CREATING ART WITHOUT AI (FOR AUTHORS)

July 11, 2025

Brought to you by the multiple writing communities and authors that have leaned heavily into using AI with zero self-awareness. When AI is presented as something “democratizing” art for the masses, it’s a complete lie: art has always been democratic. If you need art for a writing project without being a visual artist yourself, here’s why not to use AI art and some better ideas instead.

WHY TO NOT USE AI

The obvious: the environmental and economic toll of how much power and resources it consumes, the ethical irresponsiblity of a handful of huge corporations controlling the internet and data, all the way down to the creative works that people see, the erosion of privacy rights as your data is never really yours. But even if you aren’t convinced by that (or if you found a unicorn AI image generator with none of those problems), AI art has no artistic merit.
it doesn’t communicate anything about your art, the uniqueness of your world, the spirit of each of your characters, or the mood and atmosphere. Trained character artists know that art does not only communicate the most literal visual details of its subject, but also intangible aspects like a character’s persona, the atmosphere of a setting, or even hint at a dark plot turn. can show us a person, a place, but none of the personality or intrigue that would make them interesting.
the art just looks shitty and bland, anyone who’s seen enough AI art can tell what it is and that it’s low effort. it samples so many sources that it effectively stylistically becomes nothing. at best, it can ape a specific style, but then it often is just transparent plagiarism. the point of promotional art is more than to literally visualize the people, places, and events in your book, it is to intrigue the reader and show them something they want to see more of.
YOUR CREATIVE INTEGRITY!! if you don’t respect other artists’ hard work and craft then why should anyone respect yours? What makes your work meaningful instead of vapid?

There’s a reason the only discourse around AI art is about why it’s vapid, it would be impossible to dissect any individual AI-made artwork the way regular art is, because it is devoid of substance and intentionality. There is no way to question the artist's intent, the meaning of the arrangement or the motifs, why the artist chose one medium or another, what context the piece was created in, because the only true 'artist' is a machine and incapable of actual thought.

OTHER WAYS TO MAKE ART

it can be cheap, free even!! it’s not as easy as mindlessly plugging prompts into a generator but it’s also not a herculean task like people often act like it is. I put these in the loose order of what I would personally do or have done.

make it yourself and accept that it can look “bad”. Trying and doing something wrong is better than just not trying at all. you can draw, or use photoshop to edit together a book cover, for example. or, try to learn entirely different kinds of visual art (sculpting, crochet or diorama building, for example), to make art without learning to draw. check out my art resource hell for how to start that!
The public domain! Here you can use it outright or edit it as you wish. This includes any artwork 95+ years old as well as more modern works willingly put into the creative commons. check out my public domain resource hell for some places to look!
commission an actual artist if u have the money. if you want to be respected as an up and coming creative, then step 1 is to respect others in the same boat. there's many great artists that are willing to do character and scenic art for not all that much money!
Picrews or similar non-AI image makers. this is good especially if u are publishing informally or simply want a reference picture of your characters
Moodboards. they feel pretty tiktok to me but hey, it’s something
literally generic ass fantasy art off google images with a lazy disclaimer that it’s not yours (given the circumstance) is more okay, assuming you’re publishing informally (not trying to use it in official promotions including your author persona or selling it as a for-profit product)

Yeah I don't really have a way to wrap this one up besides please put in a little bit more effort