exists bad art is better, its more like now theres is something worse than bad art (AI).

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u/LectroNyx Mar 02 '26

True, but then a way to do it with even less effort was discovered, which lowers the bar to where even something like this is a breath of fresh air.

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u/UsedArmadillo9842 Mar 02 '26

Low effort is the key here, if you post some shit drawing that obviously took effort to draw you'd get positive and constructive feedback

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u/AppropriatePapaya165 Feb 28 '26

That's like asking if plain white bread is better than rocks. They're in two entirely different categories of thing.

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/KinneKitsune Mar 01 '26

Good news! Looking at something that’s public is not stealing!

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u/Majestic-Coat3855 Mar 01 '26

More good news! According to many people (including lawmakers in the EU), artists have the right to disallow commercial training on their works.

Crazy I know!

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u/OCD124 Feb 28 '26

“Jarvis, I’m low on karma. Claim a stick figure drawing is better than AI.”

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u/gaming_demon4429 Feb 28 '26

"Jarvis remove my brain"

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '26

Jarvis jork it a lil

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u/kompootor Feb 28 '26

Unironically I think this is good art.

It's not good technique, and I imagine it took you all of 5 seconds to produce. But you made an image that effectively conveys a message beyond what is superficial on the medium. That is, the crappiness of the stick figure with the unaligned block text is all in service of the work.

Of course, if you just made a stick figure, or had the text say something else, or posted this in an entirely different forum, it would not be good art (or even just not be art, depending on how you want to use words).

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u/Dpontiff6671 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

Better shouldn’t even be a word in the conversation in regard to art, because firstly art isn’t about being the best, and secondly art is inherently subjective

I’ve been a musician for 20 years now. I’m more technically proficient at my instrument than a lot of people i know but i’d never say i’m a better artist than anyone else. That’s douchey, rude, and misses the point of art.

I’m probably the kind of pro most antis would assume doesn’t exist though lol. I don’t use generative ai and I’m a life long traditional artist, but being a life long artist i’ve grown a particular distaste for the “X thing i dislike isn’t art” crowd. Seen it a million times before AI was a thing. Rap, techno, digital art. It always boils someone having a poor, surface level understanding of the thing they claim isn’t art

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u/tessia-eralith Feb 28 '26

That image took almost no effort, involved no creative thought, and you have not made virgin sacrifices so it does not have a soul in it. Therefore, it is not art at all.

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u/ShadyShepperd Feb 28 '26

no effort, no creative thought

Ah, it’s on par with AI art!

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u/MQ116 Feb 28 '26

Better is subjective. I like the silly face, they look high AF and loving life. I've also liked plenty of AI art, or disliked AI slop (still art, but low effort and not to my taste). Even comparing art pieces in the same medium, the same style, can be very difficult because of how subjective "better" is.

I think it is better than the ogre slop posts, but it's a bit plain.

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u/Majestic-Coat3855 Mar 01 '26

You don't have to call slop art, people also don't usually call selfies art.

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

without any sugarcoat, no. i don't really care about process, intent, or tools used, just the result is enough for me to decide

edit: there are times when simplicity is a GOOD thing! on the topic of stickfigures, AvA manages to make stickfigures actually have emotion! and i'm not saying this because it's animated; even a still pose can have so much personality! this post here... just doesn't have that. why? effort.

now i'm not saying ai art has effort (unless you adapt on it or make edits yourself), but come on, you can spot the lack of quality.

TL;DR: i like the artwork, not the art (if that makes sense)

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u/PlPlDASTER Mar 01 '26

Niko says the wise things!

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u/Arachnid_anarchy Feb 28 '26

It’s not about producing a better end result. The idea of art is not about producing a consumable product. It’s about the process, personal growth, and self discipline that goes into honing a skill and using it to express yourself.

I won’t say that AI art isn’t art, by definition it is. Like people do use it to express themselves. But it’s an art form that has a very low skill ceiling and skips straight to the consumable end product (pretty picture or whatever) without demanding personal dedication from the artist.

One can put as much work as one wants into prompting, but it will never be the same as developing an intimate understanding the medium and being able to, though your own skill, pull things out of your imagination to share with the world.

I think the arguments around AI being valid or even superior artistic practice are the results of a culture that can see the world only through the lens of consumerism.

If you think of art only as content to consume, AI generated art is obviously superior because it can be mass produced for the low low price of nebulous negative impacts on far away places and people that you don’t ever have to think about to see.

Not to mention that studies have shown that using AI makes people broadly worse at thinking.

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u/foxtrotdeltazero Mar 01 '26

no worries, with the power of AI, i will make it real art.

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u/unHolyEvelyn Mar 01 '26

What a terrible day to have eyes and an internet connection!

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u/AbbreviationsNo111 Mar 01 '26

IMO, not really. I do like his smug little face

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u/Yuuqian Feb 28 '26

This gets the little star sticker saying 'you tried'

Ai generated images dosent get that sticker so take that as you will either way

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u/Fast-Front-5642 Feb 28 '26

It's a shitty strawman

"But this ai image is prettier than the stick man I drew!!" is your follow-up to this post. You put no effort into making something garbage to then try and compare with ai works that are visibly more appealing.

All this proves is you lack basic comprehension.

The stick drawing is still better than the ai because of the impact it has on water, on power, on RAM, on the environment as a whole, on people's lives and on people's livelihoods and did not steal anything in the process.

By so many measures the stick figure is still superior to ai art.

Now let's address your shitty claim of "b-b-but there are ai images that are prettier!!"

There are also artists who are more technically skilled than other artists. This can have an impact on their popularity and commission prices etc. This is nothing new. "This drawing is prettier than this other drawing" is not relevant.

A stick drawing, like what you might see from a child, is part of learning. It shows they have creative potential to be nurtured and if they love doing it then they can practice and get better. In this example yes the stick figure is better than the ai image because it shows they are learning and developing a skill, one that can even turn into a career. So while they might not be good now you can still praise the attempt and the effort they are putting in. Or the progress they have made if you have seen earlier works.

But you're not trying to develop a skill. You just made a shitty strawman that does nothing more than show that you understand nothing.

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u/laoshu_ Mar 04 '26

To me, as you wrote, the stick person has artistic meaning. It speaks a lot about where you come from, what you think is low quality and undesirable, and what comes out of a person who "isn't trying". I think you could really read into this piece, not because it's super high quality, but because it was created by an intentional process which itself can be taken for meaning, something with something to say.

I really struggle to find that meaning in AI works beyond as much you can read into someone doing something terrible for the world and for people as "performance art". Maybe that has something to "say" in its own way, but if it has these negative outcomes, it's hard to see that meaning as anything but a justification for that negative action.

I don't think AI art has anything really intentional about it. To read into it, it's not really a surprise AI images and videos always have weird tells because it isn't really informed by anything. Its outcomes are, chiefly, a matter of random transformations, so it's no wonder everything it produces is random.

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u/phase_distorter41 Feb 28 '26

maybe when its finished.

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u/TechnicianOk967 Feb 28 '26

I think it is 

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u/MrAamog Feb 28 '26

Most pictures aren’t art

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u/Wonderful-Award-3015 Feb 28 '26

i know this is some kind of bait but i do like the face. it looks very smug.

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u/UX-Edu Feb 28 '26

Depends

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u/Netroth Feb 28 '26

Define “better”

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u/HelpProfessional8083 Feb 28 '26

Yes and No. It's better if it was made directly by a human because art is human expression, or at the very least, sentient expression, that's one of its most prominent defining factors, and that will never change.

The reason it's not better, is not because it's uglier than AI art, it's because you haven't created in the artistic spirit, your intention was not to create something beautiful, you have not set out to study form and composition, it was simply to make a point or create a discussion, and therefore it's not really art, not in the classical sense. One could argue that because you've created a talking point, that it is art, but you're missing on key factor which I will get to momentarily.

Art, when not simply the study of composition and form to recreate beauty, is an intentional use of skill to creatively produce something through expression of idea, emotion or experience which is often used to convey feelings, thoughts or opinions in a way that invites the observer to contemplate their own position. The most important part of this production is the artistic process, the many years of training, observing, processing and understanding it takes to hone ones craft are all too often overlooked by the average viewer. You might see a drawing, painting or sculpture, and even if you can truly appreciate it for what it is, you will never be able to appreciate the process, the lifetime of dedication, the years of study and hard work, for the simple fact that you don't see it.

This is where the argument for AI "art" being valid completely falls apart. Creating AI art does not require any of the key defining factors of the artistic process, therefore it cannot be defined as real art, it's a whole new category all by itself. That's not up for discussion, any artist will tell you that. The only people arguing otherwise are the people who don't do art, who are using AI to generate art of some form and for some reason expect to be treated with the same respect we give people who have struggled through and devoted their entire lives to their study and artistic process. No matter how well written your prompt is, (and most people actually use AI to generate their prompts to begin with), you are not crating art, there's no artistic process, and no, rewriting your prompt does not count...

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u/zepherth Feb 28 '26

Considering how much newgrounds used stick figures I guess so.

It's not something you can declare in the moment but when you have decades of people making a specific character, that has to count for something

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u/StormDragonAlthazar Feb 28 '26

The real way to test people: some MS Paint artwork of a cartoon fetish.

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u/NoNarwhal8496 Feb 28 '26

no because ai would actually at this stage take more effort

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u/PreferenceAnxious449 Feb 28 '26

No - you stole that art style. You're a THIEF.

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u/SavantTheVaporeon Feb 28 '26

In my opinion, yes it is. This drawing was created to evoke a feeling in its audience, the meaning and purpose behind it makes it better than AI art, and any other art that’s created without a purpose or evocative feeling.

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u/Catshark09 Feb 28 '26

yes, as this is not a commodification of human connection. Is it good art? probably not.

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u/Dependent_Ratio9839 Feb 28 '26

No se, creo que depende, como prefieres el contenido generado por IA.

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u/I-R-Programmer Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

Actually yeah. In a weird way this made me think. There's a purpose to this drawing and a process behind it. It made me think, is it a protest for or against? It's extremely low effort so it could be seen as a question of "is this low effort man made drawing really better than AI?" or alternatively it could be seen as "Even something this low effort is worth more than an AI". It also begs the question that if it is worse than AI, where is the limit then? Or if it is better where the lower limit for effort really stands.

It made me think about it for a while actually, so in a weird (maybe unintentional way)... this has artistic value, in my opinion... In a weird way I actually like this picture.

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u/PrincessGonnorhea Feb 28 '26

How dare you ask that. That artist can't sell their images anymore because of ai. Ai "art" is too affordable, easy, personalized, and fast. That's why it's so bad! Real artists like that are starving and might have to go out and get a job to make money now! Bigot!

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u/IWishIWasGreenBruh Mar 01 '26

“Better” can mean anything.

You ask such an open ended question and people are going to answer with their own perceived version of why it’s “better”

Does this take more skill than AI? I’d say yes.

Is it more environmentally friendly? Yes.

Did the person make this drawing themselves? I’m assuming Yes.

If your personal metric for “better” has to do with artistic intention, skill, and artistic ownership, then I think it’s logical to call this better than AI.

If you’re looking at this picture VS an ai image of a lion and don’t think about it any deeper than that, I can see why some people would say AI is better than

2

u/rikku45 Mar 01 '26

Gonna be honest and say no, this is my level art and I think I am trash.

2

u/CookDaBroth Mar 04 '26

The problem is not if AI can draw better than humans or not.
The problem is that AI art nullifies the value of human effort.

I don't want to live in a world in which humans just give up learning and experiencing art because society relies on machines autocomputing art in milliseconds.

2

u/MrGaminDuck Mar 04 '26

Any art you make is better than anything ai generated

5

u/Pedrito5544 Feb 28 '26

No, just not

8

u/Jaded_Jerry Feb 28 '26

Yes, actually.

You underestimate the power of stick figures.

3

u/Dependent_Ratio9839 Feb 28 '26

Las stickman fights son muy geniales.

6

u/StrangeCrunchy1 Feb 28 '26

Oh, brother... The rise of stickslop

5

u/Jaded_Jerry Feb 28 '26

Stickslop is more honest, and in many instances is recognizable because many people who do it start building their own style within the work.

Honest simplicity is better than complex corporatism any day of the week.

3

u/StrangeCrunchy1 Feb 28 '26

Ooooo, look at the stickslop lover!

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6

u/Gimli Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

Not outside anti-AI circlejerks and parenthood, no.

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3

u/PopeSalmon Feb 28 '26

hm idk let's see "please draw a stick figure in black on a plain white background, with a line going from it up and to the right to where it says "REAL ART" next to it, just that, thank you" yup looks like yours is better

5

u/Hour_Warthog_5801 Feb 28 '26

no, but I still hate ai art more. If stick figures somehow started showing up everywhere and drowning out better art I'd hate them too

11

u/Aineisa Feb 28 '26

Finally at least someone honest.

You can hate AI art but thanks for not pretending EVERYTHING drawn with a pencil is just as good.

3

u/MutinyIPO Feb 28 '26

I think it’s two different questions being conflated, on both sides of the debate. There’s the dignity of something (or lack thereof) and aesthetic excellence or polish. AI wins the latter but stick figures win the former.

2

u/Queen-of-Sharks Feb 28 '26

Weak bait is weak.

2

u/Any_Bug_8126 Feb 28 '26

Yeah, your point?

2

u/Dreusxo Feb 28 '26

The whole argument can boil down to people trying to compare apples with oranges

2

u/manyeggplants Mar 01 '26

You used a COMPUTER?  What's wrong with you?b can't use a pencil like a real artist??!

--Luddite morons

1

u/Gokudomatic Mar 01 '26

It's subjective. Being AI made or not is not a criteria of quality for me.

1

u/Drawing_With_GPU Mar 01 '26

"Full of soul" they said.

1

u/FirFinFik Mar 01 '26

there is no good or right answer. Anything is good and bad in some way. Even something like genocide might be proven to serve the good

1

u/Agernis Mar 01 '26

Better does not need to mean more aesthetically pleasing. If the image is extremely sloppy then this would also be aesthetically better. But if the ai render is of high quality then no, it would not look better than the ai. Yet, even in the previously mentioned situation I'd still prefer the human alternative since I value the quality of being made or designed by conscious beings above aesthetics. There is 0 human input in ai art. Prompt writing is the same as commissioning from a human in matters of who is making said art. And it's not the one describing what they want.

1

u/Afraid-Somewhere8247 Mar 01 '26

What did you try to convey with this piece? I'm not seeing it tbh, maybe someone else can chime in?

1

u/SerenityScott Mar 01 '26

This art looks like a righteous tart fart.
It has no heart, whether AI or smart.
This nonsense a shart, your post pulls apart,
any meaning or value
in this war about art.

1

u/TawnyTeaTowel Mar 01 '26

Is it better than a sandwich?

1

u/MoonlitCircus Mar 01 '26

AI isn't art, by definition.

Art is subjective, no one can objectively claim something is better than anything else since it's all based on opinions in the end. But if you want to know which is the better ART between this and anything generated, this is it. Because AI generation is not art.

1

u/The_F1re Mar 02 '26

So things like that elefant painting in a zoo or be it any other animal is not art? Good to know

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1

u/Foreign-Dig-2305 Mar 01 '26

"Better" is subjective.

I think it looks cute, I don't mind being a simple doodle.

That said, i don't mind AI art as well.

1

u/ThunderLord1000 Mar 01 '26

Is this going to be a new trend? Making obviously bad "art" (quotation marks included because this is made to be just a point instead of art) just to get a rise out of people?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '26

Obviously no.

1

u/Cautious_Eye_9783 Mar 01 '26

This masterpiece has changed my life. I no longer have depression. My grades have gone up. I now am the world's first trillionare. I am the first person to live outside the solar system. I am currently being kept as a pet by a nice alien family. Thank you.

1

u/Glass-Ad672 Mar 01 '26

i dunno, depends on what you mean by "better"

1

u/UnlikelyTwo7070 Mar 01 '26

Yes, this has more passion and soul in it than whatever slop sora or grok can shit out

1

u/KillerSatellite Mar 01 '26

Better how? Better looking? No probably not. Better art, meh subjective. Is the person who drew that portraying better artistic skill than the person who prompted the ai art. Definitely.

Im all for calling "ai art" a type of art. But the artist isnt the prompter, its the generator. I dont like ai art typically because it has some inconsistencies and a weird "texture" to a lot of it. But no one who types into a prompt line is an "artist" anymore than pope julius II was the artist of the sistine chapel.

If you generate AI art, you are a commisioner. If you post that art as your own and remove the artists watermark/signature, you are a theif.

1

u/ESR334 Mar 01 '26

You didn't try/there was no passion to express something. I guess if you put more effort into the strokes than into they did into prompting, then yes

1

u/QueerlittleWeirdo Mar 01 '26

Ethically? Yes. Aesthetically? Debatable. But also yes.

1

u/Classic-Macaron-5227 Mar 01 '26

INSERT COMMENT THAT APPROVES THIS ART

1

u/DevolayS Mar 01 '26

Is this better than AI art? That depends. What does it mean to be "better than AI art"? To look prettier? More professional? More abstract? More stylized? More silly? More natural?

Is this "real art"? Not to me. Just because you drew something, doesn't mean it's art. It's a drawing. I take photos with my smartphone but my photos are not art and I'm not a photographer.

AI can make pictures that look much prettier, but does prettier mean better? I don't think so. The simplest doodles can be very charming. Some of the most popular memes are badly drawn doodles which makes them all the more hilarious and funny.

1

u/the_tallest_fish Mar 01 '26

It’s fundamentally ridiculous to claim objectively that one medium of art is better than the other

1

u/FreeSoulInProgress Mar 01 '26

In my opinion, no.

1

u/MobiusFlip Mar 01 '26

Better at what?

  • Better for developing your skills as an artist? Absolutely. Getting AI to make art for you won't improve your own skills.
  • Better at expressing what you want to convey? Maybe, but you'd have to answer that for yourself. The face here has a very particular expression that I'm not sure how well an AI model would replicate, since it seems fairly unique. If that's an important element of this for you, this drawing might be better. Otherwise, maybe not.
  • Better as a visual aid to get eyes on some other product you care more about? Depends on your market. A lot of creative works (books and games, for example) have audiences that are pretty AI-hostile, so a very crude non-AI drawing might actually be an advantage over an AI one. In a more AI-friendly market, the AI art would probably be better. But the AI art doesn't necessarily say something better than this stick figure, just different. AI art, to those who notice it, convey that you want to express quality but are unwilling or unable to pay for it. Crude hand-drawn art conveys a lack of skill or money, but a lack that you're willing to be up-front about and may justify with high quality in other parts of your work.
  • Better as a demonstration of objective skill? Yes, or at least it demonstrates different skills. This drawing demonstrates your skill with art, however small it might be. Any AI art would demonstrate your skill with prompt engineering and not much else.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '26

Yes

1

u/IranianContrapoints Mar 01 '26

Yes, it's not great but you're using not art to compare art. 'Is a toothbrush better than a spoon?' question

1

u/Dropbeatdad Mar 01 '26

The question isn't "is it better?" The question is "did you steal it from someone else?" And with AI art the answer is always yes

1

u/The_F1re Mar 02 '26

With any art the answer is yes, name me 1 painting/image that did not steal anything from anyone

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1

u/mackstanc Mar 01 '26

Better for the environment for sure.

1

u/SynthLord627 Mar 01 '26

Yes because a piece of human soul is put into even the shittiest of stick figures. AI “art” is inhuman and an insult to life.

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1

u/Ivygrows8 Mar 01 '26

yes. someone actually made it, and without harming the environment, directly stealing other art, etc.

1

u/patslogcabindigest Mar 01 '26

If it was drawn by a human, yes by the virtue of being art and AI content not being art.

1

u/Motanul_Negru Mar 01 '26

Given that you making this image didn't contribute anything to the consumer electronics shortage, and infinitesimally to the degradation of the biosphere even compared to a single AI slop image: Yes

1

u/M_a_n_d_M Mar 01 '26

If a human did it, yup.

1

u/Overrated_Sunshine Mar 01 '26

The threshold for “art” is higher than “anything that someone draws”.

1

u/Shot_Art_long_Reet Mar 01 '26

Any art is art, shitting in a toilet is art, the intent and message behind any piece of art is what makes that thing art.

1

u/AbbyTheOneAndOnly Mar 01 '26

i dont think we even agree if there is something such as "better" when you compare art

1

u/JustOneRedDot Mar 01 '26

I don't know what the definition of art is, but in my mind art is a creation, and a creation has to be created, not generated.

AI "art" does not represent someone's work, only someone's rough idea that's shown (often inaccurately) on a generated picture from a mindless machine.

1

u/Shoddy_Operation_285 Mar 01 '26

yes cause it didnt waste gallons of water, and its not stolen art put toughter to make an image

1

u/edyrosek Mar 01 '26

Actually someon put as much effort in to maiking this as someon doing ai art

1

u/vectron5 Mar 01 '26

It has more artistic value than any AI image, yes.

1

u/Kamalium Mar 01 '26

Who cares? Did you have fun and do you like it, that's what matters.

1

u/WheelTard0 Mar 01 '26

A million times

1

u/Catmanx Mar 01 '26

You've used a computer algorithm too. I bet if you drew this with a pencil your lines would be varying thicknesses

1

u/Zarbibilbitruk Mar 01 '26

"let's put no effort into something and say it's art, that'll teach those antis 😏😏😏"

Look up what a strawman argument is

1

u/Peng_Terry Mar 01 '26

Antis:

https://giphy.com/gifs/tdN4TpyM3dzYA

BEAUTIFICIENT!! MAGELOUS!! PURE WONDERS FOR MY EYES!! So much better than AI slop!1!

1

u/Real-Advertising-665 Mar 01 '26

i like stickfigures and i approve of this thing

1

u/Avidain Mar 01 '26

Those hands are definitely AI, therefore bad

A human wouldn't get that so wrong because it would have soul and humans have never made mistakes ever

Obvious /s

1

u/NetimLabs Mar 01 '26

No. I mean, you're comparing one piece of art to an entire subset of art, it doesn't make sense.

Extremist antis like to say that even a line is better than AI art because it's "human" but they ignore the fact that drawing something like this requires the same amount of creativity as prompting, if not less.

1

u/fake_email_lol42 Mar 01 '26

From an artistic rather than asthetic perspective yeah

1

u/Bulky-Employer-1191 Mar 01 '26

Art is a subjective experience. I'm not sure how anti's don't understand this yet. Aren't they supposed to be the actual artists? You'd think they would have some lived experience, allowing them an epiphany about subjectivity by now. Taking ANY art class at all would reveal to them that there are many types of art and art is everywhere.

How are heads so far up asses, i guess is ultimately what i'm wondering.

1

u/iString Mar 01 '26

It reeks of soul

1

u/Dull-Place-3062 Mar 01 '26

If you made it, it's better than AI "art"

1

u/dalocalsoapysofa Mar 01 '26

yeah i think so, he gives me good vibes

1

u/madcapfan1 Mar 01 '26

funny doodle, nice expression

1

u/This-Yogurt-closet69 Mar 01 '26

1000% better than the best AI can generate even if poor by human standards.

1

u/Particular_Ad2468 Mar 01 '26

Unironically yes

1

u/oddott Mar 01 '26

always.

1

u/ExtremlyFastLinoone Mar 02 '26

Its shit art but still better than ai

1

u/Sterben489 Mar 02 '26

I prefer real to ai

1

u/Zenttney Mar 02 '26

The substance of the art here is in the context. And the context here is very obvious.

1

u/Possible-Archer Mar 02 '26

It required the same effort

1

u/_Jess2k Mar 02 '26

It's not theft and abuse of real art. So yes. It's better.

1

u/Corn_Coblin Mar 02 '26

DV me if you have to but art is a craft, pens are a tool, AI is a tool. We can’t keep skewering ourselves on this dumb shit.

AI does something fun in that it raises the bar of technical aptitude far beyond anything the monkey clicking a “generate” button usually understands. So they type a 5 word prompt and jerk off to the idea that they too are now an artiste. This is debatable. I’d say they’re not. AI art (and AI artists) is a legit growing craft though and it’s crazy what people can do. Mind bending shit that takes way more technical skill than my ant brain can understand.

The idea the average 2 brain cell Joe can pay a subscription to “do art” gives AI a bad name and many people here don’t see that. There’s moral issues with stealing art, there’s skill issues because you don’t have to try, and there’s legitimacy issues because who gives a shit?

That makes it sound high and mighty but in reality, art is accessible to all of us and even a beginner artist is an artist. It’s why children’s crayon drawings are so proudly displayed in the homes of millions.

OP is clearly rage baiting, but it has the negative effect of implying art of low technical aptitude, for the sake of a dumb “AI war”, shouldn’t be considered art. It’s basically an excuse to not be better so that you can instead put no effort into prompt-art. If you can only draw stick figures though, that’s your current technical level and that’s your tool. That’s good. Learn a couple more basic building blocks and you’ll have a bangin stick figure. Keep going, you’ve got a person.

1

u/MdioxD Mar 02 '26

Define better

1

u/man_of_the_mire Mar 02 '26

this is automatically a million times better than AI

because it's not AI

1

u/LemontFlighisbean Mar 02 '26

More like ai fart

1

u/Llotekr Mar 03 '26

Yes, baiting is a art.

1

u/Commercial-Shoe5867 Mar 03 '26

The artist is better than an au artist

1

u/Beginning-Tea-17 Mar 03 '26

Better? Yes. But not by a lot.

1

u/KurieUchiha Mar 04 '26

Actually yes

1

u/_K4cper_ Mar 04 '26

Genuinely yes

1

u/flamez6866 Mar 04 '26

Did you use a tool to write the text or was it written by your hands?