When generative AI first reared its (ugly) head, I thought it was pretty cool. I could make pictures of aliens disco dancing or Yoda playing video games. It was neat, fun, and new. As a TTRPG creator, I thought this would be a way to save money on art, too. I could have entire books filled with illustrations, and that wouldn't be possible otherwise because I typically have a zero-dollar to low-level budget for new titles.
I also used it first on cyberpunk content, and I thought the irony there was just too good to pass up. That's where they getcha, though. It was easy, looked pretty okay, and didn't cost a thing. So I kept doing it.
Unfortunately, the more I've learned about genAI, the more troublesome I find it. The databases have been built on the uncompensated work of writers and visual artists without their consent. Note that there is a major difference between something being publicly available and being public domain. The works used to train these models were scraped from publicly available content, but it was not public domain content that can be used in any way by anyone.
In addition to all those concerns, the power requirements for a single query are astronomically high and unsustainable.
That said, I'm sorry I used AI art in some of my titles. Not all of them, and not even a majority of them. But some. And I wish I had just used stock art or public-domain art that was made by a human. I obviously wouldn't have the money to commission custom artwork, but I could have very easily tossed a few dollars to an artist when their stock work was on sale. Or used royalty-free stuff that at least would get a link to their other works through attribution. That's some kind of compensation at least.
Even if I hadn't paid for it, or paid very little, I wouldn't have been wasting water, wasting power, and supporting an unethical industry that is fighting daily against regulation.
Why Did I Use AI Art?
There are two main arguments I see for the use of genAI images. The first being a lack of budget, and after using that reasoning (read: excuse) myself, I have to call bullshit.
In a commercial project, if you can't drop a tenner on a few pieces of stock art, then you don't have much faith in your product. It was literally why I chose to use it, because I didn't know if they would sell. So I didn't want to invest anything in them. Knowing what I know now, I'd have definitely used some public-domain and royalty-free images and nothing in the products would have been diminished.
And you know what? You can even publish TTRPG content without art, make a few dollars from the initial sales, and then update it with the new, cheap illustrations.
But life is hard. That might not be possible. You might need every penny from your books to live and support yourself. That's real and understandable. At which point…just don't use art in the book. People understand that from indie creators. Readers and customers understand that you're a human trying to Do A Thing.
Especially if you're releasing a free product. If a product is free and has no art in it, and it's made by an indie creator or small house, customers are more understanding than you expect.
Which brings me to the second reason I see thrown around: stock art is used by lots of people, and readers will see art in your title that they've seen elsewhere.
So what? I repeat: so what? Good art is good art, and if you're an indie or small creator, the people who support those sorts of businesses understand the reality of the process. Your budget is tight-to-nonexistent, and bespoke art is expensive. They don't care if they've seen the dragon on Page 7 of your work on the cover of so-and-so's one-shot.
I promise. It's happened to me, and the books still sell. And I have never gotten a comment about it.
That's one of the major reasons I decided not to use AI-generated images anymore in my work. People didn't care if I didn't. There are so many stock artists out there, like Dean Spencer and Tara Quinn, who do excellent work. More than that, people like their work.
So rather than prompt something, I now take that time to peruse their prolific libraries and buy cool pictures when sales are running.
Moving Forward
In the future, I'm not using AI art in anything. I am definitely not using generative AI to write, refine, or edit anything. I'm a professional writer and editor. I've trained for 25 years at that, and I'm smarter than the LLM algorithm.
So am I going to remove the AI art in my work? Nah, I don't think so. The damage is done, and it's out there in the wild. Copies have sold, and erasing them from my library and portfolio only makes it seem like I'm ashamed that I made them. I'm not ashamed of it. I made the choice with the information I had, and that's that.
I have new information and experience now that I didn't have then. My opinions have changed based on that. So I'm not going to do it anymore. That's all that can be asked of anyone.
Am I sorry I used AI art in my work? Absolutely. Am I ashamed of it and want to erase it? Absolutely not.
11 Places Where You Can Get Free and Cheap Art for Commercial Use
Below is a list of creators who make free commercial-use art, or cheap (a few dollars), that I have used myself in various TTRPG projects over time. They're excellent artists, and I think they're well-deserving of the support that using their illustrations provides. I hope you find something that works for you.
- Lady of Hats – Free fantasy line art
- Grey Gnome – Hand-drawn freebies
- Openverse – Search for Creative Commons and public domain images
- Thomas No – Hand-drawn Patreon art (library access for $1)
- Public Domain Vectors – Free vector images (mostly stylized illustrations)
- Direquest – Cheap layout elements
- Dean Spencer – Painted landscapes, monsters, characters, and everything in between (on sale often)
- Tara Quinn – Cute fantasy art
- Artvee – Public domain classic museum art
- Dyson Logos – Hundreds of free maps for commercial use
- Jay Mantri – Beautiful CC0 photos
If you have a place or person who you think should be on the list, shoot me an email through the contact form, and I'll check it out and see about adding it!
I'm Disabling Comments for This Post.
I'm not doing so because I want to stifle discussion, but because I'm tired of this discussion. It doesn't go anywhere, frustrates everyone involved, and most importantly, it's not the point of this post. I wanted to write this to say what I needed to say, let people see that it's okay to change your stance on something, that doing so doesn't make you a bad person or a hypocrite, and to provide some resources where people can get free and cheap art if that's what they want.
