[00:01] unfairly accused of using AI in their drawing process or did they do it? Let's delve into the situation because there was a call out made about this artist. don't send hate to any parties involved. So, the call out in question is this
[00:17] post on Threads posted by a user Bookish Scammers Referral. And it says, "Red flag. Leah Ramirez Illustration allegedly uses AI. Compiled proof below. share so people don't get fooled by them. Do not go on this person's page to
[00:32] leave nasty comments. Do not blame the victims for not knowing either, nor yourself." So, again, this is the artist that's accused. Their bio says, "No AI." And it reads, "Why I think Leah Ramirez uses AI." So, it shows one art piece.
[00:46] uses AI." So, it shows one art piece. So, this art piece is a piece that they but they showcase the illustration in a reel. And this is the reel in question. progresses really where you see their drawing process. They typically post
[01:01] this type of video where they like erase the sketch and showcase the work on top. So, this is this illustration. So, in this piece, it highlights, "The disc on and connects to nothing." And then it highlights this disc and it says, "The
[01:14] shoulder plate and connects to a cape." So, what you can see are these two discs right, is here we have the shoulder plates and here we have the disc that character is wearing a fair amount of armor. And then the disc on the right
[01:28] hand side, as you can see this disc here, there is no visible shoulder plate connecting to the cape. One thing that I find interesting with this piece in showcase the full illustration on their Instagram page, only in that reel, is
[01:41] that I find a lot of like inconsistencies within this art piece in terms of the male characters' armor. There are other elements, and this is the bigger screenshot, that I find a little bit interesting. Now, again, I
[01:53] want to add a couple disclaimers, right, because everybody has a different human errors. So, just because somebody did one thing, you know, likely it's start pointing fingers at people, right? We want to take everything in context.
[02:07] Errors that are very consistent with things that AI would do, alongside other things that are indicative of AI-looking accounts, like a sudden shift in art style when generative AI became popular, a super high frequency of posting fully
[02:19] speed that you would typically see for an average person doing it. Drawing So, we want to take all of that into account, right? This piece has some referring to the theme that I was talking about, because the character has
[02:35] this like detail on the top, and it goes into the character's finger here. It then, on this side, we have it connecting into the disc on the right. Now, maybe there's some asymmetry in the armor design for this character that
[02:49] causes this. That could be possible. One thing that you typically do see, and because I grabbed a screenshot of a video since we don't have this full illustration, but you will often find like dead stares, or the characters
[03:02] kind of have that here. Again, maybe it's because of the compression. But you as well. It looks like he's looking like to the side of her rather than at her. interesting is the actual clothing. Let's look at the boots. With this piece
[03:16] specifically, we have two black calf height boots that the character is wearing, and they are laced all the way up. The grommets for the laces are all uneven between this boot to this boot. Now, again, you might be like, this is
[03:29] the time, and I do agree with you. But, to the point of like, this person can render at a really high level, a high level of composition, and a high level of anatomy, you can draw complex things like ripped abs and massive angel wings,
[03:43] wouldn't have it completely misplaced eyelids that are not spaced evenly whatsoever, with the eyelids on one shoe being like twice the size of the eyelids shoes are two different designs. At the very top of the shoe here, we have a
[03:57] strap around the calf. And this one, the strap goes completely around the ankle, and it's a skin-tight boot. Here, you can actually see the lip of the boot, and the belt straps it's lower. So, it's kind of like we have boots, and then we
[04:09] have like a belt strap like this, right? Sorry, drawing with my mouse here, it looks wonky. Then we have the rest of the boots. Whereas this boot, the actual belt buckle is like literally at the exact top of the shoe like this. They're
[04:22] almost the same shoe, but not quite. Also note again, this belt strap, there the leather here for the strap, that's just not featured here. Maybe it's human error, that could be possible. But one thing you will see with generative AI is
[04:37] the fact that they tend to make two things that should be the same look slightly different. Again, when a human draws things and there is asymmetry in they will make like one boot shorter or like intentionally look different. But
[04:52] quite the same, either they the person, how to draw the other shoe, that can happen, or it's generative AI. Our female character does only have four toes on this foot. From this angle, the
[05:04] missing toe is the big toe, which, you know, you could argue, "Okay, in some I could agree with you in the argument for this foot that you see three visible the fourth one, could be blocked, right?
[05:18] Because the big toe is going to be the biggest. This one, not so much really, because from this angle you probably would still see it. But I digress. Then we come to the actual really interesting element, which is the drapery of the
[05:30] clothing, which I don't really understand what's happening here. Clothing coming from, I guess, his crotch area that folds into nothing, and then we have another piece of clothing coming into here, bending, and then
[05:42] melting into the rest of that that crotch fabric. We again have more of this here. We have fabric that comes from here. It ends like right here, so anything. Fold downwards and then come up like this. We have this chunk of
[05:54] fabric that makes a triangle and then zigzags like that. And I'm not sure coming from. This character is actually not wearing a cape. There is like some belt skirt type of detail happening. And for the woman's dress, it also features
[06:08] this oddity as well with the clothing drapery. She's wearing this like bandage looking dress that's really long. So, it's kind of like wrapped around her, coming out of it. And we have again, we have fabric that drapes over her thighs
[06:21] on the other side. With all of this fabric, maybe it's this tiny chunk here. behind her legs that connects into the bigger part of the dress. Benefit of doubt, maybe it's a tangent and then it's like this and then it's like that
[06:36] like it follows her knees. It's just odd. We have a fold of fabric that starts from the middle of the fabric and then curls outwards. And then again, all disappear. Maybe I'm being really nitpicky with this piece specifically,
[06:49] but I like I want to believe she drew this. Like I went into this looking at artist. Like why are these people being mad at this poor girl, right? There are some things that look a little odd. But this is only one piece. So, maybe these
[07:01] Maybe this piece was just made a little quickly. So, let's take a look at some others. Next up, we have this art piece. And there are some oddities within this art piece as well. And again, maybe I'm being a little nitpicky. This could be
[07:14] situation we have going on. Which is like, you know, as I'll feature it in a leather pants situation. I own one of these actually. It connects like up to an upper belt thing. You know, you you clip it onto like a belt loop or
[07:28] behind the dagger. There's no more. And the way this looks, it looks like there's like a cloak that slits like this up by her hip. So, we should still It's gone. AI has a tendency to where when an object passes behind another
[07:41] could also be human error. People will draw things and then just forget that it exists here and forget to draw it in. That's definitely possible. Then we have this belt buckle situation where that's a belt buckle with two prongs for holes
[07:55] on both sides. Belt buckles only have one. That's also odd. And like here she drew a belt buckle with one. So, what happened here? Why is there two? Again, It's very interesting because there is a very large like a perspective error with
[08:09] the dagger specifically. Because here we can see from the shine of the hilt of So, it kind of looks like the dagger is like pointing into like her leg, right? held like perpendicular against the thigh. At least that's the way the blade
[08:24] Drawing Drawing things Drawing perspective is kind of hard, but it reason why I'm pointing it out is because human error is totally fine. draw shapes and things. You know, should be hard to draw sometimes, you know? But
[08:36] the reason I'm pointing out is because you will see this with people who use generative AI and paint over it to pass it off as their work that there will be mismatched levels of skill within the same piece. As in the face and the
[08:49] anatomy will be drawn super super well, and then other elements that they painted in themselves will show a lower level of skill because one was painted over a generative AI piece and one was, you know, kind of like drawn in. So,
[09:02] people who have painted over generative AI. So, I'm just pointing it out. And this piece as well where we have the ear that kind of does this. Hey, no shade. I that on one of my ears. I just have like extra fat there. I don't know why. You
[09:17] don't often see that drawn on characters, though. And then we have the pants situation because she has leather pants on. And then this thing that wraps around her leg. It's kind of like underwear, but then it goes down like
[09:29] this. And again, this is something you'll see with like generative AI works or paint overs is because they'll be clothing elements or elements in the design that doesn't make sense from a lore perspective or just like for a
[09:42] from a human drawing this, why would a human give like half a leg sleeve to her see what I mean? Like there's there's this thing here. It looks like it's her leg and then coming out from this side which just makes sense. Here we
[09:59] have another piece which maybe I'm being nitpicky. Sorry I'm saying that a lot. have belt holes throughout the entirety of the belt. It starts at one end of the belt and goes all the way around to the other end of the belt. That's just not
[10:12] how belts work. Maybe you have belts that do that, but this character also clothing. They're basically wearing this like denim colored like button popped up. They have a leather belt across their body and they have these
[10:25] like brown cloak strap things draping over their body. It's kind of like they have a sash except the sash goes behind the belt that's crossing the body and behind the arm that's blocking it and it's just gone. There is no more sash.
[10:37] one's another piece. We have a female blonde character sitting on the lap of a male character that's tied it up and he's got his arm between her legs like this, right? Where did the hand go? Because we should see the hand between
[10:51] here. Like there there should be there should be hand here somewhere, you know? size of the left hand, the right hand definitely should be visible like artists will choose just to like omit things to make things read a little bit
[11:05] more clear or hide things, but the hand is going between the legs, not behind both legs which then would block the hand. So it's just missing in some point out is this piece which features like a woman in kind of like a team
[11:18] kneeling shirtless with electric lightning looking tattoos across the that is not the point. Actually, the point is people behind them. They look sort. It looks like it's supposed to be called wear ball according to the lore
[11:32] happening with the people back there, man. this, I was like, okay, like, you know, trying to give the benefit of the doubt, that's being falsely accused. What is happening here? What are these guys
[11:46] is happening to the arms here? This guy's got his arm like curled this way with making a fist essentially onto the other person whose arm is interlocking like they're they're shouting and they should be hugging at the same time. Then
[12:01] we have these two people arguing where this person's making a fist. This the other person. Where did the other arm go? Once again, we have a case of a missing arm. Maybe she's yelling with her hand down like this, you know, but
[12:14] some way, shape, or form. Maybe another fist here or something. It's just gone. And then these guys where this guy has like a bat and looks like they're about to beat another guy. The background characters here look very AI to me. It's
[12:29] just so odd as to what's happening. >> But let's delve back into what the because they point out other elements that they felt look suspicious with this artwork. They point out other elements of other art pieces that actually a lot
[12:42] Like this one and this one I couldn't find. But they write, "Her background versus another AI image, ChatGPT background. They are extremely similar in style." Here we have these two where the backgrounds look pretty similar. I
[12:55] backgrounds on its own looking similar me because like AI is trained off of real art, so there are legitimate therefore, their art is going to look like AI because AI was trained on their
[13:10] they say, "These utensils blend into each other and they make no sense." And this I agree. Here we have like a like a hamburger, you know, scooper and then a hamburger, you know, scooper and then a spoon, maybe a spoon, maybe tongs, a
[13:24] spoon that's bent at the neck. This one. This one is this character where there there's a mirror that's reflecting the window where you can't see the red curtains. And it says, "No curtains on the window in the mirror." This one,
[13:36] error. A lot of times when it comes to drawing reflections, bro, you forget, this one, we have two characters with a Ferris wheel behind them. And it reads, is different in shape and size and connects to the wheel differently." And
[13:50] wonky. Look at all these. These two bars are both connected two cabins connected totally forgivable if you don't know how a Ferris wheel looks like. You make it then all of them look wrong, like every single cabin. But, inconsistently
[14:04] getting it wrong cabin by cabin is just odd. Next step, it says, "Lamp post but with no post." Yep, lamp with a crooked lamp post, like it's like pixelated, like zigzagging down, and then no more lamp posts in the back. This one, they
[14:16] also pointed out the people fighting in the background. And it reads, "No artist fighting." And with this also, commentators are basically saying, "Oh, because there are some artists that would do that." Yeah, sure, right. I
[14:28] will just argue that this just arguably makes no sense to me. And even if you fighting, like there would be clarity at least as to what the artist was like they're going in for a bro hug on one side and about to deck each other
[14:43] too, the characters in the background kind of all look like they have the AI coloring to it. You know what I mean? Anyways, it continues, "AI nonsense on where the hilt of the sword is like curved. Awkward AI floral design. We
[14:59] have that here. And then here, "No artist would make a mistake as big as here, the sword does not line up at all in the back. Again, I will argue, some people are lazy, me included, and you know, you just you know, draw the sword
[15:13] you're like, "Mhm, squint. Oh, it looks close enough. Okay." So, this one I everything else, but this one is really damning, for instance. Overpainting on top of AI. The background is extremely detailed, but the design on her shirt is
[15:27] flat and smooth and very badly painted compared to the rest of the piece. So, here we can see this one. And, yeah, the quality of the painting here, it looks much more amateur than the rest of the piece that you can see. That is
[15:40] people who are painting over AI or trying to pass AI-generated images off commissioning, they will go over and do corrections so that it is lore correct to the character they're drawing. But, you won't typically find artists exhibit
[15:57] varying levels of skill within one art piece in the same thing. And, what I mean by this is here, right? The clothing for the characters are rendered at a high level until you get to the trim of her top, and then it suddenly
[16:10] isn't. I feel like you just won't find an artist who is clearly capable of the trim of the clothing, which is in the same fabric as the rest of the clothing, suddenly looks very, very different, almost as if somebody else
[16:23] drew it. Next up, his hair has the wrong values and shadows compared to the rest artist at her level would not make this kind of mistake. Have the hair, rest of the image. Next up, the logo on this bike is clearer than the bike itself.
[16:36] are different on each side. Next up, we have the sketches versus the process. traced. As an artist, this is not how sketches work, especially fabric creases and the tattoo. Sketches, final. One thing that I have seen with a lot of the
[16:51] people who do AI paint overs is that their sketches, when they draw fabric their sketches, when they draw fabric folds, they don't draw fabric folds with flowing, if that makes sense. Like, just kind of using this, you know, top as an
[17:05] differently, okay? Though, everybody sketches differently, everybody has draw things one way. Just because you do it this way doesn't mean people should this, right? A lot of times they'll draw like, you know, curves like this and
[17:17] then curves kind of going down, maybe a triangle to show the way the fabric is in this direction, the fabric here is falling in this direction. A lot of times what I've seen with like people who do AI tracing is because they don't
[17:30] know really the logic behind it, they'll just do "Haha, some lines here. Haha, Ding." And then you'll have the final product. Again, you totally can sketch like this. There are people who do this. It makes sense in their head, okay? As
[17:44] what matters. But I'm just pointing out something that I have seen because I've talked about a lot of people who do AI tracing. Where you don't really see the really minor thing though. This one, they say, "The perspective in the room
[17:56] is all wrong in the sketch, but the characters are absolutely perfect and rendered room." This one it says, "One process video shows this black and white version, none are full time lapses." And that's one thing that you saw that I
[18:08] one thing that's a bit of a red flag when it comes to okay, this person already has a lot of suspicious elements with their art and on top of that there is no video example of them drawing. Again, as an artist you're entitled to
[18:21] want to show your art process, you're totally entitled to that. In this day will make people a little bit more suspicious. So with this artist again, because there is this suspicion kind of around them, I was trying to find video
[18:34] processes of them drawing and there just isn't any. There are videos like this where she'll draw in like a little couple of brush strokes or a highlight and then zoom out to the final piece. But you don't actually see the like
[18:47] rendering to the final process, like any sort of painting process really. Like where you see them painting, but they only put like white highlights and then the full painting process. This is the one with the the warped wall by the
[19:02] chin. So the post continues, "Her art before AI or 2023 and then her art now." in style and skill in a very short amount of time. This was her art before, this is her art in 2023. And then as we scroll up, all of a sudden there is this
[19:17] poof, this jump, like these two art pieces, kind of of, you know, fan art of Raison and Fair. Still, you can see the old art style in here, very reminiscent couple other pieces, and then all of a sudden their art style does a big shift.
[19:30] allowed to experiment with their styles. Artists do that. They experiment, they learn more things. This was their art August 20th, 2024. This is their art November 19th, 2024. It is completely possible to make massive improvements in
[19:44] is very possible to make a big jump or to completely pivot your art style just you're totally allowed to do that. Artists do that. It is one of the red flags of AI paint over artists, where they post really frequently, all of a
[19:58] sudden they have a massive shift in art style that leans very closely towards what is popular with AI generative works, and then their artwork also features a lot of inconsistencies that you will find with generative AI works,
[20:11] or anything to really showcase the painting process. But again, it's not impossible, right? So, I'm just adding that. This post continues, all of these men have the same body, arm, and hands. When overlaid, the hands and body line
[20:24] up exactly. Some artists trace their own work. You're allowed to do that. It being traced. I don't know, right? There's still so much more we could share. Almost every piece on her profile has some kind of AI tell. Not to mention
[20:36] characters themselves, and that they all wear the same clothes and have a million nonsensical belts for no reason, which is a common thing you'll see with these has been collected by many, many artists and authors together. Unfortunately,
[20:50] this artist is so big, 200k followers, and has worked for some huge books, like Dagger Mouth, Lights Out, etc., that many are afraid to come out and address shouldn't be that way. This artist is very likely scamming some very big
[21:03] authors, as well as small ones. I believe Leah used to draw, but now uses AI to cut corners. It adds more evidence, melting and warping elements, plus a weird hand in contrast to every other hand she's ever drawn. So, melting
[21:15] elements, we have hair. Ooh, melting into what exactly? It's It's looking odd over here. This This is what I was talking about, the freaking clothes in the crotch. Uh what is happening with the fabric, man? Fabric is hard to draw,
[21:27] level of skill that's being displayed on the profile, I'm going to assume that you could make it look a little more put together. Oh, okay. So, looking this Why does it look like that? Well, I was
[21:41] the hand is happening here? I'm not talking about the texture, because arts, there could be a lore reason as to why the hand is a bit like really veiny. But what in the finger grip is happening here? This is one ginormous thumb, and
[21:56] then four kind of crooked fingers. And again, anatomy is hard. It's totally chill if you mucked up anatomy, man. I'm not going to dog on you at all for that. because every other hand ever was great anatomy until this. And the point that
[22:09] again that I'm trying to make is with artists, you rarely will find them massively regress in skill in one avenue. Like, they're really, really one absolutely dookie hand, and then everything else goes back to normal. You
[22:21] know, it's normal to have Okay, this is a harder hand pose to draw, so it's scuffed. That's totally normal. This artist is capable of drawing hands at, you know, harder angles. These like, you know, kind of overcast angles here. Here
[22:36] we have a hand on the waist situation, a hand in pocket situation, the last easy. outstretched like this. This is a hard angle to draw. The reason I'm pointing at really difficult angles. So, what happened to this hand? That is in
[22:50] all the other ones. Somebody in the comments says, "Her defense, look at these layers." And they put a side eye emoji. And the post reads, "Here is my AI art." with an eye roll. "45 plus layers, 20 plus hours of work. They
[23:03] have what looks like the final image above or something of this sort. What is above and then we have the sketch set as a multiply layer where here you can see sketch, these are more things as to why it's like odd looking at the final
[23:17] product because, again, the final product for this piece, the Icarus or the the flying guy piece, right? Had all these like weird looping things in the sketch, it looks like it makes more sense. It's just kind of like the cloak
[23:29] goes in. It's just I find odd. But we have the layers. So, we have a folder for everything and then we have a red overlay layer that is layer 10. And then called her and there's just a whole bunch of layers. And everything is layer
[23:45] 6, 7, layer 8 for the hair that's duplicated a couple of times. Again, some artists that will take a layer that just duplicate the layer over and over and over again. So, you end up with like 15 layer 10s. That's possible. Sometimes
[23:59] for a complex piece like this, you would expect to see a lot of layers and you differently. And then that Booker Scammer account quote retweeted their original post calling out this artist writing to add fuel to the fire using an
[24:12] artist as a reference without as little as a mention to them is theft, by the way. And we have this kissing piece that was posted in 2024. This is the sketch for it and this was the original piece that it was based off of by an artist
[24:25] named Ardina Reyes. And yeah, it's not traced. If you reference this heavily, I tagging, you know, the artist that you reference. That's just me though. So, at thoughts about this entire situation? Do you think this is a legitimate artist
[24:39] generative AI or do you think it is somebody using generative AI and larping to hear your thoughts with respect in the comment section down below. I do think this person most definitely can draw, but there are some suspicious
[24:53] elements in their artwork that make me feel like some assistance was used along your thoughts with respect. And with that, if you like this video, I Don't forget to check me on Etsy. I have digital art there for streamers and
[25:06] creators. I also have a coffee with free resources like a free sponsorship guide. so I'm probably going to go up to visit my family soon. She actually watches like a lot of my YouTube videos and she watches it on her TV and she'll just
[25:18] point and be like, "Oh my god, I saw you on the TV." cuz she doesn't know how just thinks I'm on TV, which is really cute. So yeah, please please send some guys at my Twitch streams. I do stream there 3 days a week or in another one of
[25:33] there 3 days a week or in another one of my videos. Peace.