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Brian Biggs's avatar

AI will never replace the books that you and I want to make. However, it will replace the 80% of children's publishing that already exists as branded content, cheap concepts, and work-for-hire sequels and knockoffs. Most of the books that publishers publish and sell are already garbage; just that they're (sort of) garbage made by people: young illustrators working for peanuts to get their feet in the door, old farts who can use the quick income, and so on.

Also, the hair and skin color look fine to me!

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Jacob Souva's avatar

Yeah, the gobbling up of opportunity is what bums me out. How many great book makers will give up? Stinks. Guess we’ll just have to show them what great books look like so the contrast is all the more obvious 💪

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Christopher Thornock's avatar

Thanks for the quote! The two devils battling in my brain are always Authenticity and Performance.

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Jacob Souva's avatar

Agreed. It’s a dance between the two - the performance devil is a bit more persistent. Dig your susbtack and work a lot!

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Sarah Lovell's avatar

Love that quote about making books , so true . Can’t beat the magic of humans creating for humans. I hope the robots give up on trying to make art / books at some point , or I hope people just refuse to buy them.

Congratulations on your new book contract , it looks amazing!

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Jacob Souva's avatar

I have a book idea that gets at the dangers of ai (an invention that is needlessly complex and pushes us further apart from our humanity…) but it’s just an idea at this point! And thanks!!!

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Sarah Lovell's avatar

Sounds good ! I look forward to reading it one day .

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Sarah Lovell's avatar

AI can stick to the things it’s actually useful for , and stay away from trying to make art !

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Sonya Hammond's avatar

Fishing is my favorite subject to illustrate! I love this character so much! Wouldn’t change a thing - colors totally work 🖤

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Jacob Souva's avatar

Thanks, Sonya! I’m working on my people. Color is growing on me! And thanks for the recent sub!

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Sonya Hammond's avatar

You’re very welcome. I’ve been checking out the archive intermittently during work today 🤭 I really enjoy your posts and your art. The Boy with Big, Big Feelings became a favorite in our home when my youngest son was in preschool - he’s a bit emotional haha. I fell in love with the art style as soon as I saw it. Color doesn’t come to me naturally so that’s also an area I’m focusing on currently ☺️

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Jacob Souva's avatar

Aww - thank you. Love when a book I helped create makes a good impression. My two boys first that description too. I did a series on color a while back. I may return to it sometime!

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Sonya Hammond's avatar

Sounds like fun! 😊

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Audry Nicklin's avatar

I like the orange skin on the child. It makes me think of someone who’s been outside all summer and gotten a glorious summer tan.

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Jacob Souva's avatar

Thanks, Audrey. Ha! That’s true. I think if there were more context (a family member looks the same, blueish tree, etc) it would look more like a style choice.

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