Comments

If you want to share any general comments that don't relate to a specific picture, visit our Feedback Corner. We would love to hear your thoughts!

πŸ¦„ How to Tame a Unicorn

Thank you! Just because I'm not flexible enough to tame a unicorn doesn't mean I can't admire unicorns! ❀️❀️❀️
Sasha M
I read the instructions carefully and came to the conclusion that all this is too complicated for me, or rather, impossible. So thanks for the picture. Unicorns are cool!
Sasha M
Sorry it was too complicated πŸ™ˆ If this is difficult, then what to say about taming a dragon? πŸ˜‚ But thanks for enjoying the illustration anyway! ❀️
Excellent tutorial! πŸ˜…
Never knew how to catch one before. I would want to see my own expression if I saw this when stroling along that river.

/<o>
It would look straight outta a fairytale for sure 🀭
Looks like it's going to be a tougher job than first thought !
Never anything easy in fairy tales, but when you are there, then you probably also have superpowers! 🀭

πŸ’Œ Feedback Corner

A very commendable stance on your part, I think, one can't get much more reasonable than how you're approaching it. I know we've had differences in the past about genAI but I don't hesitate to admit that for somebody who DOES embrace using it, you're doing it in the most respectable way possible. It's a shame people call your assisted artworks cheating or simple. But then again, I guess it's very easy to get confused with this new tech, it is difficult to understand what's going on under the hood, after all. I just had an exam earlier today about Deep Learning and it's absolutely insane how complex these technologies are. No wonder non-tech people misunderstand all sorts of aspects of it all the time.
--Alldenspa
I completely share your views about these AI scammers and similar folk, it's nice to hear we're on the same page there because sometimes I feel a bit guilty for taking these kinds of "extreme" stances against certain groups of people so it's reassuring to hear you agree. And most of all thank you for taking the time to write out such a detailed response to my message from yesterday! I really appreciate it. You make some very convincing points, so thank you! :D --Alldenspa
The problem is that most of the AI-assisted art I did for the main gallery took quite a lot of work, that's why it hurt me when people called it easy or cheating. It certainly wasn't easy for me, even if the results were better than anything I could do by hand. It's just better, not easier.

But this anime model is something I don't even want to call "my art", it doesn't look like my art, it doesn't feel like my art, and it doesn't take any effort to do at all. So when I see others making similar low-effort content and acting as if they're trendsetters in the digital age, I feel a strong urge to give them a good old-fashioned sock to the jaw.

So at least I will try to get people to know how simple it is to create this sort of artwork, then maybe my fans won’t be misled into giving money to some jerk on Patreon who wants $25/mo for their crap that anybody with an average laptop and no artistic skills could make without breaking a sweat.
Alldenspa here, I wasn't aware you added the "AI Imagebord" section until today, and I'm pretty quite away by the images there. I've seen lots of AI art all over the internet, but not specifically contortion-themed and typically of much lower quality.
Looking at some of these posts though, it's incredible that AI is able to generate something like that with just a few clicks. I'm browsing through this secondary gallery and obviously your "main" artworks are way more artistic and elaborate, but still, like... I mean, just look at these AI artworks - As an artist I find it very, very difficult indeed to even see any point in picking up a pencil any more. I couldn't remotely imitate the quality of these "drawings" even if I tried for hours - my technical ability as well as my willingness to invest effort have become completely irrelevant.
I hope other people see it differently and take some sort of encouragement or inspiration from genAI, but for me personally, I have to say that while the images are beautiful and all sorts of other positive things, I find them, above all, incredibly discouraging.
I'm trying to get to a mentality like in chess, where chess computers that are superhumanly strong have been commonplace for a long time now, but I find it very hard. And also, I'm not talking about your "main" artworks (which might be called "AI assisted"), that's a different thing entirely since much human effort goes into it. These fully AI-generated illustrations though... They're so incredibly high quality for so cheap, if you can put it that way.
Don't mistake me, I'm not trying to ask you to make any changes or take pictures down or anything like that, I just wanted to put these thoughts to paper, not even necessarily directed at you, just trying to put this feeling into words. I wonder how many other artists are out there who don't only feel like genAI is stealing from them, but who also have this feeling of discouragement that I described above. I certainly know of a handful among my friends/colleagues, and I have struggled with this problem a lot over the past year or two, since this whole AI thing started.
In that sense, it can be said: We're all very fortunate that you were not likewise affected, but instead you've been inspired and have embraced genAI fully. A lot of cool artwork has come from it so far, which we should be grateful for.
-Alldenspa
There's definitely a point in picking up a pencil. It's a much better feeling to draw something by yourself! Art has always been a process and not just the result.

The images in the /ai/ section make me feel nothing, it only feels good that at least I invested a lot of time into building proper ComfyUI workflows, so it pleases me in a way because I love figuring things out and doing at least something myself. But the results I'm getting indeed feel like cheating, it's very strange to type a few words and get a perfect picture. It's too much output for very little input, but I'm trying to think how to make more complicated and artistic with 3D models, so I have at least something to do.

So here we come to the main point. The bad folks who actually consciously use this as an easy way to make money. All those freaks on Patreon who download everything for free but dare to take donations for their work, pretending there's some hard work behind the curtain. Many people are working very hard to build these technologies and models, and it's all free, while those freaks who advertise themselves all over DeviantART, dare to use these results to make money for themselves.

And I don't care if they're just poor folks, simply trying to do something for a living or anything like that. Robbers from the street are also just trying to make some money, they beat up old ladies and steal from school kids, and them being needy is no excuse for their crimes. Every single guy who has put AI art advertisers on DeviantART deserves to get banned for making their paying customers believe that they're buying something worthy and that there's a lot of hard work behind their AI art. It's an absolute scam and all those Patreon artists must be treated as scammers.

To say that AI art discourages you is like saying "what's the point in doing any honest work like farming, cooking, making clothes, building houses, etc, when you can simply go and rob some guy". Yes, it's discouraging that there are criminals who cross the border of morality to get what they want as quickly as possible, but please keep working on your honest art, because at least you have real skills and the real process of making art. You have the real feelings behind it, unlike people who just ask a genie to magically make art for them and they get the perfect results they can't even control, and they get them way too quickly, while at the same time they couldn't draw even a stick figure without the AI.

I already had this problem with all the 3D artists long before the AI era, it always pains me to read how a 3D artist who had downloaded all the assets for Daz Studio, still pretends very hard to be a proper artist. They probably have some common mental trauma from being a liar for years, because they all act in a very similar manner. You wouldn't believe how many people I've seen on DeviantART who honestly believe that their 3D stuff is "real art", when all they really do is clicking a few presets from several assets they downloaded. Every single Daz Studio user is like that, truly believing they're doing some hard work. I bet you could get a degree in psychology by studying their behavior and how Daz Studio alters their vision of reality. And when the AI emerged, they were the first to start posting blogs like "omg that new technology is totally cheating, please ban AI!" I mean look at yourselves, you haven't even made a single texture by hand, let alone a 3D model. It's very common to accuse others of something you're guilty of yourself, because then you have a very good picture of their sins because they're also your own sins. Of course, the 3D results are sometimes pleasant and I leave comments, congratulating on very nice *results*, but only because I'm kind of too friendly and tend to encourage people, even when I know they don't really deserve it and all they really did was drag a few sliders.

For me, both 3D art and AI art are still valid forms of art that shouldn't be condemned as such because the *results* at least are nice. It's just the people who say "this render took 25 hours" to fool their followers into believing that there's something difficult about their art process, it's them who make me sick. Their renders take 25 hours because they don't even know how to adjust the render settings properly, not because they put a lot of work into it. They don't have even minimal skills to be digital artists. But as long as they make contortion/femboy art, I try to not get under their skin too much, because I'm not naturally angry and it's much easier to stay positive. It's their lives, if they want to waste their lives being a nobody, an "artist" without an art process, so be it. Some people are crippled and don't even have arms for example, but they still tend to have way more skillful and artistic lives than all those 3D and AI artists. But in the end, art is more important, and art can take many forms, even if something is not too difficult to make. I only have a problem with people when they try to scam others and mislead their followers, but I've also noticed that such accounts are short-lived, cheaters are just coming and going, they lose the interest because they don't have any real process behind their work, so eventually their own emptiness will crush them from the inside.
Hi there Yuni, I'm not sure if you're aware, but the search function seems to be broken! At least for me... No matter what I enter as a search term, I always get all artworks returned as the results!
Thank you for telling me, it seems I made a small mistake when adding this new section 🀭
Happy Valentine's Day, Yuni!!!
❀❀
Thanks for all the beautiful art!
I love you!!

-J
Aww, thank you sooo much! That means a lot to me! πŸ₯° Happy Valentine's Day too! πŸ’•
Loving this one! What an interesting idea for a pose, and the character is a real cutie :D
-Alldenspa
Thank you so much! πŸ₯° I'll need to post another version of it where the legs are more straight. I think the character might as well be Helmut given his love for unusually extreme angles 😏
Awesome pose! Very creative.
Thank you! πŸ₯° It's basiclaly like putting the legs behind the head but with the legs turned way more around 😜
Not sure why, but I like this boy.
Why not like him? It's based on one of my early 3D renders that I never managed to finish, so I'm glad the AI helped to make at least some version of it. Of course it needs some tweaks like his thighs being in a slightly wrong position, the face and the carpet patterns could use enhancements, so might get back to it later to make a better picture.

πŸ˜ͺ Sleep Tight

I love this girl
Thank you πŸ₯°
I love this!
Very glad you liked 😊

The Angel of Foldale

Great classic contortionist image and pose. Never has Matthew looked so realistic.
Perhaps we could use this story for his main character page.
So true! It's wild that we can create hyper-realistic pictures like this of him and other characters without sacrificing contortion as the main topic. It's so much work though, haha, but always totally worth it in the end πŸ₯°
Lovely image and story
Thank you so much, I'm very pleased to know it was enjoyable πŸ₯°
Sweet pose , delicious legs and feet πŸ’•
Thank you! πŸ₯° Nothing enhances the beauty of legs so well as contortion poses! 🀭
He's so beautiful......
Thank you πŸ₯°

✨ Timeless Talent

Honestly, I still feel stunned when I see such photos, because seeing extreme poses in your art somehow taught me that they are possible only in artists imagination...
I think most of my works are still impossible because I'm deliberately trying to come up impossible poses and it often involves incorrect anatomy 🀭
One of the best contortionists in the world of all time, in my opinion.

Great art. Not only did you improve the old image, but you also made Alexey look a little more model-like.

A wonderful tribute to a wonderful acrobat.

Sasha M
Yes of course I agree completely πŸ₯° But also I think it's a blessing that he's willing to share his personal archives, after all there has never been a contortionist like him in the entire history and it would have been a disaster if he didn't share his unique talent. Imagine Mozart writing music just for himself and never sharing it, or Einstein making discoveries just for fun... So if I can help in any way to let more people hear about him, it's great! I've already seen many contortionists mention Alexey as their direct inspiration 😊