AI in Sketch Card Art: Where Do We Draw the Line?
AI is becoming impossible to ignore in the art world, and sketch cards are no exception. I’m still figuring out where I stand on Generative AI and its place in art. I can see some genuinely interesting possibilities, but I also have concerns about what it means for artists, creators, collectors and the value we place on handmade work.
For now, I don’t use AI tools as part of my creative process. That’s not necessarily a statement that AI has no place in art. I just haven’t reached a point where I’m comfortable incorporating it into my own work.
“The hand, the eye and the heart are connected.”
David Hockney
That idea feels particularly relevant to sketch cards. So much of their appeal comes from the fact that a real artist sat down and created a small, original piece of artwork by hand. The artist’s choices, skills, style & even imperfections become part of the card/final piece. You’re not just collecting an image. You’re collecting a physical piece of that artist’s creative process.
That’s where AI makes things complicated for me. When AI becomes involved in generating the image itself, where does the artist’s work end and the technology begin?
There are other issues I’m still thinking about, including
- how AI models are trained and right
- the use of existing artists’ work
- imitation of recognizable styles
- the whole issue around copyright, and what all of this means for licensed artwork.
It’s also worth noting that some sketch card publishers and licensors are already explicitly stating that AI-generated artwork, or the use of generative AI in the creative process, is not permitted. I do think that’s significant. Whatever our individual opinions about AI might be, publishers have to think about authenticity, licensing, IP, and what collectors expect when they buy an original sketch card. As an artist working on a licensed set, those guidelines are part of the agreement and need to be respected – though I’m inclined to say that they are not.
One thing I do feel strongly about is transparency. If AI plays a meaningful role in creating a piece, collectors should know. They can then decide for themselves whether it matters to them (same as when swiping – that’s a topic for another day).
At the same time, the conversation may not be as simple as saying AI is either good or bad for the creative process. Artists have always adopted new tools and technologies, and we’ve already accepted plenty of automation in the creative process.
Photoshop is a simple example. Click Auto Contrast and the software analyzes your image & makes algorithmic decisions about how its tonal range should be adjusted. The artist didn’t manually make every one of those adjustments. We generally don’t consider that to mean Photoshop created the artwork.
But Generative AI feels different, at least to me, because it can go beyond adjusting something I’ve already created and actually generate new visual content. But even that distinction isn’t always going to be clear. As creative software incorporates more AI into everyday tools, the line between an automated feature and a generative one is likely to get increasingly blurry.
Maybe that’s part of the real question. It’s not simply whether an artist used AI. What did the AI actually do?
Did it correct the contrast on an image? Did it remove some dust from a scan? Did it suggest a colour palette or provide a reference? Did it generate the composition? Or did it generate most of the image that ultimately became the artwork?
Those feel like very different levels of involvement to me, even if we eventually end up calling all of them “AI Slop.”
For now, I don’t think that question has an easy answer, so my own opinion isn’t settled either. The technology is changing quickly, and I’m cautiously curious to see where it goes.
Safe to say that when you see one of my sketch cards, there isn’t an AI-generated image behind it. The drawing, composition, decisions, mistakes, corrections, and final marks are mine.
I’m curious where you stand on all of this.
If you’re an artist, collector, or simply someone who appreciates art, I’d genuinely like to hear your perspective. Is there a place for AI in the creative process? Would knowing that AI was used change how you feel about a sketch card? Does it matter whether AI was used for inspiration, reference, composition, or the final image?
And perhaps the biggest question is the simplest one:
Where do we draw the line?
My thinking on this is still evolving, so I’m interested in hearing perspectives from both sides, just keep it civil 🙂
And in the spirit of transparency, the built it AI tool in Word did clean up this article (still don’t know how to disable Copilot). So am I part of the problem? This is the note it suggested I display:
Content Note: Portions of this article were drafted with research and structural assistance from Microsoft Copilot. The final content, analysis, and opinions are entirely the independent work of the human author.