NTR Character Introduction Challenge (?
❗AI-assisted lineart used
Hello everyone, I'm Rain-Home. Recently, seeing the NTR character introduction challenge really made me want to draw, so I decided to draw my favorite ship (CP). But as I kept drawing, it started to feel like I was drawing storyboards for a doujinshi… (Actually, I've been thinking about transitioning into an artist for male-oriented content #)
Next, I'd like to talk about something personal regarding the topic of AI-assisted creation. If you don't mind this topic, please continue reading. Thank you.
To be honest, I've been more active online recently because I've thought through and prepared for my future form of creation. So, I want to use my posts and comments to share my views on modern AI-assisted creation and my own transition.
Anyway… on January 1st of this year, I posted a public apology regarding my use of AI assistance in my artwork. That post received quite a bit of feedback. There were people who supported me continuing to create this way, and there were also those who opposed it and advised me to stop using AI. I took everyone's comments to heart and constantly reflected on what exactly I should do in the future.
After that, I went silent for about four months. Although I still did various small and large creative projects during that time, mostly I just briefly surfaced online. The works I chose to share then were all 100% manually drawn by me, without any AI-assisted pieces mixed in.
Let's talk about my current views and my future plans for posting. I want to inform everyone that from now on, I have decided that the majority of my artworks will be completed using AI assistance! Please rest assured that wherever I use AI assistance, I will be completely transparent about it. Furthermore, I can guarantee that the final result of the artwork is drawn stroke by stroke by me; there will be absolutely no fragments of AI-generated image files blended into my final piece.
Let me briefly explain the workflow of the AI assistance I use. I have the ability to compose an image myself, so I will first hand-draw a rough sketch on my own. Then, I will feed my sketch into the AI (currently, most of the time I use my locally deployed Stable Diffusion, and occasionally I use online AI generation websites like Gemini).
After I get the refined drafts from the AI, I trace over the entire thing again. The AI might generate several images, but I pick the suitable ones, place them as an underlay in my drawing software, and trace the lineart for the character parts that look right to me.
To summarize simply, what I'm doing is tracing AI, but I'm just using my own sketch to generate a detailed draft from the AI, and then tracing that.
I understand that people reading up to this point might think I'm shameful or lack the spirit of an artist. You're not wrong to feel that way, but I want to add that the reason I want to transition to this creative format is because I want my drawings to look better and better. And it's not like I don't spend time revising the drawings. Whenever I use this AI tracing method and refine it into a finished product, it still takes me over 10 hours.
Some people might say, "If using AI assistance still takes you so long to draw, why not just use AI to generate the final image directly?" But my counterargument is that while AI-generated images look great from a macro perspective and have good overall composition if you don't look closely, upon closer inspection, there are many blurry areas and messy lines. Moreover, there are often objects on the characters that make no sense. This is a common flaw in AI-generated artworks. Those who have used it should understand that sometimes getting a good image is just luck of the draw (like pulling a gacha). Ultimately, fixing the detailed errors in AI images still requires the aesthetic judgment and drawing skills of a human artist.
The above is my explanation regarding AI-assisted drawing. Finally, I just want to say that my form of creation will inevitably still make many people in the art community dislike me or feel that I lack real skill. However, I have made up my mind to use this method for my future creative journey. Furthermore, I will also actively practice drawing privately without relying on AI—practicing anatomy, perspective, etc.—with the hope that one day I can draw works that I am truly satisfied with, without relying on tools for assistance.
If, after this public explanation… there are still people who strongly look down on my actions and my AI-assisted artworks, please block me. I don't think we'll be able to get along. Thank you.
I've attached both the sketch and a video of the original image layers! If there are any translation issues with the article, please feel free to ask me. Thank you!
