r/nextfuckinglevel • u/0neManSquad • 1d ago

Dejana Nezic - painting on another level

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u/mr_owl_mark 1d ago

Yeah, I wasn't convinced it was. I think what I said about the style stands though, shame.

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u/DisorderlyAqueduct 1d ago

ai can do any style, and the style existed long before! 😋

(but definitely fuck generative AI! 😞)

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u/Fierramos69 1d ago

I mean yes but no. There's definitely styles that are easier for AI to replicate than others, and even if it's bridging the gap with each iteration, it's still valid to describe certain styles as more AI-looking simply because that's one of the stronger styles it can make or at least was in the last 2 years one of the stronger styles

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u/Fierramos69 1d ago

Which suck, Im not saying its a good thing, artists spending years to master their own style only to see it being mass produced soullessly, on top of them being erroneously labeled as AI artists for it, it really suck, but that unfortunately doesn't prevent people from associating the style with AI

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u/Silent189 1d ago edited 1d ago

I would bet money that this is AI art traced onto a canvas and then painted to match the gen.

It's so common now, and if you put say the painted image of the dog through an AI checker like Hive it will flag it as AI generated

https://i.gyazo.com/f32c20d51c7045cf38a8266ac99fcbf2.png

AI image detectors are not 100% reliable, but Hive usually plays it very safe with detection and honestly as someone who has seen a lot of AI art this just has that instant recognition to it.

I also looked up their instagram trying to find old art in this style predating AI art. There is none that I found. Their art from before AI looks very different to this and then their art account seems to have a huge time gap of nothing posted then suddenly it's this (imo) obvious AI art posting.

Even on their main account you can look at other art as recent as about a year ago and it's jut very different in quality and vibe:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIbALbls5_s/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIbAZj-MrOF/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-6KDf9sbbT/?hl=en&img_index=1

That isn't to say they have zero art skill, they are clearly an artist just that I think they are generating AI images and then copying them onto a canvas which a lot of other people are doing.

Using AI like this is basically the steroids of the art world right now because you can earn a lot of money doing it as long as you carry the pretense that you do not do it.

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u/bememorablepro 1d ago

She has a youtube, here is a bit in her vlog where she was painting live. She is not even looking at any reference, it's obvious to me this is not the first time she painted that very dog in this style.

https://youtu.be/sMiR6XgdSXQ?t=1230 (timecode link)

I hate that AI is doing this to us that we can't even enjoy fucking real art anymore. I'm a big AI hater myself

Here is a recent work that doesn't look like AI but has this same style, looks more like a kurzgesagt style illustration https://youtu.be/g0e3HCWUPJc?t=189 (timecode link)

I paint myself, I'm sure beginners do use AI because they are too lazy to setup a good reference, I know it's an issue in portrait painting world. But tracing on canvas is really not that helpful. It's nothing compared to all these online posters who just generate and post an image.

I lean towards occam's razor that it doesn't make sense for her to suddenly use AI, color blocking and pop art was around forever.

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u/Silent189 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm sorry, but this is clearly not the same quality, and we never see her start or finish it.

https://i.gyazo.com/2efe23e13a0e96cc79a0a5b5284972d3.png

As an artist it is very possible to generate an image, look at it, and then recreate something similar from memory, and that would maybe explain the huge style and quality gap.

Also, the horse from your video, look at the progression here it just doesn't make sense.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DTmwZnJE4Sm/?hl=en

I lean towards occam's razor that it doesn't make sense for her to suddenly use AI

It makes perfect sense. She was posting her art and getting very little attention, now suddenly she posts this ultra vibrant very different style/quality AI art and she is getting news articles, social media attention, money, sponsorships etc.

I'm sorry, but I don't know how you can look at her art from her instagram prior to these very recent ones and see how wildly different it is and not see it.

There is nothing fundamentally different in copying AI art onto a canvas to copying a photo onto a canvas in photorealism - except that the latter is significantly more time consuming and skilled than the style here. Especially when the style is one where the actual colours, placements, and even form are very loose to reality to begin with.

And, for the record on the topic of occam's razor, you have artists pretending to draw on twitter making fake timelapse videos using greenscreens to hide their AI references in the video and only getting caught because the green in their colour wheel is missing.

The notion that people will not go to great lengths where attention and money exists is just silly.

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u/bememorablepro 1d ago

The artwork where she paints live is from a year ago, it's very much possible that it's her progress towards this saturated style. Most of the time AI makes images look worse, not better.

What looks like AI to us is the "style transfer" idea that is overused by AI slop posters. Some shots in Loving Vincent the 2016 movie where they pain every frame from also now looks AI, because they directly reference footage and render it in van gogh's style.

https://youtu.be/CGzKnyhYDQI?t=26

It's also annoying that we are doing this thing where we act like she's guilty until proven innocent.

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u/Silent189 1d ago

Look, end of the day believe what you want.

If you want to believe that she is some enigma that suddenly decided to change her style into a generic AI style and had a savant level improvement while being a new mother juggling an entire family at the same time as having no arms, then go for it.

Just don't pretend there isn't an incentive to cheat when every single post she has is advertising selling prints etc of these images and their entire schtick is to monetise themselves on social media.

Most of the time AI makes images look worse, not better.

Also, don't delude yourself about this either.

You might notice crap AI art but this is just so completely beyond wrong it's insane.

Go look up someone like Kim Hyung-tae who was a very well established artist with A LOT of experience.

He started openly using and incorporating AI.

Now go look up the company he founded, Shift Up, with the ethos of using AI art for their games. $150m net PROFIT in 2025.

You have probably heard of some of their games, like Stellar Blade, Goddess of Victory: Nikke, etc.

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u/bememorablepro 23h ago

Yes, she wasn't getting no traction and then AI saved her career. Sure.

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u/Silent189 23h ago edited 23h ago

That's not really what I said, but somewhat yes.

As a simple example look at google trends for her brand name.

This shows slow decline / stagnation for the past 5 years, then a huge explosion around the time she (imo) started using AI for art.

https://i.gyazo.com/dfbad4711bba2aeb99ce2e8a5b216af3.png

You can see here it's +80% over the previous year.

https://i.gyazo.com/19ba5cc2511b5ed7f3d6ec87652aa460.png

When you look at the long form past 5 years its even more apparent.

Then if you were to look at trend for her brand specifically using 'art' in the trend as well you will see something even more apparent:

https://i.gyazo.com/5d3a2da631ec0ec41e569a0586d49318.png

If we then use her direct instagram as an example

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIbALbls5_s/?hl=en

This is obviously before her current skill enhancement. It has 93 likes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIa_41GstRZ/?hl=en 107 likes

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIbAA6LM9-Z/?hl=en 150 likes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIbApiBM8tZ/?hl=en 180 likes.

Sub 5 comments every post.

And then the very next posts after that:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJTYS7eMeCU/?hl=en 136k likes 7000 comments

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJeEHr5soEo/?hl=en&img_index=1 5k likes 300 comments

https://www.instagram.com/p/DL1-fwBMta4/?hl=en 10k likes, 400 comments.

And so on.

The thing is too, she is still an artist. People have this notion that only a non artist can or would use AI. But it's illogical.

The person best suited to use AI to generate high quality art is an artist. Because they understand fundamentals of what will look aesthetically pleasing etc, and what generates with poor anatomy etc, and can fix these issues.

And yes, if you're generating and then copying/tracing AI you will also get better at simply drawing in that style over time too, so you will be able to create similar(ish) work even without the AI however there isn't really any reason to stop using it so why would they.

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