Are you an artist who likes to be cheeky in third person? Not to worry. In this art description, we’ll give you the top three reasons why you’ve already stopped skimming this text.
Table of Contents
1. Why different forms of non-representational art fascinate the author
It may surprise you to learn that the writer, who used fractal art in the first forum signature they can remember making, enjoys non-representational art and meta-commentary. They like to think they’re clever. ✨👍
Here are a few examples of how art abstraction has been personally relevant:
- Fractal art is using math to make art. It is a form of algorithmic art created by using fractal objects. 🤯
- There’s nothing that bends the mind like an optical illusion. 😵
- People used to debate about whether digital art was “real” art. 🤔 The argument went that it was basically button-pushing, and way easier than pen to paper, so did it really count?
- People also said the same thing about photography. It’s just pushing a button, right? 📸
- And don’t get them started about Surrealism and the Dada movement! 🎨
2. How the author’s fascination with different forms of abstract art shapes their opinions on AI quote-unquote “art”
- It’s art.
3. Why the author isn’t convinced by moralistic arguments about art requiring effort or a “soul” to qualify as art
- Are you a Puritan? 🤨
- People have always been lazy, intellectually dishonest, and keen to undervalue art as a profession. It’s easier now. That’s a separate conversation. 👉
![red photomanipulation with text in the style of magazine clippings, with words and letters snipped from screenshots. It reads as follows: “DO NOT repost don’t reference do not take inspiration I want fame without its impliCAtions Worship at my Temple (they cannot be made by anyone.) (permission Permission) (? Ask first) (Reblogs > likes!) (do not steal (duh)) look but don’t touch Please do not use my art as a pfp banner oR permaNent meMory See me TraNsient behINd glass (please do not) don’t trace my work (scrapers harming victims) (YOU repost my art. legal action.) (You [illegible] draw / write about / RP with [illegible] however please [illegible] these guidelines) wHaT I Make Does not MaTter unLess the world knows it’s minE! (considerate of my work)”. Some letters are snipped from the memefied text “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car,” from a PSA about piracy.](https://a-flyleaf.github.io/art-2026/assets/tumblr_779f8c2e733967d576c3a086d31bb173_11e0793b_1280.jpg)
- (credit to whoever made this 😇)
4. Top three reasons to skim over this text?
- It should have been a blog post. 📝
- It’s not about this specific drawing. 😕
- It’s a flagrant soapbox because the writer is half-convinced they’ll get burned at the stake for saying the computer pictures are cool sometimes, and they get irrationally defensive about it. 🔥
the actual art description
In no particular order, things that spawned this piece:
- I’ve mentioned offhandedly that I think an AI trained on my art would be kinda neat. Discovered recently that that’s feasible now! (The linked user has their model trained on photography, but personal illustrative-style-versions are a thing also.) It also seems to take hours, some pretty high-end processing power, and frankly just some techy know-how that, as of writing, I don’t have the patience to sort out.
- I watched an AI-generated drama short, because apparently those are a thing now, and there’s a bit where a character ties a scarf and it ends up in the entirely wrong shape. One smooth yet vague motion, completely inexplicable result. I enjoy it. I was tempted to animate it, but I did not feel like doing that, either.
- Photobashing, meanwhile, is a fun thing I do not do often but enjoy when it happens. I keep wanting to use Blender for 3D scenery. And I’ve been in a creative rut so what the hell, sure:
When the story these characters are from spawned in 2018–2020, AI art barely existed, and when it did it was a mushy technicolor fever dream. There was a neat site where you could draw outlines or boxes and the AI would (attempt to) turn your scrawling into cats or buildings, respectively. It was actually my first thought for the background here, but I couldn’t find a version hosted anywhere; seems you gotta download & train it yourself now.
A lot of free no-signup AI image-makers are polished, unfortunately, devoid of the psychedelic wonk that hallmarked the early generations. Artbreeder didn’t exactly give me nonsense neon vomit, but there was enough noticeable “what the hell is going on here” to get the job done.
Please take a moment to appreciate, in high mostly-not-crunchy definition, the fucked up and evil: lamppost-trees! car-bikes! streetmush! and like a billion other bizarro-world details that I’ve gotten used to seeing already.
Array modifier my beloved. Most of these ~details got lost in the subsequent overlay-smushing, so here’s the horrible car conga line in full high definition.
A slightly ??annoying? ironic??? thing, about trying to mimic old AI tells in a lined drawing is that it just. ends up looking like a mistake. Oh well. Kicked the art inertia to the curb today, #hashtagThat’sWhatMatters