Part 1:
Trends in children’s book illustration
First of all, let me make this clear. I think Artificial Intelligence (AI) is pretty amazing. I am blown away by the images that various AI generators like DALL-E or Midjourney can produce. I say this because I don’t want people to assume that the reason I’m writing this article is because I hate AI. I don’t. Nevertheless, as cool as AI is, I’ll be honest, it is wreaking havoc on the illustration industry and making a lot of us worried. This blog post is to explain to those who are not in the world of children’s book illustration why AI art is making illustrators uncomfortable.
As an author/illustrator of children’s books, I like to be aware of what is going on in the publishing world from as many angles as possible. This is why I am on over 100 forums including those for teachers, librarians, principals, editors, illustrators, authors, and children’s book self-publishers. In the last few years in the world of children’s book self-publishing, there has been an increasing trend of people taking credit for illustration work which they have not created. AI did not create this trend, but it has added rocket fuel to the fire. AI has now become the number one topic on many of the forums that I am on and for good reason. Let me explain.
Traditional and Digital illustration
Originally, children’s book illustration was all done by hand in various media, such as colored pencils, watercolors, or collage. Now, however, all artwork, even that which is carefully crafted by hand, is eventually put into a computer. This is not a bad thing. It actually makes doing layouts a lot easier. Creative apps like Adobe Photoshop and Procreate have made it possible for artists to make spectacular digital images and gorgeous picture books.
The influence of POD
The first big revolutionary change in the children’s book industry was the introduction of print on demand books (POD). This is because in traditional publishing, a book took months to make. Publishers had to make sure that everything was perfect and professional before they could send a book to press. POD books, on the other hand, could be printed immediately. POD technology made it possible for anyone to publish a book who had the means to do so. Companies like Amazon took advantage of this and made it possible for people to publish their books for free. The market for self-published books began to boom.
To self-publish a children’s book, however, you need to be able to finance its creation. This means that unless you are an author/illustrator with experience in graphic design and perfect grammar, you still need to pay for editing, illustrations, and layout. Most professional illustrators charge between 3-10,000 dollars per book for illustrations and are paid upfront (illustrators are not normally paid royalties). This means that for most authors who choose to self-publish their children’s book, illustrations are the biggest cost. Because of this, many began to look for cheaper ways to make their dream come true. The demand for inexpensive illustrations grew.
The demand for cheap illustrations
In order to find low priced images, many people began to go online to pay for someone overseas where wages are lower to illustrate their book. There are many illustrators on sites like Fiverr which will do an entire picture book for less than $500. Unfortunately, these sites are filled with scams. One of the biggest problems is artists stealing other illustrator’s work and calling it their own to make their profiles look great. Another is illustrators who take money and never send illustrations. Finally, you have illustrators who make entire books using clip art. You would think that this would be easy to spot, but it is rampant in the industry and is a huge problem for various reasons.
First of all, clip art is actually an illustration done by someone else. When a writer or illustrator uses a bunch of clip art to make an illustration and then puts his/her/their name on it and publishes it, it is dishonest. Imagine if you take a bunch of recipes from various cookbooks and put them together in one book and then claim it is yours. Clip art might be fine on a Power Point, but it has no place in children’s book publishing. There are thousands of books with clip art illustrations currently on the market and many authors are unaware that they are being unethical by publishing them. The worst part, is that many of these authors do not even realize that the illustrations that they bought were not original art. For those of us who work in illustration, however, these type of books are easy to spot. The images are often different styles, the shadows are wrong (or non-existent), eye-contact is off, and the parts look cut out. A lot also look like the characters were copied from Disney.
The AI revolution
It used to be easy to spot cheap self-published books because so many used clip art. Within the course of less than a year, however, this has completely flipped. Now AI in children’s books is all the rage. Unlike clip art, AI images are on a completely different level. Many of the images coming out of AI are absolutely amazing. It’s no wonder that tons of people are using AI as an opportunity to make their dream book a reality. Nevertheless, using AI in a children’s book has a lot of negative side effects and many of these are why my colleagues and I are angry.
First of all, there is currently no copyright on AI as a computer generates the images. That means that if you publish a book full of AI images, there is not much stopping someone from copying or sharing your images. This area is just too new and there isn’t much legal precedence.
Secondly, AI runs its algorithms based off actual artwork. Imagine taking a bunch of famous paintings and collaging them together and saying it is your work. It is actually not, especially because you didn’t even do the collaging yourself. Of course, AI generation is a bit more complicated than a collage, but you get the point. Plus, the artists are not being compensated or acknowledged for their work. In addition many authors inadvertently place only their name on the cover of their AI illustrated children’s book so that everyone assumes that they are the illustrator. Unfortunately, I see this every day on the forums that I am on. There is always a newbie author pushing their debut book with AI images, only their name on the cover, and no admission that they used AI to create it. I’ll be honest, people buying cheap illustrations frustrate me but people trying to skip paying someone entirely and take the credit for it frustrate me even more. Nevertheless, AI makes it easy to take credit for amazing illustrations that you didn’t actually create.
Finally, many illustrators are losing work. The amount of AI produced work is overwhelming the industry. Literary agents are flooded with AI produced books. Publishers have stopped submissions because they do not know how to handle the amount that they have received. This means that authors and illustrators who have been spending months creating high quality books are unable to get their books in the hands of the people who need to see them. When authors and illustrators say that they are worried about their jobs this has more to do with just AI making neat pictures. Just like photography killed the editorial artist, AI will put a lot of illustrators out of business. The technology is just too revolutionary. AI is able to generate illustrations which rival even the best traditional artists at almost no cost.
Human illustrators cost money for a reason because doing illustration is a lot of work. I got my master’s degree in illustration and book design, and I spend hours on each illustration I make. I’m proud of the work that I produce. At the moment, I use AI for ideas. I won’t use it in my books, because I want people to know that when my name is listed as illustrator that I did all of the artwork myself. Maybe someday I will use AI to make even better illustrations. Perhaps I’ll use it to add backgrounds, shadows, or to create entirely new images. I have no idea, but I am sure that I will have to find a way to work with this technology or get out of the way.
Why are illustrators angry?
So why does AI make illustrators so upset? In the end, I think most of us are not angry at AI. We know that AI has a lot of uses and is here to stay. We are frustrated, however, with people who misuse it for their own gain. We are annoyed at people taking credit for artwork that they didn’t create and those who use cheap illustrations instead of paying an expert to do the job. We are irritated that the artists whose work is being used by AI are not contacted, acknowledged, or compensated. We are angry at how recklessly AI is being used in our industry and how that recklessness is damaging our livelihood. We are upset because we know that a lot of us may not be working in illustration ten years from now. The industry as we know it is gone. AI is here and our world as illustrators will never be the same.
Part 2:
Opinions from children’s book illustrators
I posted this blog post to my friends and colleagues on various illustrator and publisher forums and asked for opinions on AI. Here is the response:
AI is killing illustrator jobs:
Matthew McLemore, “For those saying it won’t take the jobs of talented professionals… It IS taking those jobs. It’s not a hypothetical.”
Kathleen Fain, “Well I think it's mainly because people will lose jobs , same as writers. I also feel like I have worked really hard to acquire my skills and when a robot can do it in a matter of seconds, that's depressing.”
Santhya Shenbagam, “To say that Ai is slowly taking the essence of illustrators is an understatement. I do understand lot of people still use and value the work of illustrators, but I don't see how we can adapt to this new future.”
Sarah Lovell, “AI makes me feel worried . I’ve draw all the time , if a day goes by when I don’t , it feels wrong ! I’ve put years of really hard work into my portfolio , following choosing art throughout my whole education up to university. I’m really determined to make it as an illustrator of children’s books , but the rise of AI feels like a threat to all my hard work .
I hope that publishers continue to see the value a real human brings to the artwork they create : the hours of dedication, the passion for their art , the determination despite rejection and ultimately the human touch and person to person connection behind handmade artwork , which I hope will keep us ahead of the machines.”
Emma Danielle Clements, “I am not angry about it. Think needs to be careful how used and relied upon… At the moment a lot of people can turn a blind eye because it's not yet effecting them. But the moment the writers that may look at AI art as a cheaper alternative until they find that AI can write better books by taking all the work they and a million other authors have written, then this conversation will be different.”
Penn Tomassetti, “I have the feeling that ai art is for people and companies who want cheap art. I think there will still be a place for good illustrators, but it will be narrower.”
RaHeem Bos, “Illustrators having been passing off clip art in mediocre books for years now. Them using AI now is no different. The people who turn to AI generated images and stories for final products instead of using it as a tool to build off of or just paying for illustrators and writers are the same ones who would be low balling us and would be a nightmare to work for anyway.”
Just like with clip art, it's going to saturate a very specific portion of the market. But if you're putting out quality work, you will still be fine.
Holly Pearce, “Whilst the prospect of AI scares me, I’m hoping that we will see a distinction between the desirability of AI artwork and authentic ‘organic’ art. I’ve tried to reassure myself that it’ll be a bit like other industries that have been automated… I think ultimately people want to connect with other humans and creators when they consume art.”
AI is more or less stolen art:
Laurie Barrows, “AI is cheating, lazy, infringes on copyright, can’t be copyrighted, has a weird look to it, and lacks the creativity of the human hand & mind.”
Holly Brooke Jones, “I’m not too worried, since ai artwork can’t be copyright protected. If publishers want to protect their book artwork through copyright, they’ll need to hire an actual illustrator.”
Janine Carrington, “AI art is stolen art masquerading as original creations.”
Patti Argoff, “When producing an image, these AI generators present something to you as if it’s copyright free, every image a generative tool produces is an infringing on the copyrighted work of another artist.
The bottom line is, artists who have not consented to have their copyrighted artwork included in these AI databases, are not compensated for their work.”
Heather O. Prince, “AI takes content from the Internet to piece together its art. No credit is given to the original artists of the content it uses. AI steals our art to create its art. This is why I'm angry.”
Illustrators need to evolve:
Jeremiah Rounds, “I would implore every illustrator to learn AI. It's not going away, it's going to permeate every industry, and those who have a background in traditional art are naturally going to be able to create better images utilizing AI then any untrained person will be able to.”
Janine Carrington, “If there is something/someone that can get the job done faster and cheaper then it's our job to adapt or go extinct.”
Buni Arts, “With technology, humans are not making their lifestyle simpler. Instead, we are adding more and more things to our work routines. I am sure that AI will make humans' lifestyles more complex in the future. I don't know if this is good or bad, but the truth is that it is happening.”
Juanita Taylor, “I think the key is to not completely reject the changes that scare us just because they make us uncomfortable, but at the same time use our judgement and understand that there is a proper and improper way to use AI.”
AI is inferior quality:
Karen Ferreira, “AI illustrations may be cheaper and easier to create, but they are not the right choice for our children's books. Our children deserve meaningful, creative illustrations that capture their imagination and bring the stories to life. Anything less than that is simply not good enough for our kids.”
Lilyana Kamenova, “I just can't agree when people pass AI art as their own and call themselves artist. When they pick up pencil and actually put some work into it, then we'll talk. I personally find it boring. It's over rendered not actually suitable for children's books.”
John Thomas, “Some will create with ai and some will not, but in both cases, quality and creativity will rise to the top.”
In Conclusion
As you can see, illustrators have a lot to say on the issue of AI. I’ll let you know how this develops and perhaps write another post sometime in the future on the subject. If you have thoughts on AI and how it is affecting your job, please add them to the comments below.
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