A guy who'd been painting women lounging on pink cotton candy clouds for six years got an email in early 2010 from a "Katheryn Hudson" wanting to buy his work. He recognized the name. Hudson is Katy Perry's actual last name. So he wrote back: "If this is Katy Perry, would you like to pose for me?"
The painter is Will Cotton. The painting that became the Teenage Dream cover is called Cotton Candy Katy. It's an oil painting on canvas, 72 by 84 inches. That's about 6 by 7 feet, roughly the size of a small wall.
For the photo session, Cotton rented a cotton candy machine and kept it running all afternoon. A friend stood off-camera and threw the spun sugar around Perry as she posed. Cotton builds his subjects before painting them. His Manhattan studio is full of cake mountains, gingerbread castles, oceans of melted chocolate, cotton candy clouds. He makes or buys them first, then paints from them.
The painting wasn't even made for the album. Cotton picked Perry as a model because she fit the style he'd been working in since 2004. Perry only proposed making it the album cover after seeing the work in progress.
Cotton trained at the New York Academy of Art. The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery owns a different Cotton portrait of Perry called Cupcake Katy. His painting Taffy Forest sold at auction for $272,500 in 2012. His record auction sale is $572,500.
AI can generate a similar image in a few seconds. Cotton's painting is a 42-square-foot physical object that took weeks of work in front of a real cotton candy cloud. It sells at auction for six figures. That's what "AI could never" actually means.
Little rant about my experience as an artist and how I see AI bros' behavior
When I was a kid, I was called a gifted kid because I could draw, and it fascinated both classmates and Adults. I'm sure a lot of fellow artists had a similar experience, since it was quite rare to see irl especially before socials became so widespread. Some were envious, some simply curious, and some trying to befriend me to get free art even then.
Honestly I didn't mind the ego boost, but I noticed a repeated pattern of "I wish I could do that!" "you're so lucky you can draw" "you're so talented, unlike me", dismissing their own skills or insisting they couldn't do anything. Adults said something fun wasnt a real job, that I should think of getting a job like theirs instead.
Now in the era of AI 'art', those same persons who used to envy artists have an easy access to an illusion of talent and skill. They spit on the stolen work of every artist whose art has been fed into AI to flatter their fragile ego and look down on artists. They say artists will loose their jobs and get replaced, when they don't even understand why that's false or what it takes.
But the truth is they cope, they stay in the comfort of denial, saying THEY created the results AI give them. Saying prompting is a skill, because they want it to be one. They'd kill to do the same as artists, to have a passion, a talent, to captivate people and get praised for something they created with their own hands. To make money out of their passion.
But besides AI bros boosting each other's egos, no one will genuinely compliment AI 'art'. And if anyone did, upon learning it was AI they'll take it back because it has no value at all. It's stolen, empty, and made with no passion or love whatsoever (and probably a ton of mistakes up close too)
I just think it's sad because anyone can draw well. It just takes practice, but they're not even willing to try. Instead, they just hide behind insults and superior complex. Behind a false sense of achievement.
NO ARTIST will ever say "you have no skill, you suck" to someone genuinely trying to get into art. The art community is very welcoming, just pick up the pen and have fun with us!
@Emz_Cast I love this!! would it be okay if i tried animating this audio with these characters? I love tadc and bojack horseman and this audio fits so well! I'd credit you for the idea ofc
@annabriggs__ Becuase you see Anna, when the molecular cells bind with the mitochondria, the amino acids begin to build protein bridges to the nucleus of the Hail Mary movie. THEN I buy a snowglobe👍