Extreme beachcombing, inspiration vs. imitation, and lovely sketchbooks

Five things for your Friday

  • This extreme beachcomber’s museum was so delightful and… beautiful? And also… shocking? Anyway, this little mini-doc is worth a watch.
  • This English professor decided to see what would happen if he tried to replace himself with AI. His thoughtful, nuanced take — including his students’ perspective — on a semester-long experiment is worth a read.

Speed is not useful to the task at hand; the hurried pot does not boil faster. Rather, the purpose of the haste is to prevent any semblance of rest, to prohibit even a moment of peace. But rest is reserved for those deemed sufficiently wise, and sufficiently human.

Something that I sadly hear too much is that “it’s not illegal to copy someone’s style”. Sure, if you create an illustration that is completely derivative of someone else but not a direct rip-off or tracing, they might have a hard time suing you. That doesn’t make it OK to make derivative work.

  • I am under the impression that this (great) article on inspiration vs. imitation was written some time ago, long before the advent of generative AI everywhere, but it bears repeating in today’s world. TL;DR: Studying and learning lots of different styles and art to be inspired by on the way to finding your own voice and style is good; imitating stuff you enjoy to create derivative works — and worse, selling those — is not.

  • I’m such a fan of Helen C. Stark’s visual journals (and very satisfying process videos) she shares each week, you should go enjoy them, too.

(P.S. If you like finding cool stuff via link roundups like these, you should check out:

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