Since when has making things ‘easy’ become something to celebrate?

When I was 14, I remember receiving a book called ‘Dream Makers’, published in 1988, as a birthday present from my parents.

The book consisted of six sections, each showcasing a selection of drawings and paintings by renowned fantasy artists including Melvyn Grant, Michael Kaluta, Julek Heller, Bernie Wrightson, Chris Moore and Charles Mess.

I remember being particularly mesmerised by the drawings and watercolours of Julek Heller and I was transfixed by the magical worlds he crafted with just a stick of wood and graphite and some water soluble coloured powder.

I really wanted to be able to draw like these artists one day, but I knew the gulf between my abilities and what I aspired to was vast.

So I started by copying the works of the artists I admired, slavishly replicating every mark, scrutinising each line - but even by attempting to meticulously copying their work, my drawings were still a million miles away from these artists.

It didn’t dampen my spirits, in fact it fuelled me. Every small improvement felt like a breakthrough and the sense of mastery felt exhilarating.

I drew obsessively and gained confidence and saw incremental improvement in every mark and every stroke. But as I got better and my ‘eye’ became more sophisticated, I actually became more critical and less satisfied with my work.

It took me a while to realise, that this was never about a final result, but the ongoing process. With mastery comes empowerment, but also comes the realisation that as artists we will never be satisfied for long, always driven to push boundaries and hone our craft.

There are no ‘quick fixes’ or shortcuts without human cost, as the proponents of AI will have us believe.

What concerns me is that If I had access to AI back then and could create something similar with a few prompts, would I have done? Yes, probably.

And if someone had shared prompts so I could create artwork just like ‘Jules Heller’, would I have just copied and pasted the prompts into chat GTP? Very likely

Thank god it wasn’t, my fear is that AI will rob future generations of the pure joy and empowerment of taking a little bit of talent on a long journey.