If AI is threatening to you at this point, you aren't really an artist. You are an illustrator (or whatever the written equivalent is) who was hoping to convert the ability to churn out pictures of the latest anime waifu, someone's furry OC, or a niche fetish into a source of income.

A real artist sees AI and thinks, "Hey, an automatic junior artist that can do [Backgrounds/colors/whatever the part of my work that I find least interesting and most tedious] quickly and for free with a reasonable degree of competence.

A real artist thinks, hey, I can train a LoRA on my own work, have the AI learn my style, then have it work from my sketches and skip to the touch ups at the end.

A real artist thinks, maybe the AI could give me some inspiration with this thing I gave up on half way through.

A real artist is probably thinking about how they could use an AI to speed up their workflow enough to progress into animation.

Or forgoing all that. A real artist instead ignores AI and produces art because they're passionate about it, having the humility to admit that there will always be others out there that will outshine them, but still persisting because it's about creation and expression, not fame and profit.

If you can't do any of these things, you aren't really an Artist, and you need to get a real job (one that is part of an industry that produces goods or services required by the general population) like the rest of us.

If AI is threatening to you at this point, you aren't really an artist. You are an illustrator (or whatever the written equivalent is) who was hoping to convert the ability to churn out pictures of the latest anime waifu, someone's furry OC, or a niche fetish into a source of income.

A real artist sees AI and thinks, "Hey, an automatic junior artist that can do [Backgrounds/colors/whatever the part of my work that I find least interesting and most tedious] quickly and for free with a reasonable degree of competence.

A real artist thinks, hey, I can train a LoRA on my own work, have the AI learn my style, then have it work from my sketches and skip to the touch ups at the end.

A real artist thinks, maybe the AI could give me some inspiration with this thing I gave up on half way through.

A real artist is probably thinking about how they could use an AI to speed up their workflow enough to progress into animation.

Or forgoing all that. A real artist instead ignores AI and produces art because they're passionate about it, having the humility to admit that there will always be others out there that will outshine them, but still persisting because it's about creation and expression, not fame and profit.

If you can't do any of these things, you aren't really an Artist, and you need to get a real job (one that is part of an industry that produces good or services required by the general population) like the rest of us.

If AI is threatening to you at this point, you aren't really an artist. You are an illustrator (or whatever the written equivalent is) who was hoping to convert the ability to churn out pictures of the latest anime waifu, someone's furry OC, or a niche fetish into a source of income.

A real artist sees AI and thinks, "Hey, an automatic junior artist that can do [Backgrounds/colors/whatever the part of my work that I find least interesting and most tedious] quickly and for free with a reasonable degree of confidence.

A real artist thinks, hey, I can train a LoRA on my own work, have the AI learn my style, then have it work from my sketches and skip to the touch ups at the end.

A real artist thinks, maybe the AI could give me some inspiration with this thing I gave up on half way through.

A real artist is probably thinking about how they could use an AI to speed up their workflow enough to progress into animation.

Or forgoing all that. A real artist instead ignores AI and produces art because they're passionate about it, having the humility to admit that there will always be others out there that will outshine them, but still persisting because it's about creation and expression, not fame and profit.

If you can't do any of these things, you aren't really an Artist, and you need to get a real job (one that is part of an industry that produces good or services required by the general population) like the rest of us.

If AI is threatening to you at this point, you aren't really an artist. You are an illustrator (or whatever the written equivalent is) who was hoping to convert the ability to churn out pictures of the latest anime waifu, someone's furry OC, or a niche fetish into a source of income.

A real artist sees AI and thinks, "Hey, an automatic junior artists that can do [Backgrounds/colors/whatever the part of my work that I find least interesting and most tedious] quickly and for free with a reasonable degree of confidence.

A real artist thinks, hey, I can train a LoRA on my own work, have the AI learn my style, then have it work from my sketches and skip to the touch ups at the end.

A real artist thinks, maybe the AI could give me some inspiration with this thing I gave up on half way through.

A real artist is probably thinking about how they could use an AI to speed up their workflow enough to progress into animation.

Or forgoing all that. A real artist instead ignores AI and produces art because they're passionate about it, having the humility to admit that there will always be others out there that will outshine them, but still persisting because it's about creation and expression, not game and profit.

If you can't do any of these things, you aren't really an Artist, and you need to get a real job (one that is part of an industry that produces good or services required by the general population) like the rest of us.