AI-generated embroidery

I'm starting to see more and more AI generated pics of "embroidered" art popping up, and somehow that makes me even more disappointed than when I spot fake paintings. Of course, a lot of creativity and effort goes into any given form of art, and they all have their limitations which inform the end result, but one can, in theory, paint almost anything (at least in digital painting) while there are far more tangible, physical limitations to what you can make a piece of thread do. One of the best parts of seeing a gorgeous piece of textile/fiber art is admiring how well the artist has been able to cleverly utilise and transcend the limitations of working with thread/fabric/roving/etc., and realising how much time it must have taken.

To then see AI "embroidery" that looks very impressive at first glance before realising that it couldn't possibly be real because it defies the very laws of physics makes me sad. Not only did someone want to generate a piece of art they couldn't be bothered to make themselves, but they then looked at the image the computer spat out and either wasn't interested enough in the craft itself to be able to tell how impossible it was or decided that it didn't matter because the point was just to get some superficially pretty content to share with a mostly unsuspecting audience. It's just... a whole new level of disrespect for a craft that is already niche and underappreciated as it is.

There have been posts pointing out what to look out for in generated "paintings" and "photos", but I have not seen any for embroidery yet, so here's a couple of points off the top of my head:

Can you see individual threads clearly? Do they look consistent in texture (like they're spun the same way). There are a few different types of embroidery thread which are spun in different ways and from different materials, but if it looks like one type of thread was used and the threads still look inconsistent, that's a tell.

If the piece seems to be mixed media (e.g featuring beads or fabric appliqué etc.), do the added materials look realistic? Can you guess at what they're made of or how they may have been attached without the use of sorcery? I have seen a few examples of what looks like a cluster of beads at first glance, but when looking closer they've turned out to be very surreal in shape and get progressively less realistic and more abstract the smaller they get. Then there have been details which I've tried and utterly failed to imagine what material they could even be made from, like decorative vines/borders that look more like 3D-printed plastic than thread or metal wire or anything you might expect to find in an embroidery, even with creative material choices.

Does the motif look very three-dimensional? There are a number of ways to create 3D embroidery, but they all have to follow the laws of physics. Where are those threads going? Do they just end randomly? Does it look like a bunch of normal embroideries stuck on top of each other with no plausible edges or methods of attachment?

I've seen at least one example where most of the image was trying to look like photorealistic embroidery, but then there were a few details that simply looked photorealistic as in, "Wait, half of that bird looks embroidered, and half of it just looks like a photo of a real bird?"

As in other forms of AI art, look at details which you think you know what they ought to look like - especially in parts of the work that are out of focus or far from the center, those tend to be less realistic. If, at first glance, something in the background looks like a rose, look again and ask yourself, "Is that really what a rose looks like, even stylised? Why does that petal look more like a weird tentacle? These shapes make no sense. Was the artist just clumsy and made a mistake, or was it designed like that by a computer?"

Humans like symmetry. If there's a border or something which looks like it ought to feature repeating patterns but turns out to just be abstract shapes without any sort of pattern to it, then be suspicious. Same thing goes for motifs which look like they're supposed to consist of a perfectly mirrored right and left part but have unexpected inconsistencies (say, a butterfly or a crown, for example).

Finally, as always: is there a source in the caption? Does it say something like, "[Title of the piece/description of the motif] by [artist], embroidery thread and [beads/metal wire/leather appliqué/whatever fun material]"? Is there a caption at all? If not, there's a tiny chance that the artist just posted it themselves without a caption, but it's much more likely that it's either reposted stolen art or AI art that wants to pass under the radar, or even stolen AI art (if, indeed, one can steal something that was created by a computer based on other stolen art to begin with).

Okay, rant over. Go forth and look a bit closer at images of embroidery in future! You'll either discover that it's an AI piece, or you'll get the pleasure of really taking in the cool details and techniques used by a skilled, real-life fiber artist!

Alright, let's do this!

There seem to be more and more obviously-AI-generated cross-stitch patterns floating around Etsy nowadays; let's figure out just how many.

I've put together a sorting website that's pre-loaded with 2000 random Etsy patterns; 400 of them were actively listed or relisted this month, 400 are from three months ago, another 400 are from three months before that, etc etc, all the way back to a year ago. If we can identify which of them are AI-generated (or at least, obviously so), it'll be possible to get a rough estimate for what percentage of patterns are AI-produced, and for how that number has changed in recent months.

If you've got a decent eye for AI-generated pictures, I'd love to get your help sorting through them! And if not, watch this space for the results!

Also, if you see a pattern that's particularly interesting, or beautiful, or bizarre, there's also an option to flag those, just for the fun of it. :)

🍓 Nana - Embroidery

Wow, I'd forgotten about tumblr's incredible existence even though I was addicted to the platform as a teenager. I decided to come back here to share my love of embroidery. If you're a creative weeb, I think we'll be good friends.

📷 : https://www.instagram.com/bwarbe.fleurie/?hl=fr

Tama and Aiba embroidered keychains!

"Ready for the Masked Ball"

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People gotta stop arguing against AI with "it'll put people out of jobs." That's the point of it. It'll put artists and writers out of jobs like the spinning jenny put spinners out of jobs and the internet put 411 operators out of a job. Most inventions in human history were to make it easier and cheaper to do things that previously had to be done by hand. Saying it'll put people out of jobs is just an advertisement.

I wasn’t a die hard fan of Spidey when the 2000’s and my teenage years collided back then.

山本イザベラ 

Yamamoto Isabella 💜

Hi there! I'm back with one of my favorite Nana pieces. I loved making it. It took me 10h! Feel free to follow me on Instagram : @bwarbe.fleurie or on Tiktok!

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Embroidering on AI generated portraits of people from the future💫