Q&A
Q1. What program do you use for drawing?
A: These days, Procreate, but sometimes Adobe Photoshop too if I need a lot of layers.Q2. What tablet do you use to draw?
A: Wacom Cintiq 24' and iPad Pro.Q3. What canvas size do you use?
A: When I’m working in Photoshop, around 8000x4500px at 300DPI. For Procreate, around 4000x2500px at 300DPI.Q4. What brushes do you use?
A: Brushes from Jaime Jones, Aaron Griffin, Yizheng Ke, Kyle Webster, and the default Legacy brushset in Photoshop.Q5. How long does it take for you to draw?
A: For fully-rendered illustrations (with simple or no background), 5-8+ hours.Photo studies take 2-3 hours, sometimes 1 hour.Q6. Who/what are you inspired by?
A: Recently, J.C. Leyendecker and Zhaoming Wu.I’m also inspired by Final Fantasy, Ace Attorney, and BJD dolls.Q7. How long have you been drawing?
A: Since I was a kid, but I started digital art in 2011.Q8. What does your username mean?
A: Zynu is just my Korean name. -shi 씨 is Korean for “mr/ms/mrs”.Q9. Where can I see your old work?
A: HereQ10. Did you learn digital art on your own or at school?
A: On my own; I learned by practicing a lot of life/observational drawing, photo studies, and film shot studies every day; and watching drawing speedpaints/process videos on YouTube.Q11. Why do you have watermarks on your drawings?
A: To deter people from stealing my art/pretending it's theirs.Please do not use, edit, trace, or repost my art. It is strictly prohibited to use my work/content for profit, AI training/editing, or NFTs.Q12. Can I use your art as my profile picture or wallpaper?
A: Sure, with credit.Q13. Can I reupload your art if I credit you?
A: No, please do not repost my art! If I drew the art for you (like commissions/gifts), then yes.Q14. Do you take free requests or art trades?
A: Not usually, but sometimes during special occasions... (e.g. events like secret santa).Q15. Do you sell high-res versions, prints, etc of your art?
A: Unfortunately no, but thanks for your interest!Q16. Someone is stealing your art, or impersonating you!
A: Please let me know by DM or help me report them :(Q17. How can I tell if an account is yours or an impersonator’s?
A: The only accounts I have are:
-@zynushi on Bluesky, Pixiv, Cara, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter(X), Discord, Pinterest, Kofi, NexusMods, Gumroad
-@zynu.shi on TikTokI only post art on Bluesky now because most of the other sites have AI, or are trying to use everyone’s content for AI training. That’s why I set some of my accounts to private or deleted my work from the sites.Any other username/name or website/app not listed here is NOT me.Q18. Why haven't you responded to my DM/comment?
A: I have Comments/DMs Filtering ON in Settings, and sometimes the app may mistakenly hide your comments/DMs :((Note: I do not want to see any AI-related content/posts on my feed so I will block all AI users/supporters, including anyone with an AI profile picture. Please do not follow or interact with me if you are any of those.)Q19. Where can I download your Stardew Valley portrait mod?
A: Here's the link.I’m actually planning on revising the portraits later though…They were kind of rushed…Q20. Do you have plans to do portraits for SVE?
A: Yes, after I’m done with my short film. I’m also interested in drawing portraits for Ridgeside too!
Q21. Why are you making a 3D animated short film?
A: It’s supposed to be my senior thesis for school. I wasn’t able to finish it due to health issues, but now that my condition has somewhat improved, I hope to finally finish it some time in 2025! :)Q22. What art college did you go to?
A: I went to Ringling College of Art and Design as a Computer Animation major.Q23. What is your short film about?
A: I don’t want to ruin the surprise, so I’ll just say that it puts a twist on a well-known childhood myth…I hope you look forward to it!Q24. Why are you doing digital art if you're studying 3D animation?
A: Digital art is my passion, but my family did not want me to pursue illustration as a career; so now I’m studying 3D animation.Q25. What are your favorite anime/video games?
A: My favorite anime are probably Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, One Piece, Naruto, and Cowboy Bebop.Other animations I love are Arcane, Avatar the Last Airbender, Spiderman into the Spiderverse, and most Studio Ghibli films.My favorite video games are Final Fantasy VIIR, Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Persona 3/4/5.Other games I like: Nier Automata, most Final Fantasy games, Detroit Become Human, Assassin’s Creed, Kingdom Hearts, most Legend of Zelda games, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Ace Attorney, Stardew Valley, Dragon Quest XI S, Xenoblade Chronicles, Animal Crossing, PokemonOther anime I like: Samurai Champloo, One Punch Man, Bleach, Dragon Ball Z, Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, Death Note, Psycho Pass, Jujutsu Kaisen, Hunter x Hunter, Spy x Family, Noragami, Solo Leveling, Frieren, Mob Psycho 100, NichijouQ26. Do you have any favorite/least favorite characters?
A: I guess I sort of lean towards the funny characters; like Sokka, Uncle Iroh, and Saitama. Martial artists are also pretty neat, like Rock Lee from Naruto. Also the strong but kind types, which I guess are most shonen protagonists...I tend to be neutral to most characters, but…I really don’t like Shou Tucker from FMAB or the Celestial Dragons from One Piece.Q27. I don’t see some of your art that you posted on social media? What happened?
A: I took them down because I noticed a lot of mistakes and wanted to revise them.Q28. What happened to your art style?
A: I wasn’t quite happy with my style; I was trying to draw in an anime style with realistic rendering but it just wasn’t working, so I’ve been experimenting and studying again.Q29. What does FUB FREE mean on your Bluesky profile?
A: FUB stands for Follow, Unfollow, Block. It means you’re free to follow, unfollow, or block me and I won’t mind. (I will block genAI users/supporters though).Q30. What is your opinion on genAI?
A: It’s unethical because it’s trained on stolen content and can be used to steal someone’s identity (voice, face, art style, etc) to create false information or inappropriate content. It also depletes the Earth’s resources/harms the environment, just to make imitations of human-made art.Art shouldn’t be about how easily/cheaply/fast it can be made. It should be about the process, the journey, and self-expression. When an individual makes art by hand, they draw based on their own observations, knowledge, skills, interests, etc (which all vary by person). That’s what makes each person’s art interesting and unique. All of these things are lost when using AI because there is no “process.” More here.
Q&A about AI
Q1: Why is genAI unethical?
A: Because it’s trained on stolen content. AI companies should’ve been paying everyone/giving us credit/getting permission to use our content, but they’d rather steal from us instead.The reason genAI can even generate images/videos/music/etc in the first place is because of all the content uploaded online by artists, content creators, and anyone who has uploaded their personal photos/videos on social media. It can’t “create” anything without using our content.Even if the AI-generated content looks “different” from the stolen content, they’re still using stolen work/relying on it in order to be able to generate content.Q2. Doesn’t AI learn like a human?
A: No. If it really did, it would be able to create without needing to be trained on millions of content, and would be able to make art styles (like anime/cartoon styles) by only being trained on real-life images.AI has millions of content in its database; humans can’t store everything they’ve seen or learned in their brains. Every person thinks, sees, and processes things differently; AI doesn’t. Humans know and understand correct anatomy and consistency; AI doesn’t understand even though it’s trained on millions of content. If AI could truly “learn,” why does it generate bunnies with dog paws, snake heads with rat tails, or human heads attached to the pelvis?Human artists don’t literally use other people’s work in order to create art; they create from scratch from a combination of imagination and what they can remember learning/seeing, or their own observations of the references they’re looking at. This is why it’s difficult for humans to copy something they see. (Concept artists may use some photos in their art to speed up the process, but they pay to use the photos and actually edit the photos in themselves + paint over them). AI literally uses all of the content in its database to create, which is why most AI-generated content looks like a blend of anime, 3D, and realism because it is. It’s pretty much “photoshopping” layers and layers of stolen 2D/3D art and photos together, not creating from scratch.
Q3. Why don’t human artists consider AI "artists" as artists?
A: Neither AI nor AI “artists” actually draw, sing, write, etc. AI “artists” just describe what they want to the AI by typing prompts, just like a commissioner/client telling a human artist what to draw.Human artists don't (can’t) order their pen/brush/tablet/program to draw for them. They have to draw each individual stroke, starting on a blank canvas.There is a difference between artists making artistic decisions on the pose/color/lighting/composition/etc and AI users giving prompts.AI users only need to describe a general idea of what they want: “beautiful brunette girl in a red dress at a cocktail party.” Human artists have to know the human body (including the skeleton, muscles) in order to draw the girl’s correct anatomy, what color palette to use and how those colors change under different lighting conditions, how to accurately portray the girl and the background objects in perspective, how to draw the dress’s material and folds, how to blend/render well so that the girl looks three-dimensional, and so, so much more.AI will generate a random image based on the given prompts, which means it won't create exactly how the AI user imagined it. AI users don’t actually know what the final result will look like. They click “Generate” over and over (or use Batch Count to generate multiple images at once) to get a different image every time and choose the one they like the best. They don’t choose what to put for every single part of the image; not how many strands of hair there are, not where the light hits the subject/object or where shadows go, etc. When they want accurately drawn anatomy or hands, they type “bad hands, bad anatomy, warped hands, six fingers” in the negative prompt section instead of actually having any knowledge of anatomy (what makes “bad hands” or how to fix bad hands).AI users do not have knowledge of art concepts, methods, or tools that are required to make human art. They’re using completely different skills—programming, typing—instead of artist skills—drawing, sculpting, writing, etc—and ordering the AI to make content for them instead of making it themselves. Once AI users type in their prompts and change some of the settings, all they have to do is wait for the AI to generate it. They can leave their room, play games, eat food, etc while they wait for the AI. For human artists, there is no waiting.Human-made art vs AI-generated content: climbing Mount Everest vs riding a helicopter up there; Hiking a long trail vs driving to the viewpoint; Driving an F1 car vs playing an F1 video game. They are all different and require completely different skills. The former also takes a lot more effort, persistence, and time than the latter.If a gamer called themselves a pro basketball player after playing a basketball video game, would you agree with them? They aren’t actually holding the ball, dribbling, passing, moving around, shooting, dunking, etc. You wouldn’t consider a gamer who played NBA 2K25 to be the same as Stephen Curry or Lebron James.Q4. Isn’t AI just a tool, like your brushes or your digital pen?
A: AI and digital pens/brushes are not the same. Tools are supposed to help make the process a bit easier, not replace the entire process with completely different methods/skills. Using AI is like being able to make food by a single swing of a hammer.There is no magical brush that can make an entire artwork for you. Artists use custom brushes or shortcuts to speed up their workflow, but they still have to do 90% of the work, and they still have to draw. For example, artists know how to draw trees and can also draw trees, but they may use a tree-shaped brush to save time; they also paint over it and refine it instead of just using it as is. AI users can’t draw or know how to draw, and they don’t draw at all. That’s why they don’t fix the obvious mistakes in their AI-generated images because they don’t know how to.Q5. Why don’t human artists like it when AI users generate art in their art styles?
A: Their art style is basically the artist’s identity. It’s what differentiates their art from other artists. It’s like how everyone has their own voice/face.AI can negatively affect an artist’s career because it can copy their art style identically and create hundreds of art in their style in a short amount of time. Because of this, people/companies won’t hire the actual artist or commission them anymore because generating AI images is cheaper/faster.AI users also generate low-quality or inappropriate content in an artist’s art style, which ruins the artist’s reputation.Q6. Don’t human artists copy other artist’s styles too?
A: Being inspired/drawing in a style similar to someone else is completely different from literally using the artist’s work in order to generate content in their style.When a human artist copies another human artist, they aren’t using the artist’s actual work in order to draw something; they’re drawing everything from scratch and by their own observations. Because drawing takes so much time and effort, they can’t create hundreds of artworks in their style a day. But AI users can, and do, which is the problem.
Q7. Aren’t AI "artists" the same as digital artists?
A: No, digital artists need art knowledge, skills, and experience like traditional artists. The only difference between digital artists and traditional artists is the tools they use.There are shortcuts in the digital programs that can make the drawing process easier/faster than traditional art, but it’s not easier to draw well. Digital art is just a lot easier to fix and can take less time. Traditional artists also use their own shortcuts, too.Even if you know how to use all of the tools and settings in the digital drawing program like Photoshop, you still won’t be able to draw in the same quality as a photo (or even an AI-generated image) if you don’t have art knowledge/drawing skills (which are required to be able to draw digitally/traditionally).Digital artists can still draw without their tablets, programs, and pens. AI "artists" can't.Q8. Photographers aren’t artists either then?
A: Depending on the composition, lighting, posing, camera lens, etc that the photographers choose and how well they understand them, the photo can look either really good or really bad.Photographers have the whole world as their canvas; but because their cameras can only capture a little part of it, they have to carefully choose where, what, when, and how to best take a picture.For example, choosing the right camera lens (like telephoto/wide angle/etc), composition, lighting, etc can completely change how something or someone looks, and even give emotion to an image. You can make the viewer feel fear, sadness, anger, or happiness if you make the right choices. This is what cinematographers do in order to engage the audience or make them feel some kind of emotion when watching a film.This is why—even if you have the most-expensive, high-quality camera, you still won’t be able to take a picture as good as a professional photographer’s. Just holding your camera up and pressing the capture button isn’t going to take good pictures.Professional photography is also an art form. Did you know most hyperrealistic drawings are copied from photos, and that many artists use photos as reference for inspiration?Q9. But how can we make/learn/pursue art if we're not privileged/talented like most artists are?
A: Most artists are not actually born with artistic talent; those who are born with talent are in the minority. Talent is also useless without hard work, passion, perseverance, and practice. If you look at every artists’ past work, no one was an art god on day one. They became good because they practiced a lot.There are also tons of amazing artists from low-income households. Art isn’t a “privilege”; it’s all hard work, just like any other job/skill out there. If someone doesn’t want to spend a lot of time and effort learning and practicing art, that means it’s not for them. All human artists have spent blood, sweat, and tears improving their skills—even if they weren’t rich or talented enough for it—because they just love art that much.If you were really passionate about art, you’d make time to practice whenever you can, and save up money in order to be able to afford classes/tutorials/education/tools.There are actually tons of free tutorials and resources available online that you don’t even need to go to an expensive art school. These days, now that we have access to the internet, you can learn anything you want.Studying/learning is important, but even if you practice on your own every day, you will improve a lot; even if you just use a pencil to draw on a piece of paper.Q10. Artists are being selfish; they’re trying to gatekeep art. AI companies are just trying to make art more accessible for everyone.
A: It’s selfish to want to be paid for your work? Is it also selfish to not want people to take your stuff without permission? So if a pickpocket wants to steal my phone, I should just let them?AI/tech companies act like they care about making life easier for all of us, but what they really want is to save as much money as possible by laying off their employees/not hiring people. They exaggerate on the capabilities of AI and try to brainwash people into thinking that they need AI in their lives. “We can make the world a better place,” says the ones stealing content/data from everyone, firing people to replace them with AI, destroying jobs/passions, and neglecting AI’s environmental impact.AI helps the rich get richer, and makes the poor stay poor and the dumb get dumber.AI doesn’t only harm artists. More jobs will be lost than made. Creativity and critical thinking will disappear. Misinformation and low-quality content will be everywhere. Fake news and evidence will destroy lives. Climate change will intensify. Humanity and the planet will not last long at this rate. If we start relying on technology for everything we do, we’ll lose everything that makes us human. I personally don’t want to end up like the humans from Wall-E who can’t do anything by themselves.Q11. But what about the disabled who want to make art but can’t?
A: There are so many disabled artists who make amazing art. They want to draw/write/sculpt/etc, not order someone/something to make art for them.Using the AI that steals from artists/creators isn’t right, no matter who is doing it. AI is also stealing from disabled artists, too.Q12. But doesn’t it also take a lot of work to make content using AI/to train AI?
A: It takes a lot of work for a robber to steal something; does that mean they should be allowed to steal your belongings because they worked for it?Q13: Isn’t anything uploaded online “fair use” ?
A: By that argument, piracy isn’t illegal—no one has to pay for anything that’s on the internet: softwares, programs, websites, apps, subscriptions, services, games, etc. It also means no one owns anything: you don’t own your copyrighted creations, your identity, your personal photos/videos/information, etc.Q14. But what if I can’t afford to hire a human artist? Why are their prices so expensive?
A: Anything custom-made to your personal taste is expensive. If you want to build a house exactly the way you want instead of buying a random house, it’s going to be costly and time-consuming; the same for commissioning an artist instead of just buying their art that they already made. The price may seem expensive to the client, but most artists don’t even make minimum wage from custom art commissions.It takes 10 times more effort, time, skills, resources, and money to make it exactly the way a client wants. Clients would also request several revisions or change their minds about some decisions, etc. Prices are calculated on the amount of effort, time, and resources it’ll take. Some artists are more expensive than others because they’re high in demand/have years of experience/are extremely skilled and efficient.If the artist you want to hire is above your budget, there are plenty of other artists you can hire who are within your budget. There are so many different kinds of artists out there who would love to help you bring your imagination to life.You can’t expect to order a custom toy for $50 or have Ariana Grande sing your song for $50. What makes digital/traditional artists different? Would you be willing to build a custom chair from scratch for someone (who keeps changing their mind about the design, color, material, etc) for $50? If you calculate the cost of materials/tools to make the chair, the time you spend making it, how much effort you have to spend building, revising, dealing with a picky client—that’s barely profitable.Q15. Can’t you still do art as a hobby?
A: So artists should just give up their careers/passion to let AI users/companies make money using their stolen work?Nobody wants to have their work stolen and used for profit without consent/compensation, and nobody wants to be replaced by thieves/cheaters.If someone keeps stealing crops from your farm to use for their restaurant, are you just gonna let it slide? Would you be willing to give up being a farmer and be happy growing vegetables in your garden, just for fun, while that restaurant continues to steal from your garden/starts to steal from other farms?Q16. Shouldn’t you adapt/use AI, to avoid falling behind?
A: Unfortunately, because AI has so many ethical issues, that’s not an option. Just because we have the technology to clone humans, is it right to use that technology? If nuclear weapons can end wars, is it still right to use them? If technology is dangerous or unethical, it must be regulated.You can’t compare AI to something like calculators, or cellphones that replaced pay phones. AI uses people’s work without permission/compensation, can create false news/evidence/sexual content of anyone which will cause confusion/distrust/ruin, harms the environment, and can destroy countless jobs if left unchecked. No other technology has had/caused these many problems, especially ones that affect the entire world.AI supporters keep trying to compare AI to other technology, such as cameras, calculators, etc; but digital cameras, calculators, cell phones, Photoshop, etc were not made by stealing/using millions of people’s work.Q17. How does genAI negatively affect human artists?
A: In a lot of ways.Human artists constantly get their work stolen and used to train AI, with no way or option to opt out.Many professional artists are being laid off and replaced by AI at work to cut the companies’ production/labor costs; or they are being forced to use AI in order to pump out an insane amount of work.Human artists now have to compete with AI users to sell their art or win art contests. AI users can generate hundreds of images in just a few minutes (and replicate an artist’s style), just by describing what they want. Human artists can only create a single artwork in a few hours/days/weeks/months by drawing each stroke by hand. This is unfair competition. It’s like allowing cars to compete in a bicycle race.AI users are flooding social media and sites like Etsy/RedBubble with their AI-generated content, making it harder for human artists to get their work seen/sell their work.Because AI can imitate photos and human art so well, everyone (even artists these days) can’t tell whether something is human-made or AI-generated, and has grown distrustful/skeptical of anything they see online. This has led to many people falsely accusing human artists of using AI or forcing them to show proof.Now when someone sees any kind of art online, they immediately assume it’s AI-generated. Now all the comments are, “It’s AI, it looks AI, AI can do better, I can make that in two minutes, what prompts did you use?”When you search up anything online, a lot of the search results will be AI-generated images. AI has poisoned the web, making it less reliable to find accurate information or references. Future generations will think that fake images or articles related to history, science, etc are real. Also, when you search up a human artist’s name, a lot of the results (sometimes even the top results) are AI-generated images instead of their actual art.AI has ruined a lot of art styles. Because so many AI users are generating images in anime/semi-realistic art styles, people are getting tired of these styles. This has caused permanent damage to anime/semi-realistic artists, who have worked hard for so many years to develop their styles/identity...AI users use something called img2img to edit human artists’ sketches, WIPs, or finished artworks with AI, without the artist’s consent. There was an incident where an AI user screenshotted an artist’s drawing livestream and “finished” the artist’s artwork with AI. The AI user then tried to accuse that artist of copying them (search for Raiden AI screenshot livestream).Some AI users try to pretend that they drew the AI-generated image by faking process steps/videos, in order to attract people who like human art.Q18. How does AI negatively affect the environment?
A: Training or running AI models uses a ton of energy (fossil fuel emissions), electricity, and water; produces electronic waste; contaminates the soil and water, etc; Way more than you can imagine.
Q19. How do you think AI should be regulated?
A: In order to create a better world, AI should be replacing jobs that no one wants to do, so that people can pursue their dreams and have time for their hobbies. However, generative AI is doing the complete opposite. It is replacing jobs that people want to do, while encouraging mass theft and laziness. Let AI do the manual labor work (like household chores), while we do the thinking and creativity.GenAI isn’t going to go away right now, but how can we make it ethical/safe?How AI should be regulated:
1. AI companies and AI users should be required to get permission from artists/creators/etc to use their content: art, music, voices, personal images, videos, writing, data, etc.
2. AI companies should be required to show what content they used to train AI (not just some—but all, so we know they aren’t stealing).
3. Training AI to copy a specific artist’s art style or a person’s voice/face should be prohibited (since this can ruin the artist’s career/life).
4. Limit the use of AI to lessen environmental impact.
5. Human artists/creators/etc (who gave consent to use their work to train AI) should be compensated/credited (especially if AI companies/users are making profit off of generative AI or AI-generated content).
6. All AI-generated content and accounts should be clearly marked/tagged as AI so people can tell what’s real and what’s not (no more being deceived by deepfakes or fake human art).
7. AI-generated content should be placed in a different category than human art.
8. AI users shouldn’t be allowed in the same contests as human artists.Q20. How can I tell if an artwork is drawn by a human or AI-generated?
A: GenAI has become a lot more advanced recently so it’s not as obvious now, but most AI-generated images don’t look drawn, but more “mixed/warped” and unnaturally “sharp” if you look very closely.Also, AI images typically have unusual “morphing” (e.g. fingers turning into a hair strand, irises melting), extra or missing parts (e.g. six fingers, three legs), or inconsistency (e.g. earrings that are supposed to be the same look different, the same character has different bangs or eye colors).But again, it has become much harder to tell these days. AI is even copying the “rough brush strokes” or “sketch” look, and they’re even trying to fake timelapses/traditional art.Please be careful not to falsely accuse human artists of using AI. AI copies human artists, so naturally there will be some artists whose work looks AI, but isn’t.Q21. Is it ok to copy or reference an AI-generated image?
A: No, AI-generated images are not good reference material, especially for beginner artists. You would be learning the wrong things. If you really want to learn/improve your art, observe real life or study real images.If you copy AI, you’d be doing the same thing that you don’t want them to do: stealing.It also makes it harder for people to differentiate between real human-made art and AI-generated images.Q22. Are there really human artists who are copying AI and pretending that it’s their original work? How can you tell?
A: Yes, I’ve seen quite a few on Instagram and Twitter, which is unfortunate. Some accounts are deceiving everyone by tracing AI or placing an AI image on top of their sketch…..In most cases: if an artist’s work suddenly improved a lot (esp if it’s their original art), their art styles suddenly changed (e.g. black and white + simple shading -> colorful + complex rendering in the typical AI art style (most of the time it’s semi-realism), or they’re posting fully-rendered illustrations every day (you can’t draw Splash art-like illustrations that fast unless you’re copying something).There are also some traditional artists who are copying AI too, though...Copying something for studying purposes is fine, but not if you pretend that it’s your own original work. That’s just stealing. If you’re copying something, always credit the original creator. If you can’t find the original source, at least label it as a “study” or a “copy.”
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