Watched a guy at a Portland art walk try to sell AI art as 'traditional hand-drawn'

I was at this pop-up gallery in Southeast Portland last Saturday, walking past the booths, and this dude had prints up that looked... off. The fingers were all blurry and the shading had that weird smooth plastic look. Another artist walked up and straight up asked him what prompt he used. The guy turned bright red and mumbled something about "digital brushes." It got me thinking, have any of you run into people trying to pass off generated stuff as handmade at showcases like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan_patel23h ago

Wait, how do you even know it's AI if the fingers are all blurry? I mean I used to think people just overreacted to stuff they didn't understand, but that smooth plastic look and the bad hands are a dead giveaway. After seeing this story it's pretty clear some artists are trying to get away with it.

wyatt_green1d ago

...and here's the thing that really gets me about these situations, you know? I mean, the guy clearly knew what he was doing was wrong if he got that flustered. But what's the play here for the buyers? Like, are people actually looking at these prints and thinking "yeah, that's definitely hand-drawn" or are they just not paying attention at all?