Art should come from the soul, not from a computer stealing the hard work of real artists and spitting out cheap, lackluster copies. I had the opportunity to chat with one of the most well-known and respected artists in the indie horror community: Ruth Anna Evans. She’s incredibly talented, and even did the cover for my debut novel. Her pre-mades are unmatched, and she’s always booked with customs. Most importantly, you always know her work is done by her, not AI.
1. Tell me about your personal experience in the field of cover design?
I’ve been designing covers for about two and a half years. I started by designing for myself and then for fun. When they started selling, I got serious and learned everything I could. I’m still learning! I love making a large variety of styles of covers, from sleek and polished covers to raw, artistic covers. I mostly do horror, but also enjoy poetry and horror fantasy.
2. Are you a traditional cover artist, or do you consider yourself a graphic designer?
My art is composite art, so I use stock photos to create my covers. Some covers are more design–put the pieces together to fulfill the author’s vision. Others are more creative or artistic, and there are a lot of tools in Photoshop that allow me to really experiment and push the boundaries. So I’m a bit of a hybrid between an artist and a designer.
3. What originally drew you to the field?
It’s so fun! I enjoy every cover I make. I have a ton of fun making premade book covers and make a lot of them for a really affordable price. That keeps me excited. Working on commissions is also really rewarding. When you hit an author’s vision for their book—when you exceed their expectations—it’s just such a good feeling.
4. What have you seen since the rise of AI? How has it affected you personally and the field as a whole?
What bothers me most about AI is how it’s making it more difficult to find what I’m looking for in human-made stock. The stock photo sites are getting lazy about bringing in new assets because they are putting their resources toward AI generation. It’s annoying. Adobe Stock is the worst about this. Luckily there are some stock photo sources that still emphasize human-made images.
It’s also frustrating seeing people using AI without being upfront about it. It’s one thing to use it—I’m not the judge of the world—but you shouldn’t pretend that you don’t.
5. How has the advent of AI impacted your income?
For now, the horror community is big enough and the number of authors that care about human made art is strong enough that I’m still doing well. I’m hoping it will stay that way!
6. What steps do you use to prevent the accidental use of AI elements? How do you verify the integrity of your elements?
I always filter AI out of my searches when that’s possible. I avoid things that are questionable, and I run things through a variety of checkers if I ever do find something that I think is human-made but could be questioned. When I find a piece that could be real but could be AI, I look at the other images in that portfolio—is this a model that has done a variety of poses, or is it a one-off? Is this photographer’s overall body of work clearly real, or are there other questionable images in their portfolio? It’s getting harder and harder to discern AI with the naked eye, especially in art pieces. I hate it. I only want to use human made art. If something were to slip by me, I’d remake the cover free of charge.
7. What should the general public know about AI as a whole, and AI elements?
It’s hard to say look for this and this and this because humans originated these art styles and AI stole them, so you could see something that looks like AI but was made by a human. So be cautious about accusations. But in general, look for images that pretend to be photographs but are a bit too smooth, shiny, and perfect. In art, zoom in and look for things that don’t make sense, lines that don’t connect, etc. If it looks like something a master artist would have to have done but it’s super affordable and fast with cheap typography, you may be getting duped.
8. In what ways do you combat AI’s intrusion into art?
I mostly just do my own thing and do it the best I can. I’ve started doing this really raw hand-drawn art. AI isn’t human and will always be too perfect, so I want to embrace my flaws and turn them into art. But for my more polished work, I try to put heart into my art. People will always gravitate to that over something made by a machine. I hope.
9. What should the public look for when attempting to verify art?
Beyond the tips I shared above, I use the following websites:
https://hivemoderation.com/ai-generated-content-detection
Savannah R. Fischer is the permanently exhausted pigeon in charge of two well-loved chaos gremlins. When not with her family, she can usually be found in her cave, wrapped in an oversized blanket and dreaming of spinach puffs. She wants to show her gremlins that they can do hard things, even when it’s scary, like pulling the wrong lever and ending up in a pit of alligators. No llamas were harmed in the making of her works of horror.
PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.
Discover more from MEMENTO MORI INK MAGAZINE
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.