AI Made Me Want to Paint Again
Technology has taken me full circle
One of the most impressive features of Midjourney and similar image generating AIs is that you can tell it to generate a picture in a certain style such as for example impressionism. You can even mention the name of an artist to have it generate a picture in the style of that artist. It is quite a magical experience to order up a new Rembrandt, van Gogh or Velázquez and see something they might have painted after only a few seconds. Some of the results were pretty great and others not so much but the overall experience was that of exploring a truly new terrain in content creation. The abilities of these tools are only getting better, especially as more specialized AIs will emerge.
After rummaging around in the parallel universes of what Rembrandt might have painted I wondered what might still be the use of painting by hand with actual paint and a brush. To paint an oil painting takes at least the best part of a day and with Midjourney we can create one every minute. At the moment the main difference is of course that Midjourney does not create physical oil paintings, but that is something that will likely change in the not too distant future. A robot could render the painting using actual paints and brushes and the result would be an actual oil painting. So what is the difference?
The difference is of course the experience. The struggle and joy of learning to do this, and accomplishing it, is fulfilling and meaningful. Just because a robot could do something similar, does not take that away. And no matter if from a distance we can not tell if it was painted by an actual human being, something hand-painted will always be different from a machine-rendered painting. Expressing an inner vision on a canvas using paints and brushes remains a thrilling and at the same time relaxing experience.
As I was contemplating this I remembered I still have a box of oil paints somewhere. Hopefully they are not dried out. I grew up around paints and brushes. My father, Poppe Damave, was a professional artist his entire life. I dabbled in painting and etching but soon went on to explore different forms of expression often combining art and technology. I worked as a photographer, film maker and web designer, and now, the simplicity of oil paint was beckoning me. Somehow technology has taken me full circle. So that is how I started painting again.
As you can see, at the moment it is more enthusiasm than skill. Now that ChatGPT can see, I will see if it wants to be my art teacher. That will be the subject of a future post.