Will Stable Diffusion Kill Off Artists? - Astukari Newsletter #96
Introduction
Hi everyone, and welcome to episode 96 — the first “official” episode of our new format.
I did see a few people join in at the interim between this episode and episode 95. In case you missed it, recommended reading (fun articles that I think are worthwhile) are now posted on the Discord, which is linked at the bottom of this post. Even though the Discord is still very much in beta, we do already have our first member, “olovoo” (god bless his soul). Anyway, onto the updates!
Astukari
We started a new video series, “Monday Morning Coffee”, which is basically a long-form Q+A session every week. First episode was an introduction and second episode was all about Stable Diffusion, since that blew up between episodes. Wanted to dispel a lot of the rumors around diffusion since, as I have stated many times now already, I think its really good for both professional artists and amateur creators alike. I’ve even begun posting my own diffusion work on my Instagram! (Mostly nice little leftovers from stuff I’ve tried generating for creative, see below…)
JBR
Currently trying to break the 100-member threshold on the JBR Discord. Might try a few new ad campaigns since that was surprisingly effective. Want to help us? You can join the Discord here :)
Creative
21/44 chapters have been edited for Boys & Girls Part I. Almost halfway there! Plus I started a new “productivity regimen” to make sure editing gets ramped up. As I mentioned last week the Concept art section is now mostly filled not with edits of real art but edits of machine-generated art, which I feel like is a bit more tasteful. Plus with the wonderful new Danbooru-trained Stable Diff model now out, I see a lot more great B&G art coming in our future…
Other
I am trying not to focus too much on side projects and instead spend most of my time on Astukari and JBR, since they are “the main things”. If there was anything close to a side project I was currently working on it would be the Friday Fun Stream, more specifically Astukario, more specifically the Astukario TikTok which I still think looks really ugly but I’m hoping I can find a nice balance between efficiency and aesthetics. Perhaps Kapwing would help?