A Traditional Artist in a Digital World
A Tiny Artist Graphite pencil Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot topic at the moment, as its use and capabilities are creeping into more and more areas of all of our lives. While many industries and individuals are in favor of its growing presence, there are plenty of skeptics and warnings of caution, and artists, in particular, are scrambling to protect their work and style from being used as fodder to train AI to be able to replicate their creations. As a result, it is becoming increasingly important and necessary to convey a sense of the person behind the art, which, ironically, is done primarily through the digital realm, in one way or another, and to varying degrees. With the introduction and, ultimately, the pervasiveness of digital art, as well as AI-generated content, hand-rendered art and illustration is getting pushed more and more into a niche. Over my long career as a bookseller, with many years spent working with children’s books, I witnessed the rise in popu...