Raw LLM Responses

I'll be honest… I *love* drawing and making art. I've done so since late elementary/early middle school (middle school starts at 11 years old for those outside the states) And I look at my art from high school and right after high school and it was *beautiful!* ... but then I got burnt out… and I didn't draw for a *long* time… and now my art pales in comparison to what I used to be able to do. I stopped working consistently. And I'll *still* go long stretches of time without drawing… so my art has stagnated. … I don't *really* want to improve my art because that's not where I'm headed in my life. Art is always a hobby for me. It'll never be anything more. And I just *can't* justify paying to learn or paying for someone else to create what's in my head… not really… I plan on starting a family. My money will be going to everything needed for my kids. So I can't justify paying say, $1000 now for an image. I don't use AI art, let me be clear on that. But I think it's important to understand people's situation. Art is a hobby, they're more than likely kids and their parents will *never* pay for someone else to make an image from what's inside their head, and they don't want to go to someone who they can pay $20 for something that looks far from their imagination due to the artist's limited ability. Can the artist improve? Yeah, but then so will their pricing. I think artists forget that not everyone is old enough or has enough money to pay for art. That low income kids want art too. That art is a hobby or something they're uninterested in learning but they still want the image in their head out there. And that's the barrier to entry. Do I think it's ethical? No. But as someone who *was* those children— a kid who never had a childhood home because their parents couldn't afford a house, a kid whose father was in college so didn't have a job that gave enough money to even *try* to get a house, whose mother goes through life like she's playing a game with micro transactions (oh! It's only $1! Oh! It's only another $1! And by the end she's spent like… $50 on $1-6 items)— I *know why.* There's literally no other way for them to get the art they desperately desire. Art isn't a job, it's a hobby, and they don't intend to get better because that's not their passion, and they're basically poor but their parents are too proud and say they're lower middle class and they. Are. Children. *That's* the true reason sometimes. Artists need to make a living. Children can't earn money easily. And parents aren't perfect. It sucks. Mind you… I don't use AI art bc the work is subpar, there's often still money I have to pay to try to get something, and the characters I want the art of are copyrighted. Trust me, I tried just so I could have something fun, but nope. I *do* however, use AI chatbots for fun. I don't post shit, and I do it just for me. I struggle to make my own fanfic, and there's never really that fanfic that is *exactly* what I want to read. But I do it all in good fun, and quite honestly… fanfic writers can't really earn money. I still read fanfic, don't get me wrong. I love it! Sometimes I just want something personal that I can dictate part of and have my own character in— basically play my own character. I'm still terrible at writing, dialogue is my strong suit, or just internal monologues, but I struggle to put those together… but it's a hobby I don't intend to go deep into. So the chatbot is fine. And I'll still pay artists one day if I ever have money. Just… I mean… if I pay for fanfic then the author might get in trouble unfortunately… but artists? I don't use AI for that. I just… don't really use art at all… for a lot of things.