--- title: 'The Internet Laughed At This Artist''s "Sketch"...' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zl0HV-EYwyI' video_id: 'Zl0HV-EYwyI' date: 2026-08-17 duration_sec: 833 channel: 'kat ''n chat' --- # The Internet Laughed At This Artist's "Sketch"... > Source: [The Internet Laughed At This Artist's "Sketch"...](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zl0HV-EYwyI) ## Summary The video exposes various art-related scams, including AI-generated artwork passed off as human-made, phishing via QR codes, and DM scams targeting artists. It also highlights the issue of artists being falsely accused of using AI, and provides tips on how to spot these scams. ### Key Points - **DM Scam Alert** [00:14] — An account named Sharkal001 or Shark Arts slides into DMs offering character art for $100, claiming to be anti-AI with a blue verification badge, but it's a scam. Red flags include the paid blue check, account created in March 2026, and buying Meta Verified in May 2026. - **PayPal Friends and Family Scam** [00:43] — Scammers ask for payment via PayPal Friends and Family to strip buyer protection, making refunds impossible. The advice is to always use Goods and Services, even if it costs a small fee, as it protects both parties. - **Inconsistent Art Styles** [01:23] — A portfolio with vastly different art styles (e.g., watercolor, logos, pet portraits) is a red flag, as artists typically specialize. While artists can work in multiple styles, extreme variation suggests AI generation. - **Suspicious Sketch Details** [02:34] — The sketch sent by the scammer includes notes like 'Erase tool' and 'Creature talon' pointing to specific areas, which is unusual. Real artists typically keep construction lines on separate layers and toggle them off for a clean client view. - **Digital vs. Traditional Texture** [03:25] — The presence of traditional textures like uneven grids and charcoal scribbles in a digital piece is suspicious, as digital artists would not have these artifacts unless they intentionally added them. - **AI Art Red Flags** [05:01] — Common AI art indicators include weird hands, painted fingernails on line art, hairs that go nowhere, splodgy text, and a ChatGPT-ish writing style. Esports logos are a common AI-generated style seen in scammer portfolios. - **QR Code Scam** [08:15] — A Twitter post with a million views promotes free brushes using stolen artwork and a QR code. Scanning the QR code leads to malware, a practice known as 'quishing' (QR code phishing), which the FTC and FBI warn about. - **Quishing Warning** [09:24] — The FTC advises inspecting URLs before opening them, looking for misspellings or switched letters, and avoiding QR codes in unexpected emails or texts that urge immediate action. Scanning a QR code can hack your device. - **False AI Accusations** [10:56] — Artist Stained Hanson Art, with over two decades of digital design experience, was falsely accused of using AI. They shared a speed paint video to prove their work, highlighting the frustration of artists being accused when AI actually steals from them. ### Conclusion The video serves as a cautionary guide for artists and consumers to recognize and avoid art scams, from DM pitches to QR code phishing, while also addressing the collateral damage of AI accusations against legitimate artists. ## Transcript channel. Featuring my son, Corn. Anyways, let's delve into a couple of so-called artists that have some very interesting looking artwork. And again, let's not send hate to any parties involved. So, we have a user Amy McLaren writing on Threads scammer alert. Authors, beware of AI scammers targeting your DMs. An account name Sharkal001 or Shark Arts slid into my DMs offering character art for $100. Their bio explicitly claims anti-AI and they have a blue verification badge, but it's a complete trap. I didn't even catch the into it and pointed out the massive red flags. The paid blue check. They created the account March 2026 and bought Meta Verified in May 2026. The PayPal scam. family. This completely strips your buyer protection so you can't get a refund when you realize it's a scam. This one, absolutely massive. If you are if somebody asks you to pay through friends and family, don't do it. It is like $5 more or whatever, just go do goods and services, but that is the let people gaslight you into being like, "Well, friends and family, we save money." Goods and services protects everyone. It protects both the client just a safer way to do it, even if you have to pay a fee. But, it continues, posts and every single one is a completely different art style. Authors, be safe. That is also a red flag. Now, I will add, many artists work in different mediums. But, if it looks like a different person drew every single one of their art pieces, mhm, I might look for a little bit more information from slides into your DM offering cheap art, refuses to send a Procreate or Clip friends and family, block them immediately." I will also add, "Artists rarely pitch themselves in DMs." So, I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I'm just saying it's not particularly common. And overwhelmingly so, if you get DM pitches, likely could be a scammer. But, it continues, attaching screenshots. So, this is the account Sharkall 001. This is their um Instagram page where it says anti-AI. And then these are the DMs where they send some line art and the colors. Please let me know what you think about it." And then they're like, you use?" And they say, "Clip Studio Paint, Adobe, One Day Art Studio, because Adobe has a bunch of programs. Adobe has Photoshop, Adobe also has two common ones for like drawing. Why not specify that instead of saying Adobe? And then for more context, Amy the artwork. That AI art by the scammer, Sharkall. This is the sketch. Oh my goodness, I just covered another artist who did a speed paint like this. And I'll link it down below if I remember, themselves and erasing it. I'm just adding, there are artists who will work like this. It can make sense to do that if it's like a really long art piece days, so you leave notes. I leave notes in my own art piece. I'll write the like pen weight and the brush that I use because like sometimes when I line, I line weights. I just do it to remember cuz sometimes I forget. They won't be writing stupid notes like this. Like, "Erase tool." I'm going to be honest, no erase the construction lines. They're going to look at the piece and be like, "Yep, I got to get rid of that." And they have erase pointing to the wrist. And then they have What is this? Creature talon pointing to the thigh? And then Okay, what's also really suspicious is when there's like traditional texture in a digital piece. This is a digital drawing, but there is an uneven grid and then there are charcoal scribble marks and more scribble marks. If you work digitally, you won't have these sort of scribble doing a traditional piece. You just wouldn't cuz you're working digitally and you can put all of your sketches on one layer and toggle the layer off. All draw with construction lines, that is normal, that is valid. I just think it's interesting to send a sketch in the context of this being a sketch sent to a potential client, all right? Most artists would toggle off the construction line layer so that the client sees a clean sketch. It will look clean. Like cleaner, right? I feel like very few artists would send a sketch to the client. At least when I do commissions, I don't do that cuz like is. They're going to ask you the question, is the purple line staying in tell them, "Oh, no, no, no, I'm going to get rid of it." Like it's easier to send construction lines in it. But yeah, now we have the sketch or like I guess the line art version of it. And this is already reading a bit interesting. A little interesting, not the end of the world, but the watch face looks a bit interesting. Little suspicious of this piece, a little teeny bit. My gut is feeling a little funny about it. And a commenter screenshots their erase tool thing and they're like, "When did they add the erase it tool?" Because yeah, Another person said, "Yep, somebody lying." Another person said, "This looks then asked the AI to add a sketch. No one would need a reminder to erase lines as sketches are on their own layer and turned off for the final image. Yep." amount of work and energy the AI suckers are willing to invest into faking a it." Here we have another person on threads posting, "This person has to be don't use AI, right? From the very weird hand, the painted fingernails on what they consider line art, the little hairs that go nowhere, the splodgy text on a way they write is absolutely chat GPT-ish." All right, the first one, this esports logo. Dude, I swear to god every like art scammer ever does the esports logo art style. I don't know what about it. Maybe it's because it's easy for AI to generate these images. I'm not sure. I always notice that something you'll see in their portfolio and you will see it intermixed with other art styles that saying you can't draw in different styles, cuz you definitely can, but it overwhelmingly they'll do like watercolor artwork and then they'll have logos, too. Come on." When people do like these types of logos, again, they tend to specialize in it. And again, artists are allowed to draw in different styles, but it won't be so vastly different for the most part, right? oddities. This guy's cross-eyed with eyebrows really low and then some part it's giving a little interesting to me. We have this one. This looks like a woman with a whole bunch of ear piercings, which is so sick. And there's a hand kind of like reaching behind her head with the fingers melting into like the galaxy. And we've got a bunch of tarot cards floating out of the hand and really wobbly gears. And this to me is not giving human error. This to me is giving generated AI slop. Where did the fingers go? We have a stub for a thumb and then one wobbly index finger. The middle finger is super skinny and then other. I'm going to be honest, like if this is a coloring book page that this money back because they didn't try very hard. What's happening with the gears? person, you drew the gears a little wobbly, you know, I feel like you would it's melting. This is the larger version of that piece and it inspires even less confidence seeing the full image. Here's another art piece. It's again a very coloring book style and it's of a woman side profile and in her head you can see some architectural buildings and some flowers. And then now they do dog watercolor portraits. And pet portraits are typically another specialization. So, like e-sports logos being a specialization, pet watercolor portraits specialization. Again, I'm not saying you can't draw both, you can. When people typically specialize, there's not as many crossovers. They're self-recommending themselves in people's comment sections who are looking for interesting they say, "Hand-drawn Lucy here, no AI." Let's fill each other's feeds with animal art sparkle emoji." I also hate how AI has taken emojis away from me. I love writing with emojis, and sentence with an emoji, you look like you're generating stuff with AI, and I hate that cuz I used to like doing that. But, if you look, it looks one-to-one. the same. And a user says, "Yes, these using Bing AI image generator because the quality is giving limited free And finally, this is not an artist scammer, but an art scam. So, just beware. This was posted on Twitter, and it's got a million views. And OP writes, somebody try to promote their brush using an artwork I made ages ago and without credits. I just want to say that I'm a Krita user and I use a default the way, is Porsha Loum. And this art piece is really cute, but this is a post piece, and there's a QR code in the corner. And it says, "Free brushes and patterns." And it's trying to entice you to scan the QR code because, like, "Oh, want this brush?" Which, by the way, if you were curious, because people were "Oh, in Krita, it's a pencil tool on the sketch pack category." And that they commented, "The amount of times I see these ibis paint brushes use art that was made by other artists on a completely different app is wild." And {end quote}" and as soon as you scan these, you get 30 different malwares. should be concerned about. A user writes, "Warning to please not scan any QR codes like this online. They all use the exact same QR code layout in the to hack you since they pretend to be brush QR codes for the stolen artwork in their images." This is actually something that the Federal Trade Commission actually warns you about. It's something called wishing. I guess I've never heard of that before, but it's where they hide fishing links in QR says, "If you see a QR code in an unexpected place, inspect the URL before you open it. And if it looks like a URL spoofed. Look for misspellings or a switched letter." Where they'll often do zero. "Don't scan a QR code in an email or text message you weren't expecting, especially if it urges you to act immediately. And protect your phone and accounts." And another user, Jinga, writes, "Be very careful with QR codes. reputable people or brands at event in person. I'd avoid third-party reposts online. Watched a live demo of WhatsApp getting hacked just from scanning a QR code once, and it's forever seared into my mind." They also add, "Wow, the post I quoted got community noted by AI, saying that scanning QR codes can't hack you, while linking to sites saying it can. You can read FBI's warning or OWASP's page with just a bit of internet search. AI, please stop ruining the web with misinformation." This is what the FBI says. Again, don't scan random QR FBI says. Again, don't scan random QR codes. Be suspicious. And here is a QRL jacking attack. Again, be very careful. So, these are just a few scams to be aware of from both the artist side and the art side. So, just stay diligent and codes you see. And if an artist slides into your DMs offering you art commissions claiming they're super anti-AI and that they can do every art friends and family, it might be a little bit nefarious. But, let's end this video with a positive note because we have a situation of somebody who was falsely accused of using AI. So, the artist in question, whose name is Stained Hanson Art, writes, "I've been designing digitally for over two decades. I've had a lot of people tell me to prove it over the years when it comes to my work. I'm not one to gatekeep, so I'm happy to share." And attached is a video. So, in the video, people are accusing the T-shirt of being AI-generated. And OP in Floaty Pattern in Photoshop, and they like link other programs they use. So, they highlighted, "People kept calling my work AI, so I made a new one. And here we can see the speed paint of them drawing their art piece. Where again, modify part of the face, they do some sort of liquify to get everything looking perfect, and they go in with the line art. And it looks like they're I believe. Where they're coloring it in, we can see they're literally drawing on the tablet all of the lines. And then they go in and they add the color on top of that. And they made a very, very similar art piece to the first one, but it's of the character holding a sign saying not made with AI. And the top comment reads, "People think it's AI? How many art classes did we have few, I think." And OP responds, "I spent the night in that building more than all night before a critique." And another person adds, "One of the less artists getting accused of faking their photographers and people you haven't even thought of, like pattern makers, get told their work is fake. It affects their ability to grow their audiences and make sales a complete slap in the face." And another person adds, "I think the saddest thing about this is we say it looks like AI because AI steals from real artists. It's just frustrating as a creative." And that's the most frustrating part, right? Because if you are a creative who is art style was heavily referenced and AI stole from you, now you're going to get a bunch of annoying people in your comments being like, "Oh, you traced AI or your work is AI generated." When it wasn't. When in fact, the other way around, and you came before the AI. But now nobody believes you because of the whole rampant use of AI by a bunch of scammers. So, I will have the artist Stian Hansen linked down them out. Answering again, elephant in the room, wear your sunscreen, kids. really bad tan line from the crocheted sweater that you made that you wore to Warped Tour. Had a lot of fun, but now I look horrific. And if you got any tips because this looks atrocious, please let me know. I would be extremely indebted And if you like this video, hope you like and subscribe. Check me out on Instagram to 100k. We're getting there, so follow me there. I also have a vlog would mean a lot if you want to catch me there, if you want to. It's called Cat Yippy. I'm also doing like art and crafty crochet stuff there. And I also and Saturdays at 6:00 p.m. PST and Thursdays at 7:30 where I do a podcast with my friend. So, I hope to catch you all there or in another video. Peace.