This was at Camrose Vintage Working Day which has a tent dedicated for local artists to sell their work. However this year several new “artists” have stalls selling nothing but AI generated artwork. The worst part is, after speaking to several of the actual artists who were selling their work there, artists who have had stalls at this show for years have been given the boot over these people. Absolutely dreadful.

by Starkiller100

25 comments

  1. The owner of a craft shop for independent artists (which I used to have artwork in) has recently updated her Facebook page with pictures of her new ‘designs’ which are AI AF, “I’ve been working on these cards and they’re available in store.” No you haven’t, you’ve downloaded them and slapped them on a card. Forget everyone who made your store what it was, eh?

  6. I notice marvel inspired AI in the 1st picture, I’m sure Disney would be happy with that

  7. I’ve seen brick and mortar galleries selling this crap. My parents have an ai owl printed on metal

  8. I live on the periphery of people who organise craft events. And I reckon we’ll see a LOT more of this going forward.

    But the other thing… Scented candles. Dear GOD! Why are there now SO MANY scented candle ‘artisans’?

    Few weeks back went to a village fete, that had a sort of craft tent going on. There were about 24 stalls, and easily 11 of those were scented bloody candles! Walking through it was like…

    1. Scented candle stall.
    2. Knitted goods stall.
    3. Scented candles.
    4. More scented candles.
    5. Guy selling lathe turned bowls.
    6. Scented candle stall.
    7. Regular (unscented) candle stall.

  9. I’ve been seeing this a fair bit with comic festivals too. It’s really frustrating to see as an artist who spends hours drawing and making things to also sell at these places.

  10. We had a stall at one of our regular fairs, turn up with a load of obviously straight from Temu crap.

    She said she had horror themed handcrafted drinks bottles, and jewellery.

    The drinks bottles were cheap plastic cups with stickers on (I’ve seen the same stickers on Temu), and the jewellery was also direct from Temu.

    She hasn’t been invited back since

  11. If I were at all convinced that these people had personally made the cans, tablemats, etc., and simply applied prints of the ai generated images on to them, that at least would be something. But even that assembly was probably done in a factory somewhere, and all they did was pay an online company to manufacture and deliver.

  15. Sometimes I wish I had no conscience. It seems so easy to sell out and make a bit of dishonest bob, but then again, I like to have at least a shred of self-respect.

  17. You’re not wrong but reminds me of the 80s when all that airbrush artwork came out on posters. Shiny, sexy, robots in bikinis and sports cars everywhere.

  18. They’ve started to infiltrate comic cons, too. It’s really disheartening, as I go to comic cons specifically for artist’s alley, because the shows I’m into never have official merch.

    My friend is an artist and at the last con he went to, he was set up directly across from a booth selling only AI art. All of the artists in the row were very upset (as they should be) at the organisers for letting that happen. But hey, that’s Monopoly Events for you…

  19. There’s someone on Etsy called ‘Twarts’ who is clearly using AI to generate town posters of such hilarious inaccuracy that it must be deliberate. And definitely not a print-on-demand bot in China.

    The Keighley one has trams. And a cathedral.

  21. AI and a Cricut is the stuff of nightmares. It’s the absolute antithesis of what should be selected for a craft fair, there is no crafting or artistic consideration that goes into producing this kind of rubbish. As a designer & craftsperson this makes me so angry as it’s damaging to artists by lowering consumers expectations.

  22. I’ve organised craft fairs in the past, and it is entirely on the organisers to decide what they want and to strictly enforce it.

    I would get the sellers to send photographs of their stock over as part of the application for a stall and deny them if it was cheap Chinese shite. This was pre ai explosion, but same thing applies.

  24. I attend craft fairs seasonally and I make clay jewellery (mainly for the kids), gemstone jewellery, I paint stones/pictures and I take old items from charity shops and paint things on them. I make great money, lots of lovely compliments about my art, but it’s so disheartening sometimes having folk say “oh that’s expensive” for a £3 necklace I’ve put an hour or so into – then they buy exactly this stuff from the next table for much more.

    Last fair this happened, some lady made a comment about my stuff being “tat” as she walked away, went to the next table and bought a fake Starbucks cup for £15.

    They’ll absolutely push people like me out in the next few years.

  25. AI art always looks so uncanny to me, like it’s a weird dream like image that is recognisable but slightly ‘off’. Even with ‘good’ AI art that’s a very accurate depiction of what it is supposed to be, you can still just get a sense of it being unnatural, and it feels weird.

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