July 2024 preview + the Ai nightmare finally hits home

Hi Patrons,

The July pack is just about finished. It has 4 illustrations which form part of a larger set of 8. The second half will be completed in August. The theme behind them is not a happy one: I was recently shown ai artwork that had been trained on my style. Combined with a few other work things that had been brewing, a perfect storm finally broke. I see no reason to downplay my reaction: I went absolutely fucking mental. Full blast nihilism. I was unresponsive to the world for weeks and was nowhere near sober when composing the 8 images.

I don’t have links for the art pack yet. I’m talking with the programmers who made Drake’s Dungeon to see if they can make me some kind of program that would contain my art without making it vulnerable to Ai + search engines. It’s a tall order, it might not even be feasible. I will have updates for you shortly.

I’ve also contacted Patreon to request a feature: I want to lock my Patreon page to prevent new sign ups, so I can still deliver my artwork to you: the people who have made my art career possible, and not the cunts who seek to end it.

If I sound unhinged, I’m not. I’m putting together a much longer piece of writing for those of you interested in reading it. In it, I acknowledge my own use of Ai in recent works and try to cover the topic from all perspectives: resisting, accepting, ignoring, benefiting, etc. There's also personal stuff I don't normally share that might help explain my apocalyptic reaction.

I’m tired of hearing myself sound like a crying artist, that’s not who I am. I've been at this for 10+ years. Art is work and I like getting my work done, but when your career faces extinction, you don’t just lie there and take it. If I have to print my art at home then mail it all out, I will. If anyone has suggestions or have seen other artist deal with this, the discussion is open.