I Drew A Heavy

20.10.2023

Medkit Thief

Monday #StudyBuddies mapcrunch warmup 60 min - 30 min - 30 min

I redrew my Engineer princess because I felt like the original illustration didn't convey my concept sufficiently :)

Here are all the mercs I've drawn so far together:

another redraw, poor demo

/// Fortress or Not Official Poster - RoN ///

Protect. Cap. Secure. Coming December 14, 2023.

SCAR model created by ChoEv. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3273060603

My self-portrait I've originally done for another "poster" idea that I've left abandoned.

The Bliss Before Big Changes - TF2/Blender "𝘏𝘦𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥? 𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦..." https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3299029977

ALL BELOW - This is the big rant message about importance of real art and AI problems I originally wrote for a raffle on scrap.tf some time ago, but I decided to leave it here as well, for the history. Don't know how to hide the text in formatting to it not go a long line down, so there's just big text wall all below yk.

ROTATING SHARK FOR TEXT SEPARATION

ROTATING SHARK FOR TEXT SEPARATION

The Message to People about Art and AI.

Listen to St. Chroma by Tyler, the Creator. Look at "The Last Day of Pompeii" by Karl Bryullov for a one minute. Check out the pottery and sculptures that the local masters in your town make. Go to your local popular cafe and just watch the passion, soul n'effort with which the cooks and chefs prepare the food there for you. I don't care if anyone disagrees with this, but ART is what makes us humans. It is the single most important thing that separates us from any other species on this tiny, puny planet in a vast monotony of space void.

People like to consume art. No, they LOVE sm doing it on a daily basis - music on Spotify (or YouTube), movies, shows, sitcoms, a lot of videos on the same YouTube, art-comms on Internet, paintings n' photos on the walls of our houses, fountains and statues in the city centers, clothes, the design of your mouse pad, whatever else. But let's face it - artists have never been recognized. Never valued. Their efforts and skills have always been humiliated and belittled, fed the term "starving artist" to justify low wages, they were expelled from countries, imprisoned for undesirable works for political regimes all throughout history. Even killed. It works the other way around only sometimes, because look how powerful art can be for propaganda. Society hates artists, let's face it now. I will give you an answer - art has power. Governments (usually authocratic) are afraid of creators cuz those know how to tell the truth and the inside story about these political regimes to humiliate them in that way.

Today, nothing has changed, only the tools. Labels pay pennies to musicians, corporations use AI instead of paying real artists for their work & laiding them off, despite the fact that they also need to pay bills and feed families. Although, about AI... As Hayao Miyazaki put it "An insult to life itself". I will be blunt - AI "art" is not art at all. It's garbage, slop, pictures w/out the most important component that builds the very concept of art - human empathy. The greatest disrespect for the essence of humanity that could ever appear. As a final product within the frames of business - it's perfect, minimum investment and quick result. But from the point of view of being a person, a creator - no. Do you know what I, myself, personally love in art? The process. Emotions. The feeling of the pencil moving on paper. Seeing how my picture looks like I wanted from the start. The result is secondary for me (unless we're talking about when art is a job, which is important as well !). AI takes all of the necessity to take a pencil in our hands and learn all by ourselves. It uses data of human artists' artworks to learn and practically steals the work of a many decades to give a result without any soul nor purpose for existing. Quite handy to rule people who never bothered to bring their ideas in life by themselves, who can't think on how to image smth from the head and not with AI.

Real art, however, makes people go against tyranny, brings the power and sparks the soul for change, causes tears and joy, builds memories and relationships, connects people, makes us who we are truly - living beings with emotions, feelings, ideas. Creativity. Being an artist is a two-sided curse, I can say, but this is what makes me, us, humans. And I even like it tbh...

If you'll look at the Ancient Greece, you won't look for their financial systems or rules of etiquette in the first place - you will look at the culture. The music, paintings, mosaics, clothes. No art = No culture = No humanity. No us.

Everyone, at least many people, underestimating the real situation's state. I can guess why and you might think the same. Well, that's your life, I'm only a person from the Internet that ain't propagating anything in here.

So, for fellow artists - keep creating. Get a pencil/stylus/needle/any other your tool in your hand and go create. Keep being humans with personalities. For others - think about my message twice. As long as I'm making art, I'm staying human.

And remember! - no matter what "shameful" type of stuff you're doin', a silly doodle or a mediocre song, like anything you like - anything else made by AI in an attempt to repeat the output of human soul will always be much more shameful by definition.