Caught myself using an AI upscaler on my own pencil sketches for 8 months

I was prepping some character designs for a freelance gig and noticed the linework looked weirdly smooth. Turned out I'd gotten so used to fixing my rough sketches with an AI tool that I forgot how to just draw a clean contour myself. Anyone else realize they were leaning too hard on AI cleanup?

3 comments

3 Comments

miles_robinson202h ago

Huh, you know what, I actually came into this thread ready to argue the opposite. I used to be all about the AI shortcuts and thought forcing yourself to redraw everything by hand was just some old school gatekeeping nonsense. But after reading through this, I gotta say it kind of clicked for me. I mean, I've been catching myself reaching for the upscaler before I even try to fix a line myself, and it makes me wonder if I'm even building the skills I think I am. Maybe it's just me but seeing someone actually commit to that weekly redraw challenge is making me rethink my whole approach. Idk, I might try it for a month just to see if it changes how my hand feels when I'm drawing without a crutch.

wood.uma4h ago

Forced myself to redraw ten rough sketches completely by hand every week.

simonk983h ago

Oh man, I gotta push back hard on this one. Look, forcing yourself to redraw ten rough sketches a week by hand sounds like a good way to burn out fast, not improve. In my experience, the quality of practice matters way more than the quantity. If you're just churning out ten half-baked sketches, you're not really learning anything - you're just repeating the same mistakes over and over. Your mileage may vary, but I've seen way more growth from doing one or two thoughtful studies a week than from grinding out mediocre work like it's a chore. You might end up hating drawing if you treat it like a weekly quota instead of something you actually want to get better at. Just my two cents, don't tie yourself to some number that doesn't mean anything if the sketches are just rushed.