AI Tracing in Art: Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:01] was called out on threads because on one hand a lot of people feel like this person is tracing AI and hiding it in their process and there is a large chunk of people that believe the person who called them out is unfairly harassing

[00:13] the artist. So let's delve into the situation and of course please don't send hate to any parties involved. So this was posted on threads and it reads I am so effing sick of all these fake artists popping up on my feed. So it is

[00:25] an artist named Montana and this is the speed paint that is attached. It's a Tik Tok video posted by this artist on their page in the end of April. And already suspicious when you look at the speed paint. I'm going to add a lot of

[00:39] videos you might be tired of it but just note I have to add it because there's their own art process and just because their art process doesn't look like means it's AI generated. We need to look at a lot of other context clues like

[00:54] when this artist started posting because a big one for AI generated stuff is the artist starts having work that looks suspiciously AI-esque starting around suspiciously AI-esque starting around 2022 and after. This artist has a very

[01:06] interesting process of painting where they do what I kind of like to call the paint by numbers technique where they put down really really really small batches of color that are all slightly different and then they blend everything

[01:20] together. You see that here with how they are coloring the face in. And to me this is very interesting to look at because there are very very few artists that actually work this way. I'm not saying it's impossible to paint like

[01:33] do paint like this. I mean pull you up one example. This is an artist called Katie on Tik Tok where they do have an art process that looks something like this. A lot of people, you know, call this artist AI but this artist also has

[01:45] in literally the exact same technique at the exact same skill level they show another portrait just like what they do digitally. So the reason why I'm legitimately are artists that paint like this. So, this on its own is not its own

[02:00] red flag. But, to add, it is not the most common way you will find artists paint like this. The other things this artist does that makes me a bit suspicious of their process is the fact that they immediately know where

[02:12] everything goes. You see them draw out a basic blocky red sketch, and we see like supposed to indicate the cranium. But, yeah, you see they do this basic sketch. They have a basic framing of the border and the mountains in the background. And

[02:27] then, they go into the line art. And in the line art, they also immediately know there artists that do draw like this? They do a super rough sketch and go straight into the line art? Yes. It's also very rare. Typically, artists will

[02:41] They'll do a more refined sketch before getting into the line art. But, as you can see, this artist immediately starts lining. All the eyes, all the hair strands. The eyes are even on the first go. That to me is honestly the most

[02:54] surprising part cuz every time I draw like this, one eye is always a little like cut that out and you know, squish it down a little bit." Look at the little cross-eyed. Every brush stroke, they immediately know where it it needs

[03:06] to go. Even complex elements that artists don't often draw, like the bow, who draw a lot of portraits, maybe you really have this like three-quarters profile down on lock. Okay, but you probably don't draw bows that often,

[03:19] right? Like, all of these are basically immediately perfect. You know exactly where everything goes. Every single tree was already sketched in perfectly. And border, they start drawing the border, etc. They do the detailing for the

[03:32] brush. They do the detailing for the bow. And what is also interesting to me is like the mountains and the way they draw the mountains. Again, everything they immediately know where the colors need to go out the gate, and it's

[03:44] automatically perfect. Like, to me, what this is looking like is it looks like you are referencing an outside image or a hidden layer in Procreate. You're then coloring a little bit, color selecting again off the hidden layer,

[03:58] This is what I always jokingly like to call the paint-by-numbers method. Yeah, they continue to do that for the tree, and they do that again for the face. One thing that I find interesting as well is they do this. They cut out the sketch

[04:10] like this for the body, and then they paint over the sketch like that. It's also really, really uncommon, and you rarely see artists paint like this. Again, maybe there are artists where this is their art process, but what are

[04:23] the odds that this artist has a lot of characteristics that are very, very uncommon in artists. This type of oil painting method, which is again, there also they somehow immediately know where every sketch, every line art line needs

[04:38] to go with no reworking, no reshaping. Mountains immediately correct, and they also draw the character perfectly blended into the environment out the at all. Well, I they do throw this layer on at the end, but you know what I mean?

[04:50] Like, also being able to draw environmental lighting perfectly on the first go, really, really hard to see that. And a lot of people in the people in the comments who are like, "Yeah, this is super obviously AI. Like,

[05:02] there's other people who are really defending the artist. This person writes, "As an author who commissions Montana, I got to say how frustrating character information before she even starts. She sent me sketches and

[05:15] updates, and she has made changes for me, which means erasing and redoing, and specific to my characters. I have no doubt in her ability. She has also especially some of my characters. It's such BS to accuse somebody when she

[05:30] personally, I want to believe that, right? I want to believe this person is worked with this artist before, you're going to be more inclined to try to defend them. So, I definitely see where they're coming from, but a lot of people

[05:42] are still not quite buying it, you know, saying things like, "Hey, you know, I'm going to be honest, I understand this is frustrating, but their art process looks odd. Again, the way this artist paints, it's common amongst oil painters, like

[05:54] like this. You don't see people who only work in digital paint like this. You almost never. It's just harder to do. It's much more common in oil because you Other people are saying the way her face is immediately rendered. And another

[06:08] They're painting in the exact same method using physical tools. I think you guys are dogpiling for no reason. We have this video where they're testing the Shuttle Art inking pens, and then they're kind of inking together an

[06:21] image, and you can see this is their final product. Yes, looking at this video, this person can draw. This person obviously has hands and is able to, you know, take colored utensils and put together a cute little drawing. But, I

[06:34] would argue this does not prove anything because this is of a much different skill level than the original drawing we showed, right? And a lot of skills aren't like one-to-one transferable. Obviously, when you're testing out new

[06:47] with the new tools because they're brand new. You've never used them before. simpler, like some cactus plants, etc. But, you know, even looking at this, right? The anatomy is a little bit off. The shape of the top of the pot is not

[06:59] very, very flat. It looks very 2D. The top is very like dynamic with a 3D angle. So, even the anatomy here is a little bit off. Again, super chill if shade, no tea. I think it looks cute. I like the way they rendered this. But,

[07:11] the point that I'm trying to make is that this does not prove that they painted this because this is of a much more higher skill level. Again, artists silly drawings just for fun with no stress about anatomy, whatever. The

[07:24] it just doesn't prove it. And another way we can tell is by looking at the artist's page and looking at other videos they have because obviously all another video they have, and this is of them painting Chapel Roan. And they show

[07:37] is the final image. I like the little horses. I like the little added behind the head, but this is of them painting. And so this video was on April 1st, 2025. Maybe it's an older video, I don't know, right? But here we can see kind of

[07:52] where their skill level is at in 2025 of April. Here we have another drawing. right? That is a we're not debating that. They have that ability. But you example. It is a rougher sketch, so it is in a little bit of a different style.

[08:05] later. Again, artists are allowed to improve at whatever speed they want. in and improve super super super quickly, and there's some artists that take a little bit of a longer time to improve. That is completely fine. But

[08:20] this level of skill jump in 1 month is almost unheard of. To go from like, you know, a really cute painterly style image of Chapel Ruin to this realistic portrait of a woman with backlighting, with flawlessly rendered skin. The color

[08:36] choice is 100% on point. I have a hard time believing that in only 1 month. And here we have another speed paint also in the first week of May. Well, it's like way they draw. It's a lot of color

[08:50] exactly where that is, blending everything together. And I have a feeling they're probably color selecting from an image like that is a hidden layer in Procreate or something that we can't see. Because to get all the colors

[09:04] 1,000% accurate here like this, like the odds are so low. Again, unless you have a historical background in painting like this. Again, if you're an oil painter, painters do this. That's just what they do, right? You don't really see people

[09:18] who basically only work in digital mediums paint like this. It's just a lot harder. And again, they got all the lighting, all the environmental colors correct on the first go? Because here, look, again, when they paint the eyes

[09:30] in, they use this like teal color for the whites of the eyes. And that's a really interesting choice for eye color on first go. Like that's typically not a then bam, you know what the finished product, right? Did they draw other

[09:42] strands and stuff like that? Yeah, I believe that. But I I do think there's like a layer somewhere that's being selected from. So the user who Threads and made it extra post writing. I want to clarify my stance about

[09:54] Veridian Palette after the post I made a few days ago. Though it's clear this person is rendering their pieces, I am still suspicious of her using AI in her process, at least tracing over AI images. She claims to not use AI to

[10:07] her process in any way, and quote in her response post. I think because she's offering commissions, her use of AI as a reference should be disclosed. Please involved. I want to clarify what I'm showing you right now is an old piece

[10:21] posted more than a year ago, April 1st, 2025. I also include the original video without the overlay. The generated image used as a reference existed at least since 2024. Yeah, that's not a good look. So here we have the original

[10:34] sketch. And this is what I mean by the sketching process is so weird. Because sketch, okay, we have blocked out some of the body, we blocked out where some of the hair should go, and then we have blocked out some of the armor. This is a

[10:46] really loose sketch. I feel like typically if you're going to go line little bit more before lining it. They go straight into the line art, and again, everything is perfect. The nose curve, perfect. Lips, perfect. You know,

[10:59] angle cuz you can, you know, this side profile is a bit hard to draw. They know exactly where everything goes, including fine detail on the shoulder pads for the armor. And one thing that's always to me interesting when it comes to these types

[11:13] of processes, when somebody, you know, is like allegedly tracing AI images, right? Is that they kind of start drawing with no really rhyme or reason. they're starting to draw the hair from like the middle of the blob of the long

[11:27] hair in the back, as you can see with like strands appearing here. Again, some artists do this, so this on its own, right? It is just one one little thing. often see artists start drawing from the middle of the blob of the hair. Like

[11:40] start from some place that connects to something. The ear, if starting from the But the middle of this chunk of flowing hair, I find that also odd. But the most odd part of all is just how rough the sketch is versus how clean and perfect

[11:54] the line art, right? And then they're sketching and shading it with pencil detailing for the rest of the body. And again, everything is perfect from the product, right? But it turns out they

[12:06] were tracing over an AI-generated image. This is the image they were tracing over. This one is most definitely AI-generated. This is not even a braid. head, hair looping back and forth at each other, details that don't add up.

[12:19] What is this thing melting into the hand and this arm is missing. If you watch this video where they overlaid a faint image of that AI image on top of what this person is drawing, you can now see why all of the confident line art makes

[12:32] sense. Because they're tracing over this AI image that overlaps literally one to one. This is really really damning. And in my personal opinion, this is my theory as to how this artist draws, in that they have a hidden layer in

[12:45] Procreate they're tracing over and color selecting. So is each brush stroke placed on the canvas theirs? Yes, but this is just a more convoluted way to trace and utilize AI imagery in the art process. And after seeing this, people

[12:58] are completely in agreement with the person who made this post, writing, "The unrealistic. I don't need to see that they traced because there's no erasing, no correcting, no mistakes, nothing. It's not even a sketch because a sketch

[13:10] you want the drawing to look and to put down guidelines. Even the face guidelines feels off. It's basically the size of somebody tracing who doesn't even know how to draw at this level." And yeah, in my opinion, it's even more

[13:23] obvious in some of their later speed paints. They have this one of this magical character where they show the speed paints. And again, we have super know where all of the lines go, immediately draws an extremely complex

[13:37] background, and then look at how they draw the background. This is a really odd process to draw the background as well. They have the sketch of the character completely blocked out in gray, and they do the background behind

[13:49] the character. They don't just toggle the character off, almost as if they're again, did you see how they drew the background? They know exactly where everything goes, all the environmental colors immediately placed correctly, and

[14:02] for the rest of the face. And that is essentially how they go and draw this entire character. And this was a commission too, which just Again, don't the author knows it all, right? But quite certain that this is also tracing

[14:17] another day, and we have an update to the situation. And um we don't talk about the hair. This is a mess. So, the original OP writes, "Veridian Palette, shameless liar trying to scam authors. So much for claiming not to use AI in

[14:30] found new proof of her recent works being traced and color picked over AI and other artists' work. It's clearly a pattern." So, this was a post they made everything. Where Veridian writes, "It

[14:43] in the past, and I want to address it directly. The answer is yes, I did. It digital art, and I should never have posted it as original work. resurfaced, older video that I honestly forgot was still on my accounts. That doesn't

[14:58] excuse it, and I take responsibility for that mistake. Because of this, I have account. What I do want to make clear is that my commission work and the artwork me. I have spent countless hours creating those pieces, including the

[15:11] book covers and commission artwork I have delivered over the last year or so. I understand why people are disappointed. The people I feel most current clients because they placed their trust in me. All I can do now is

[15:24] continue taking responsibility for it. I'm going to take some time and think about my next steps. You want to do reference studies to learn to progress progress your artwork, artists do that all the time. But don't post it and

[15:36] legitimately isn't. But beyond this, this kind of feels like downplaying the situation a little bit because it's a little more than what was implied as just one traced art piece that was on their page that was a little oopsie.

[15:50] Because we have some examples. The OP adds these examples. Here we have a side-by-side of the AI reference versus their artwork. Here we have an original art piece by an artist named Merill by an artist named Merill Varolian and

[16:02] side-by-side. This is an AI reference and this is their work. Here we have an AI reference, their work, and then the side-by-side. You get the point. OP By the way, this is her pricing and these are her time lapses overlaid with

[16:15] the reference photos. Videos that were published between November 2025 and January 2026, not the old pieces she talks about in her fake apology. The bust shoulder up is 200 USD, a half body is 350, and a full body is $500

[16:30] for traced images. And here we have a speedpaint where they overlaid their you can see, this is what I mean by the color picking method because it off of the image below and you can see it in the rendering process. Here we

[16:45] have another example. Now again, like the disclaimer that I want to add, there are traditional artists who paint like this. Oil painters will paint like this that looks something like this. Very likely it's not going to exactly

[16:58] one-to-one overlap the image below as if they're tracing an image on Procreate because, you know, they're not doing that. Like these are all so damning. And the commentaries are feeling something. A user writes, "There was an obvious

[17:10] difference between the pieces she drew herself, much older uploads, and her more recent ones, which were clearly AI paint overs. It's sad. She could have just continued to try to improve as an artist. I like to give people the

[17:22] that she was painting over AI when her style suddenly morphed into that style suddenly morphed into that standard AI semi-realism, and she overnight, all while coloring in pointillism with absolutely zero errors.

[17:36] "The biggest red flag for me was the fact that she uses an almost pointillism style for adding her color, and then she blurs everything. Not mix, straight up skill level of drawing, composition, or color theory

[17:50] should be able to understand to not over blend and blur. And the end result, well, now on their Now on their TikTok page, they've closed their videos. And some people in the comments were like, "Hey, a lot of y'all

[18:03] owe OP an apology because people were on the artist's side at first, being like, artist.'" And again, of course, we want to defend artists, and no fault for artist that they really want to defend, you know, because we want to support

[18:16] artists in this day and age. But sometimes things are a little painfully obvious, and this person was hitting a lot of the massive red flags that a lot Again, don't send hate, don't bully any parties, but what are your thoughts on

[18:30] just one of many people who tried to scam with an art process like this. And you know the wildest part? We have an honorable mention. There's a post by actually tracing AI. And the amount of

[18:43] AI on all your socials is crazy work. The artist posted this 27 hours in, and And they're drawing a procreate, and this is their their art piece, their books, they have the the frame, all of

[18:57] earlier. That's just the same drawing you just traced over. I don't know what yourself. Again, the whole point is this is not to send hate to anybody. This is just to again, bring awareness, and this person less so. They were trying to

[19:11] Obviously, they didn't. Lying on the internet, that's what everyone does, about is scamming because they're offering commissions, and people are buying the commissions, likely under the guise thinking that it's handmade work

[19:25] over and color selecting an AI image that's hidden in a hidden layer in parties involved, but if you are looking to commission artists, again, do your look into that artist. If their art process looks like it's hitting a lot of

[19:39] the markers that I talked about maybe hit up an artist friend to get them to double-check for you to see if this person is legit or not. But, don't with that, if you like this video, I appreciate it if you like and subscribe.

[19:52] have digital art there for streamers and creators. I also have a coffee with free and I stream on Twitch 3 days a week, Mondays and Saturdays at 6:00 p.m. and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. PST where I do a

[20:05] catch y'all there or in another video. Peace.