One of the reasons I subscribe and watch your videos is because you have integrity. It shows in all your videos.

I used to slave over my huge canvasses squaring up and at times if I got my composition, wrong required extensive reworking, however, I now have a projector and I am liberated. I get my drawing done and can start on what I really want to do Paint

Bob Ross used to say when you buy your first tube of paint it comes with an artistic license to do whatever you want with it.

There's no such thing as cheating, anybody can paint whatever they want however they want.

Hi Mark. Thank's a LOT for the good honest explanation ! Nice to listen to an honest person. It just makes you a better, and more credible, artist in my ears. Best regards Alf - Denmark.

Not telling everything when you're teaching is like giving someone a recipe and leaving out something important. 😊

I used to be more of a purist, but using a projector can save so much time and as a watercolorist any way to reduce the number of unwanted lines is great. It is important to do some study sketches prior to using a projected image, otherwise you can lose track of what you're tracing. I think it is best to use photos taken by yourself, that's half the fun for me.

I can't say enough about your teaching when I ran into your videos 4 years ago I felt so grateful for the amount of information you shared so I ordered your paints, purchased an easel, made a color checker, and set out to prove you right, my fiance and friends thought I had been painting for years when say seen the results, unfortunately my hips deteriorated And I became unemployed lost my business. I had previously started and just couldn't stand or sit for long, and it demoralized me, and I stopped painting. I'm going in for my second hip replacement and look forward to the new purple paint. You have been a great inspiration, and I hope to have the pleasure to meet you someday Sincerely 🎨 🖌

*I went to Art School where I specialized in two areas --- Painting & Photography* Studying photography made me acutely aware of the pitfalls of using a camera when creating a painting. Sadly, some painters are oblivious to optical distortions created by cameras. Likewise - painters have little idea about the effect of direct or semi-direct flash - especially how it 'flattens' light. Faces & figures that would otherwise be 'rounded' by natural shadow & light are instead - painted with all the obvious effects of Flash & Lens distortion. To someone who has trained in both fields - the _slavish_ copying from a photograph - becomes all too obvious.

Sharing and honesty are why I always come back to your videos. You are the best teacher on KZfaq.

The main thing is not from where the inspiration comes, it's the skill with which you render the work.

Hi Mark - I was luck enough to have had excellent teachers who didn't hold back anything. Its a standard I've upheld since I started teaching some 20+ years ago. I've also taught my students to use what ever makes the process enjoyable. Because art should be fun and not such a chore that they get disheartened and give up. Nothings cheating as long as there is a creative element to the work. Thank you for your wonderful videos - Paul 😃😃😎😎

This is why you are endeared to us mere mortals, I feel your generosity.

This is an important message for artists. This is a deep truth of art - use whatever it takes to create your art. Thanks - great video!

I love these types of discussions, so often its new or dogmatic artists that have that "cheater" mentality, problem is that if you take it all the way, its cheating if you don't go dig the minerals out of the ground and mix them to make your own oil paints.

I am a beginning artist, and have you to thank for helping me understand color mixing. Thank you so much. You are an amazing teacher and artist! All the best.

Thank you so much, I am mostly self taught and in my 70's. I prefer oil but at my age I don't get to travel etc so using pictures is a must for me. If I know photographer I will give them credit saying they inspired me if not that that I was inspired by a photo I found. You just opened a whole new world for me.😊

I appreciate your candour and honesty. I’ve struggled with this for a long time. As if it’s somehow immoral to use tools to assist in achieving a given outcome. Can you imagine an architect accused of cheating because he used a calculator? Thanks for this. I think you framed it perfectly.

Thanks very much, I'm glad to see the Geneva supply store back with some stock of colors in a tube. The chemicals in the other paints can trigger a migraine in my case. Your products are absolutely outstanding!! I'll be watching for the new colors to come out soon. I have learned so much from you and other artist on youtube. Keep the videos coming!

Hey Mark, 💯% agree! I was a 3d animator video etc. when mid journey came out, I picked it up immediately reminded me of my days in 3-D. I do use AI as a reference and you’re absolutely right you can control the image on your own especially using style references and Carole character references. I really love your transparency. There’s such a pullback in the purist art community about this. I used to belong to OPA and I recently dropped my membership because they had rules in there about even using Photoshop and composing which I do all the time, and yes I’ve painted from life but I find it absolutely boring to paint another person staring into space. I love the immediacy that photography gives and I love different ideas that come about using the comp I create in the journey. You are a kickback painter by the way, I’m a huge fan for many years.

I so appreciate your transparency. You are my go to guy for all my painting needs as well as who I send my students to for further clarifications on techniques. Thank you so very much for your years of wonderful products and instruction.

I share the opinion presented here but only about tools . But for AI it's completely different. By using a tool you stay an artist because you created something and the tool helped you. By using AI you become the tool helping AI to "create something".

Thank you Mark. Great advice for certain. I'll take it with me as I move forward down this path!

I cant tell you how much I appreciate your transparency!!!! Thank you. We need more of this in the art world.

Thank you Mark, enjoy all your videos, glad your paints are still available.

There are some good art channels on KZfaq. But No one I have found is as concise and succinct as you are. Your communication skills are outstanding. The ideas and techniques you discuss are easy to understand & follow and make sense. Thank you.

You’re a wonderful painter and a wonderful teacher, and it has always been obvious you share techniques and insight selflessly.

I love your honesty in this video. The way you explain everything in your videos, with serenity and clarity, have motivated me to paint again. My problem is that I need to be in the right mood to paint, in order enjoy and be happy with the proccess. I have always been autodidact and reluctant to learn from others. A couple of years ago I felt I was blocked and insecure, and then I found some of your videos and by listening to your speech, full of clarity, the ideas began making sense. For me it is crucial to have a number of basic but powerful ideas to reactivate myself and recover the right inspiring mood. Therefore, every time I feel blocked I come back to your videos to recover my motivation. Many many thanks. I appreciate enormously all your advices. Best regards from Holland and Spain

Really great video Mark. Thank you!

I’ve always appreciated your sharing your knowledge, and your honest approach

Thank you for sharing your art & honesty

I really appreciate your honesty and candor. You're a master painter and you've given me much food for thought

Love your integrity! Thank you for such a thoughtful post 😊

Thank you so much. This information was so helpful and liberating.

Thank you so much for your transparency and honesty, it is very much appreciated !

Mark, you have given awesome help to me as I move through the painting process. I started late in life but I have constantly found enjoyment and growth, thanks in large part because of your thoughtful guidance.

I appreciate you mark , I had a change of heart about everything you’re absolutely right and thank you for everything

Love love love Feneva paint. So easy to use. Plus the brush cleaner is the bomn. Thank you

Thank you to you Mark for all the help and advice. Sincerely.

First thing I learned in visual arts university: cheating in arts is saying something was created differently from how it was created. The context being that I had a very serious and responsable drawing professor on the first year of university, very different from all the post modern professors that taught stuff like new media and art history. He himself is very contemporary in his work, but also very craft oriented. He taught us to draw from life, two years of very rigid observation drawing, of both still life, ladscape and human figure. He said that, after we graduated his two courses, we could not only draw using absolutely any method we wanted, but that we would (if representing in two dimensions) come across a huge number of methods and devices that would absolutely overhaul our capacity to represent from observation, and that we in fact should use them. The only thing tho, he said it is the only possibility of being fraudulent in making a work of art is saying it is something it isn't.

I bought a small easel from you, and shortly after that, I began to get all kinds of offers for other kinds of easels, and also began to receive all kinds of channels on how either an artist, or a manufacture, had come up with a perfect solution for using an easel and the method that produces the optimum ability for variations in positions in the process. I got the distinct impression that they think they had come up with something better. You are a genius, presenting us with something so simple that we ourselves could build it with the right tools, and a little ambition. Kudos, Mark! Jealousy is rampant--just sayin'!

I think we shouldn’t be too critical about either method. Let purpose do the job and use what’s available. Technology and the world will continue to develop rapidly, artists should rather merge so new ways of doing things can be discovered

the most honest video about art craftsmanship today. thank you!

Thanks Mark, you are a great help!

So informative! Thank you!

so much respect for you. I started painting watching your channel about three years ago and have drifted into concept art and have become completely obsessed with the processes of digital 3D and 2D media. Naturally the AI debate is insanely heated in that world, and AI generated imagery has a multitude of uses as a concept artist: reference, iteration on an idea, creating texture maps for 3D, generating brushes, source material for photobashing, even collaborating with AI by using the image prompts in midjourney. I've used it to create color palettes in photoshop, taking an image and creating a swatch for color picking. It is amazing to see this video because your draw mix paint series was formative for me as an artist. I still have umber still life paintings I did on small panels: a wine bottle, a pear, and a kabuki mask. It is no surprise to find out you have the wisdom to understand the true nature of a tool and the true nature of cheating. THANK YOU.

Thanks for the video. Always was thinks about that !

Thank you for being honest. The greatest fulfillment in life is being able to share the truth of what we know.

Wow! This is great, I had no idea you can even do this with AI. Thank you so much for being so honest. You have inspired me to learn and grow in my paintings, so excited to try this!

When I see a beautiful image I don’t care how it came to be. Your ai imaginings are absolutely amazing. I love them and I would pay money for them. My brother has been creating with ai and those compositions are lovely and a joy to behold as well. Thank you for this candid message. It puts things in perspective actually.

I definitely recommend his course. went to Austin, learn straight from home and his method works

Great discussion. Thanks

Mark, I will say that your videos have transformed my artistic ability and my confidence level from, I don’t know if I can do that, to, I can paint anything. And I mean anything. You have opened up a whole new world for me. Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge I can never repay you.

"The Photograph" IS a work of art. Ask a photographer! I know a number of successful artists who take photos and paint them, either with Acrylics or Oils. It is simply mixed media, in my humble opinion.

It’s an important conversation. I think an artist should be honest, and have integrity. Thanks for this dialogue. I’m sure there are, and have been many opinions about this subject over the hundreds of years artists have been painting.

Very interesting as always, thanks.

Thank you for being so honest.

Thank you for your honest opinion. I have often wandered if i am cheating in my own mind when i paint and draw. I have come to the conclusion as you have that your the artist and can do whatever you want. Just don't lie about it if asked. As i like to do real life and have taught myself to draw freehand with proper perspective, i find i just want to get to the painting and it saves heaps of time to use aids if needed. You have made me feel really good about myself so thank you.

Thank you for your candor. You are very generous with this information. Much respect ❤😊

Oh my goodness your work is so beautiful and wonderful ❤thank you for sharing your talent it’s a true master that teaches others 🙏🏻

Thank you for this. I agree with you 100%.

I really appreciate this video. I painted a picture using a method similar to Vermeer and have felt funny about it but you've made me feel better!

I am a rank beginner, and I am so glad I found this. Thank you!

And, by the way, I have finished more paintings since I bought your easel,in a short period of time, than ever before. I feel more comfortable painting because it is more approachable and easier to operate for any position I need to use. Thank you!

I wonder if those AI pictures would be able to create the colour of the sky here in Sweden, the crisp, saturated late spring or early summer greens that I do not find in the UK for example. The sky has a different colour too. The leaves and grass are more muted in the UK. That is why I take my own photographs, then change things as I paint by adding memories of how I saw the scene.

This was a great vlog, Mark and such an important topic that I think almost every artist has struggled with. I love some of the artwork your AI queries have suggested but I didn't get the name of the platform you used to obtain them...I will listen again and search the web. I have signed up for your newsletter, so thank you for that. As for me personally, I have many ideas floating around in my mind and some great personal pictures to help me out with subject matter. However, I'm lost in how to adjust (to my liking) the lights/darks in my composition and want to utilize AI to (hopefully) provide me with realistic ideas so I can add to the photos that already exist. This sounds like such an exciting and limitless concept for any artist who wants to expand beyond their own imagination. If that's the definition of cheating, I'm all for it! Call me a cheater lol!!

Acknowledging that since photography became accessible to all, paintings - from throughout its history, just look different to me, than they might have at the time they were done. Mostly I view paintings in books and now, online. This is ok, but seeing the original is always much more revealing of process, scale, technique and so on. My favourite group of paintings are those produced by a small collection of artists, working in the 1880’s in England and especially, in France. These people obviously used photographs, but added a bizarrely realistic approach to representing light. The two masters of this style were Bastien Lepage and Dagnan Bouveret.

Love the honesty, especially because I know there are a lot of critics out there. I've personally been using AI to generate painting references. My paintings often involve a number of references, and many of my references are further manually altered in photoshop, etc. On top of that, being a software engineer, I've been fine tuning my own image generation models. It all becomes part of the effort and process. My goal is to ENJOY the process and the product. This is the purpose of art for me. Could not care less about what other people think, especially when most critics likely have not created much art themselves.

Art means creating from ideas. To me, being able to use yet another tool means expanding my abilities of creation.

Very encouraging ❤thank you

If I'm not painting because I'm worried about what imaginary critics would say, that's cheating myself out of the wonderful experience of putting paint on canvas. For me, it's about the time I spend making art and the way I feel while doing it. I use all sorts of image sources and technologies, and sometimes just my wandering mind. As long as I'm painting, I'm fine. When I was in art school in the 1980s, I had a few students criticize my work very harshly because I wasn't doing the hip style that they were doing, I was painting images of things with stories and shadows, they were doing abstract expressionism and dressed differently. So, there is absolutely no way you will escape criticism from someone out there, block those voice out and do what you like.

Koo-does to you! Much respect!

Interesting topic. Not many artists will admit to shortcuts and techniques that are often frowned upon because of the element of snobbery that pervades the art world, particularly from other artists. Painting is difficult and frustrating enough without imposing restrictions upon oneself. I think one should employ whatever shortcut or technique that helps get you through the creative process. Thanks for talking about it.

So many artists are looking for validation when actually they don't really need it. How you make your art is up to you and nobody else. Small-minded people may try to tell you what you should and shouldn't be doing, some, even what you should and shouldn't be thinking. Ignore them and just get on with it. Whether you decide to show them your technique or not is also up to you, and where I prefer honesty, that is also up to you. The A.I. Generative art debate will rage on for a few more decades, as with all previous innovations in technology and the making of art. It's only 40 years ago that the outrage was with digital art, with people openly hostile to any creative person even looking at a computer. Before that photography, before that camera obscura. Probably if you went back far enough, there would be a cave dweller looking over the shoulder of an artist saying pigment painting of bison was cheating. Inevitably, even with A.I. Art the traditional will continue, current will become old and accepted, and the new will create future debate and argument. The brilliant thing is, artists just keep on doing their thing, whatever it is. My only advice as someone producing images, (if not art) for over 50 years, is keep doing what you are drawn to do, be open to new experiences and ignore those who try to impose their will on you. 😉

I use A.I. in the exact same way, amazing explanation on how artists can use it.

Thanks a lot, Mark. As a new artist, this was a question which plagued me. For example, as an older artist, I have a shorter runway, and cannot spend a year drawing casts, and then a year drawing from life, before I put brush to canvas. I quickly learned, though, that each painting I make exhibits my own ”conclusions” about technical issues, and my personality in the choice and aesthetic representation of subject matter. If one judges paintings on aesthetics and not technical skill, I don’t see why that is not enough - as long as one is honest about one’s process. I’m not afraid of AI; it’s already a fact.

I paint from my mind. For me I find that the purest form of art making.

The thing about AI isn't that it's cheating or that it isn't art, it's the way these models are trained on other people's work. People who weren't asked for consent. That's all I need to know about it, for now at least, until we set some proper boundaries. Sure, you can do whatever your heart desires, but we should still keep some humanistic and ethical values. Integrity is important, not just utilizing any tool available.

I follow Mark many years, he is the ONLY one that can help an amateur to learn drawing and painting methodically. In that way people gain confidence to continue and not give up. Most you tube artists show you some-thing about drawing and painting and not the whole picture. He is honest and most of his knowledge is for free. His methods, if you work hard, can teach you to draw and paint very well. Be well Mark and thank you for everything

Super relevant topic, you know...it'd watch you evaluate famous works too. maybe just talking about subject matter and composition

GREAT seeing your video on a Sunday sunny morning on the Res.. Glad your teaching us about your knowledge! So true.. paintings stand on their own.. NO robot can do that! You deicide the subject! You decide the light! You can protest against evil politicians and paint them as they really are! NO robot can do that! I have presented some of my oil paintings at the Met, 50 years ago and know! Thanks.. I will sign up on your newsletter.

As an artist, I find ai to be obviously amazing for art. It’s like having a new gallery to visit whenever you want. I’m constantly inspired by it and it makes me want to paint MORE.

I wouldn’t call using devices “cheating” per se, not authentic regarding personal expression maybe. If you’re an engineer or designer creating for another where exactness is required, you must use artificial means. The beauty of a plein air painting- what I now do, after retiring from the commercial art world- the best thing is transcending my mind outside of my body into another dimension of color, value, and placement, and painting a picture. I found virtue in that. Odd that you have a guilty conscience about it all.

The Art is in the process, the painting is the byproduct of the process.

Watch David Hockney's Secrets of the Old Masters. Vermeer et al were using camera obscures and essentially tracing their compositions. The first photographs were taken when a chemist discovered fixing silver to the plate in an already pre-existing device. Only post photography did painters start eyeballing stuff again. The guild of mirror makers was a part of the guild of oil painters in Florence during the renaissance... it started with mirrors and quickly evolved to lenses.

I haven't used AI yet but I just go online and select images I like, then layer and compose them using Microsoft paint, which is free software, to make compositions that I like and can paint from. So I'm basically my own AI.

If a robot comes out that can paint better than a human I'm officially leaving this World.

Excellent talk, l have always thought use what ever tool you need to get you to paint your masterpeice 😉

There is no cheating in art, only doing. As long as you dont copy others and sell off theirs as your own you can do and explore whatever you like. Always be honest about your art, and in life, but you can choose how open you are. That said, art is communication so how you paint it is only a part of the equation. Using photographs as a basis comes with technical limitations inherent to photography and so painting from real life has benefits you may not be aware of. When I paint I use all the methods I can think of that gets the results I want: photos, 3D CAD, printers, tape and more.

Great video

Always an eye opener. Thx Mark. I've always admired Vermeer. Perhaps I need a little AI to improve my ideas. I think that's my weakest area as an artist. Appreciate your candor.

Thank you Mark, for your time and information _)

When I paint or draw concept art I always use a mood board of various images and photo reference especially for anatomy. Artists have always done this. I haven't done this with AI but its pretty much the same concept. Ultimately you are creating the final painting with your own hand, skill and talent and using a reference for accuracy.

Very nice work 🎉🎉🎉 really

I agree with what you have said. I personally think of cheating in art as telling lies or misrepresenting your art is some way. Everything else is on the table to use.

This is the best video I’ve ever seen involving A.I.

The inspiration's the thing.

sense be spoken.

thanks for being transparent. I don't like AI images though. I think it is cooler to make it all yourself and light it and bring in things etc. Most people don't seem to have ideas and imagination anymore and I would think that AI is not a substitute for being unimaginative. Using it shuts down the imagination. That is what I contest. I didn't like any of the AI images that were shown. Use the imagination or ability to envision or loose it.

I only work from photos because 😢don't have the ability to see it in my mind! I started as a photographer..now I just want to paint what I photograph!❤️