How to find a professional illustrator that is authentic and not sending you ai generated illustrations.
How crazy is the ai world we are living in right now?! I know a lot of creatives are feeling a bit anxious about the capabilities of ai and the likely hood that it may take over their profession or craft. While I think there are some really beneficial aspects of ai and its contribution to the world. When you’re dealing with artwork that’s going to be in your book and represented by you (not to mention artwork you have paid to have created) – It’s important to know how that work was created and whether it was ai generated or created by a professional Illustrator (with all the human qualities and emotion).
Image Credit: Sincerely Media, Unsplash
What to look for.
Check out their social media accounts and look for videos or content that shows them in the creation stage. Stuff that shows them drawing, painting or whatever it is that they do to create the Illustrations. Photos of their creative space/studio are a great sign that they aren’t using ai.
If they don’t have a social media account check their portfolio/website for examples that show sketches or drawings anything that shows their creative process.
If you still can’t find any evidence of real human created art in their online presence. Ask them to send you some examples of sketches or explain how their creative process works. And if you’ve received a finished Illustration made for you from an Illustrator you haven’t worked with before. Know that it is absolutely ok to ask them to show you their sketches or explain their creative process to you. After all you’re paying them for a service you are allowed to ask how they work and provide that service.
Does their pricing seem wildly cheap? There is a possibility they are cutting corners. Ask other successful authors in your circle how much they spent on Illustrations for a guide on what’s a realistic price range for professional Illustrations.
How quickly did you receive work from them? If the turn-around times are super-fast, there could be a chance it’s ai generated. Remember human Illustrators need time to create meaningful art masterpieces.
Image Credit: Estée Janssens, Unsplash
If you’re done with searching around for your perfect Illustrator in your spare time, scrolling the internet, going back and forth with emails and all that jazz. I’m here to help.
I can work with you to determine the desired quality and create a benchmark for guiding the choice of Illustrator and the Illustration type that is best suited to your book and its target market.
Then I’ll go away and search high and low to find the perfect artist for your book. I’ll take care of finding all the details like, their availability, working style, what medium the artwork is supplied in (is it going to be highres?), who owns the illustrations intellectual property if you work with them.
Tie it all the details up nicely in a document for you, so all you have to do is say “hell yes” without needing to deal with all the quality checks and back and forth correspondence.
Click the link below to book in a discovery call with me and let’s get your book the authentic illustrator or photographer of your dreams. ✨
Or head over to my self-publishing service page to read more about how I can help you.