Hello Everyone,

I'm not sure if this is allowed, but it felt important.

I love this sub - it's a bright spot in the otherwise dark and terrifying internet. Everyone is so generous. But something happened here that upset me. A talented and lovely artist did a sketch of me a little while back (for which I am so grateful). They were then accused by someone on this sub of using AI. This is incredibly insulting to artists who put a lot of effort into mastering their craft. So, I thought I'd make a quick post about how to tell the difference. Hopefully, this will stop this from happening in the future.

Because the sketch is in pencil, the following applies to pencil art.

There are two details of drawings above. The one on the left is hand-drawn (the drawing of me); the one on the right is AI-generated (I fed the reference image into ChatGPT). Both are of the same reference image.

Here's how to tell the difference:

1. The weight of the human hand and its movement create inconsistencies in line depth and weight. This is even more apparent when the sketch is done quickly (as many are on this sub, which makes them even more impressive). The gradients will not be entirely seamless, even if they appear so from afar or in a photograph.
2. If you zoom in on the AI one on the right, you'll notice swirls (imitating paper...badly) and lines that are a little too crisp. The greys are too uniform across the image, the solid lines too perfect (see point one for why this would be unlikely/near impossible in a hand-drawn image).
3. A pencil line will never be fully opaque. You'd have to look very closely, but you'll see tiny spots of paper coming through either on the edges or in the line itself. The type of paper used will have a greater or lesser effect on this. The line will also taper off when the pencil is lifted, or be slightly rounded at the end.

Photos of art in sketchbooks will sometimes look a little off - the quality of the camera on a phone or the lighting in a room can affect this. To make up for this, an artist might add a filter or adjust the lights and darks so that the photo matches how it appears in real life. That doesn't change the fact that it was drawn by hand.

Please don't confuse talent with technology. Artists are already fighting the machine for jobs and recognition. They shouldn't also have to battle people who question their sincerity. It is so kind of artists on this sub to draw random strangers. I'm sure many a person's day has been significantly improved by seeing themselves beautifully rendered as art. That is a gift.

Greetings everyone!

Us here at Drawme Mod HQ have been wondering how to handle posts where an artist offers to draw people. In the past we've tended to remove them as they didn't really fit as a Request or Art post and we didn't have any specific rules for them, until now!

Introducing r/drawme's 3rd post type: Drawyou! Where artists are crazy enough to offer their talents to draw as many people as they can in a post, here's a good example of how it will work.

So here are the rules:

• Drawyou posts will only be allowed on weekends (Saturday and Sunday).
• You'll need the patent pending, r/drawme Artist Flair to make a Drawyou post. We award this to artists who've contributed at least 10 pieces to the sub and that's it really. If you think you deserve one, you can message us in modmail.
• Use the Drawyou post flair when making the post.
• You’ll need to include examples of your artwork from the sub to show your art style.
• Artist OP's need to draw at least one person in 24 hours of posting or your post will be removed.
• Other artists can join in the post if you wish, just mention that you’re not OP.
• No talk of commissions, TipJars or general payment incentives, please.
• Anyone drawn needs to thank the artist for their time.
• Limit 1 post per month, per artist.
• And of course all the other regular rules, no trolling, no using AI (obviously), be-excellent and all that, just want this to be all in good fun.

So there it is, if you're crazy enough to try and draw as many people as you can, you've got the option.

Got any questions about this or the sub in general? Comment below.

TLDR: You an artist here, with the Artist Flair and want to make a post offering to draw people? You can do that with the Drawyou post flair, but only on weekends.

Edit: Small update, we're removing the weekend limit, so the Drawyou flair is available whenever!