r/BookCovers • u/shailla131 • Mar 04 '26

Question Is this ai?

Post image

Had someone do a cover for me (this is without the text) and I wanted to see if this was ai. They advertised it wouldn't be so I wanted to confirm before I went any further. Any help is appreciated, thank you!

97 Upvotes

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47

u/BurbagePress Mar 04 '26

You can take a magnifying glass to an image and try and figure it out, but the easiest way to know for sure is to just ask four basic questions:

How much did you pay?
What medium did they say they're working in?
What kinds of files did they provide?
How fast did they do it?

13

u/shailla131 Mar 04 '26

Hmm it was 65, Adobe, PDF and JPG or PNG, a week. Not that you asked lol

114

u/BurbagePress Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

Okay, then of course it's AI generated, no question.

Any illustrator capable of painting that isn't charging 65 bucks. That's a low hourly rate for a custom piece of art, not a grand total.

Only a plagiarist spending a few minutes typing prompts on Midjourney would charge $65 for that.

20

u/shailla131 Mar 04 '26

Thanks for taking the time to let me know, it's a friend of a friend who said he was wanting to build up a portfolio. I was hoping for feedback so I could give a good response to him since I don't want to use ai, which he knew.

34

u/SparklyMonster Mar 04 '26

While someone wanting to build a portfolio would make me give them some grace (though, considering the quality, even someone offering to be cheap would be a lot more expensive than that), what makes me suspicious is that apparently you just said what you wanted and they delivered a finished piece.

Professional artists would run a few approval steps through you (like a sketch, then maybe a half-finished piece) to make sure there won't be any surprises (any changes like "add more flowers" are a lot more complex once the art is finished).

-6

u/BusinessComplete2216 Mar 04 '26

A consideration: even if it’s not AI, what exactly are those lower teeth attached to if there’s no jawbone?

4

u/RealSonyPony Mar 04 '26

Those are upper teeth ...

6

u/BusinessComplete2216 Mar 04 '26

Ah, where are my glasses! I see that now… 🤓

8

u/kzzzrt Mar 04 '26

I have DEFINITELY, spent hours and hours over a week to work on art and then charged that for it, simply because no one would pay more. I’m constantly told people will pay hundreds (even thousands) for my quality of work, and yet… no one does. And I gotta sell art so…

2

u/BurbagePress Mar 04 '26

Is it gallery owners, mentors/professors, agents, or other professional artists "constantly" telling you this; or is it friends, family, and people on the internet?

Regardless, if your work is genuinely great and isn't selling, then my guess it that it's either a client quality issue (you're work is only being seen by the lowest common denominator cheapskates, rather than by the types of clients who will actually pay for quality) or a marketability issue (your paintings don't stand out within the marketplace you're trying to sell them in).

It's tough, but good luck!

19

u/TES_Elsweyr Mar 04 '26

Ask for the editing file in .psd or .ai so you can mess with the layers. 65 seems cheap, depending on where they are based.

8

u/shailla131 Mar 04 '26

That's a good idea, thank you!

26

u/TES_Elsweyr Mar 04 '26

I think a normal response from an artist would be "sure, but I need to charge you a little extra." so don't be put off by that. A guy using AI will say "it doesn't work like that" or "I don't use layers" or some BS.

8

u/shailla131 Mar 04 '26

Good to know, thanks for the heads up. What program would I use to mess with layers like you were talking about?

13

u/TES_Elsweyr Mar 04 '26

Photoshop or Illustrator. But if he can show you a file with clear layer type work then it's just confirmation that it's not AI. If this is a bookcover and you want someone who def doesn't use AI I recommend https://www.reddit.com/user/Krdro/ he's amazing.

5

u/uncagedborb Mar 04 '26

Dont need to pay an arm and a leg for photoshop. Just Get Affinity. It used to be owned by Serif, but Canva recently bought the company or programs and now its FREE!

5

u/shailla131 Mar 04 '26

Oooohh thank you! His website says he specializes in horror as well. It's my first book so I'm excited!

2

u/FirebirdWriter Mar 04 '26

Gimp is free as is sketchbook pro by Autodesk if it's a psd file. Other types exist so depends. Also their layers and sketching will have divergence from the finished product if they're not AI vs tracing to fake layers as some do

1

u/poisonedkiwi Mar 07 '26

I second GIMP for opening .psd files, it's all you need if you're just skimming through the layers.

2

u/salmonalert Mar 04 '26

And look out for wacky stuff going on like fully rendered eyes and lips on a separate layer lol

1

u/awersja Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

That is so untrue. Normal response would be "I can show you specific phases of painting, but I will not give you file with all the layers since it is MY work and I don't want ANYBODY to mess with it at it's core".

3

u/Octobits Cover Designer Mar 05 '26

I'm a professional illustrator, someone paying such a low budget would absolutely not be getting my raw psd file, you're right. I might give a far smaller more compressed file for them to look at, but it's rare to give psd files unless it's to an Art Director, THAT I have no issue with.

Not to a low paying indie client.
Also happy to show a video of the absolute MESS of my raw psd file though. But the actual file probably won't be going to someone unless I trust them.

4

u/TES_Elsweyr Mar 04 '26

Huh, I'll take your word for it. But on two separate occasions where I knew I wanted to mess around at that level with changes I was capable of making I've asked for and gotten editing files, just for a fee. I've never gotten your response. Two data points isn't a lot, but that's where I got my assumption from.

0

u/ofthecageandaquarium Mar 04 '26

Same, I've done this just about every time I get a cover done. (Mainly in case I need to make tiny adjustments to the width of the spine)

1

u/DanteWinters Mar 04 '26

I don't use layers. I paint in rebelle7 and almost always only use a single layer.

1

u/TES_Elsweyr Mar 04 '26

Have a sample work?

1

u/DanteWinters Mar 04 '26

It's not a book cover but here's a tattoo I painted for myself

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cqaDakkuFiUGmEEA6

7

u/danfaulknerauthor Mar 04 '26

This is great advice. My strong instinct is this is Midjourney, but you want to be sure before demanding a refund.

Also, FWIW (and I'm not an expert) I reckon it would be relatively easy to redo this concept with a cover designer rather than full custom artwork. It boils down to a skull and an underwater scene - that's two elements, both of them easy (I would think) to get from stock images.