INDIE ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: DON NOBLE

Continuing our series raising up real artists, Savannah talks to indie horror’s one and only Don Noble about his art and AI’s impact on the industry!

This week’s artist taking a stand against the AI machine is none other than Don Noble. He is a renowned artist who has graced some of my favorite works to date (I’m looking at you, Air Conditioned Nightmare by David Slater). His pre-mades are known alike for their captivating beauty and their surprising affordability considering the raw talent that goes into each piece. Today’s banner is from one of his gorgeous available pre-mades (Seriously someone snatch it up. It’s STUNNING!).

Tell me about your personal experience in the field of cover design?

I’ve been working from home for the last decade or so, running a small publishing house with my business partner and surviving on sales from cover design. At this point, I’ve made somewhere over 3000 covers, mostly in the horror genre.

Are you a traditional cover artist, or do you consider yourself a graphic designer?

I’m a mix of both. I started as a traditional artist, and moved into graphic design. Along the way, I started blending elements of both in my covers.

What originally drew you to the field?

From my earliest memories I always knew I wanted to be an artist. I started drawing and writing my comics from an early age and eventually stumbled into indie publishing where I could put all those skills to the test.

What have you seen since the rise of AI? How has it affected you personally and the field as a whole?

It’s absolutely cut a chunk out of my income, but that’s not the worst part. What is more nauseating than anything to me personally, is watching folks generate an image and then sell it, claiming they’re an artist or designer. A big chunk of these people don’t let their clients know the image is AI generated. Then you watch people fall over themselves in the comments, talking about how skilled this “artist” is.

It’s stolen valor, plain and simple. We remember who painted the Mona Lisa, but who remembers the man who prompted Da Vinci? It’s because the work is important. The celebration of art is the awe of what a human can express through their mind and body, and when you have a machine that has scraped the work of living artists who actually put that work in, and then claim that you did something? Go ahead, show off your AI imagery to people in a real-life setting.

“You painted this?” You’ll see them brighten.

“Well no, I prompted Midjourney to do this but it was my idea.”

Watch their eyes fall. You took the magic out of creation is all you did.

How has the advent of AI impacted your income?

I would say after the first explosion of AI image generation hit, the novelty of it probably affected my sales by about 40% for the first year. I had a long talk with the business partner that I might have to return to hospice work because it seemed AI was taking over. A lot of writers, thankfully, became aware of how insidious this particular avenue of the tech implementation was and swore it off and I was able to pull through.

What steps do you use to prevent the accidental use of AI elements? How do you verify the integrity of your elements?

It’s pretty simple for me, I can see it. Outside of the obvious extra fingers and distorted eyes, there are certain elements (like rim lighting and lighting distortions that make no sense) that just leap out at me.

The tech is getting better, though, so I have to be more vigilant. When it comes to graphic design, it’s wiser to start taking your own photos, or looking at dates of an asset you might want to use. Is it pre-AI? Use the public domain assets that predate the explosion.

I don’t fully trust the programs that say that can detect AI because I’ve seen plenty of book covers that pass through their verification.

What should the general public know about AI as a whole, and AI elements?

That it is theft-tech. It is the biggest art heist in history. It is techbros replacing the human artist. They know the worth of what we create but found a way not to pay us for our labor.

In what ways do you combat AI’s intrusion into art?

I’ve drastically lowered my prices to combat AI “designers” because through spite, I can do all things.

What should the public look for when attempting to verify art?

You can look for extra fingers, nubs on the fingers that are out of place, distorted eyes, distorted buildings, and these strange spider-webbing fractal patterns. Unfortunately, if you haven’t been doing art for years though, a lot of little things might slip past you – windowsills in the background not being symmetrical, rim lighting on objects that don’t make sense.

The biggest thing you can do is simply ask the artist if they use AI. Any real designer knows what’s up now and will have no issue verifying their work to you. If they’re working digitally, they’ll have layers they can show you from their photoshop or design program. This isn’t surefire though because even some new designers are tricked and end up using AI assets in their creation.

But a secondary trick is just looking into the creator of that image. Most artists have a long trail of digital footprints online that will pre-date the AI explosion. If you see someone who suddenly has exploded with a ton of work that looks incredible, I mean like really in-depth paintings that are highly detailed and no way to verify their work before AI, it’s probably too good to be true.

Rooster Republic Press www.roosterrepublicpress.com

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.