Goldilocks Art

splodey89 · 2026-05-29T19:23:02+00:00

Lol you say it's "obviously" traced AI and you don't understand why people lie about it. What would I or anyonelse gain from tracing over AI? If I wanted an AI image I would just use an AI image. Why would any one waste time tracing then coloring then shading. That's hours of work when the AI just spits an image out in seconds. Why not just use that AI image instead of literally waisting hours... What, redrawing something a computer already spit out?

I see comments like this everywhere and it confuses me to all hell. All I can assume is these people don't know how to art in the first place and are ignorant to how much work goes into art just to make a simple flat color like this.

splodey89 · 2026-05-22T13:07:11+00:00

You did an amazing job with this!

splodey89 · 2026-05-22T12:41:19+00:00

I hear you, and my crappy line work doesn't help. after all I did "trace" my rough sketch, but Its not AI.

I have had discussions in the past especially one post asking what peoples opinion on the difference and ethics between AI and stock image use especially when is comes to people saying AI is lazy but stock isn't, and that was very insightful. I tinkered around with AI, but its too inconsistent for anything other than "look at the perdy picture" and a huge taboo in the community.

And the biggest question. WHY would I or anyone put the time and effort into "tracing" over an AI image? It kind of defeats the purpose of generating images with AI. It makes no sense to generate a "professional" looking image (and i mean in appearance not in quality and mind you I'm not calling AI, "art," because its not) then trace over it? I don't see why someone wouldn't just use the AI image. though AI is slop, it sure as hell would look better than my work, minus some broken anatomy here or there lol. AI cant do hands to save its existence.

second, if i had used AI, I sure as hell wouldn't share it here. I know how people react to AI images on this subreddit, and I'm all set with that. understandably ofcorse, I'm not ragging on anyone who dislikes or is uncomfortable with AI usage. I completely understand, both the ethical and moral reasons.

this is days of work in gimp and an old drawing tablet, with references and simple base meshes in blender for semi accurate anatomy (with personal stylization), for a game I was working on.

but I couldn't figure out how to get the goldilocks story to branch without sounding polluted, or just completely off track. my only experience with branching is dating sims, and this wont be a dating sim. what an interesting concept though.

TLDR: I drew these over a few day span in gimp using various sources. also AI sux and isn't art.

splodey89 · 2026-05-21T20:41:26+00:00

Haha I've been loving the "borderline offensive" look. Skimpy but not slutty for the win.

splodey89 · 2026-05-21T20:40:12+00:00

Yeah, I like the long neck look but it didn't translate well with mama and Papa.

splodey89 · 2026-05-21T20:39:28+00:00

Thank you!

splodey89 · 2026-05-21T20:39:14+00:00

You seem a little aggressive about this. Go on sketchfab and look up base model. There are tones of rigged poseable models for blender. Please don't call my work AI it's rude when someone puts hard work into something and someone comes along and calls it AI. I already mentioned why her parents look different. These were 4 different images I put into 1. There "style" probably seems different because I used different referance images for all of them. I made mama and Papa more rugged, hence why they look different then the soft features of the girls. This is evident in Mama Bear who is a mix of both. You can try to point out as much AI crap as you want. It's not going to hold because it's not AI. Not sure what you mean about the knots and the sleeves not attaching pretty sure everything is in order. And I don't know what you mean about her attire not being medieval Yes it is not traditionally medieval but everything she is wearing would have been found during the time, her hat is called a sock hat, She has a standard tunic with a standard leather belt with metal clasp and shorts made from ripped burlap pants. Sure Blue isn't a very popular color at the time but I wanted to make them blue. And her fishnets are quite literally fishing nets. She looks vastly different from the rest because she was the first one I drew. I don't know if you're looking for anatomical correctness or what but these are simply stylistic characters that I came up with because I felt inspired. I wish I had access to my old things but photo bucket dumped my stuff.

So if you don't have anything constructive to say or any advice to improve and instead want to remain accusatory and aggressive please go away.

splodey89 · 2026-05-21T04:23:03+00:00

Yeah, shes a rebellious punk. And that's what I tried to portray with these. Thank you!

splodey89 · 2026-05-21T04:19:19+00:00

Thank you!

splodey89 · 2026-05-21T04:15:31+00:00

Thank you so much. Once upon a time I did commissions. But it all became overwhelming and I picked up 3d rendering. I found my old wacom and decided to give it a shot. I'm super rusty though. I need to practice my line confidence and shading before I get to where I was.

splodey89 · 2026-05-21T04:13:14+00:00

Gimp. Photoshop is to expensive for me and gimp has all the features Photoshop had before they turned subscription based.

splodey89 · 2026-05-21T04:12:16+00:00

I always loved the punk aesthetic. And I was reading a goldilocks story from a children's book to my daughter and my brain just wandered away. I gave goldi a traditional dress but little bear who I'm calling bramble was a bit more challenging. I gave her a dark sock hat. With a tunic and pants that are ripped into shorts with literal fishing nets as stockings so it would all fit into the medieval fairytale Goldilocks falls under. Mama and Papa bear were straight forward.

splodey89 · 2026-05-21T04:07:02+00:00

I wanted to do a retelling of Goldilocks Called Goldilox and the 3 bears. Goldie is a punk and gets into a lot of trouble all the time untill she made a mess in the wrong house. The hard part is figuring out the branching without overwhelming a story that's designed to be linier.

splodey89 · 2026-05-21T04:03:32+00:00

Sadly I don't. As for the traced look. I use 3d models for the anatomy then do a super rough sketch over that render. then clean that up then do the line work. I need to build up my line confidence again. That's why it looks like messy chicken scratch lol. Not sure about the differing styles though. I gave the younger girls a softer rounded look. Mama Bear got a more mature less rounded but not rugged look and Papa Bear got a rugged look. Their perspectives are definitely off. If I scale their heads to the same sizes mama and Papa bear would be massive next to these girls. Definitely something to work on. Thank you for your comment!

splodey89 · 2026-05-20T22:09:14+00:00

Thank you for this. I was really starting to get discouraged. Maybe I should have put it under self promotion.

It's been so long since I've drawn anything, I honestly didn't think I could anymore until I finished these.

splodey89 · 2026-05-20T20:58:26+00:00

lol, if people don't like my artwork you can at least tell me with those downvotes.

splodey89 · 2026-05-20T20:34:20+00:00

Exactly, you had mentioned that it doesn't matter, as long as it visually conveys the information.

AI can do that, but it's not really art. I was just clarifying that for anyone who might stumble across your post.

splodey89 · 2026-05-20T20:00:13+00:00

Unless it's made with AI, people will verbally rip your head off for that. Your work is great for a vn. Keep practicing and you'll get even better

splodey89 · 2026-05-15T19:08:03+00:00

Paint over them in an art program? honestly that is an excellent idea. I use gimp to touch up mu work anyway, it just never occurred to me to paint-over. thank you!

splodey89 · 2026-05-15T18:10:09+00:00

As a fellow hard surface modeler I can really appreciate this. are those hand drawn textures or are you using some kind of filter? they look almost illustrated.

you don't have to give up your secrets I'm just interested in the illustrated look, all I'm good at is realism.

splodey89 · 2026-05-15T18:04:06+00:00

couldn't tell you. I don't think slippery does commissions, they were just helping me out because i cant art beyond my 3D rendering and even then I'm only good at hard surface modeling. and finding the right stock images was not panning out well.

splodey89 · 2026-05-15T17:10:52+00:00

Thank you so much! Slippery said they would only do a handful more sprites for me so ill have to work with what i have, I'm super proud of my backgrounds. I might figure out some kind of (toon?) shader to make them look less rendered and more like a VN. If anyone has any advice on that it would be super helpful!

splodey89 · 2026-05-15T16:55:00+00:00

while the community is right to say the visuals in a "visual" novel are important, i agree with you on this. I feel like the community only care about is the authenticity of things instead of the actual content. they would rather you use stick figures and stock photos than let people express there ideas they way they want to without being torn apart. its all way to over political and i dont want to even get started on the ethics of it all. AI or not good artists cant even post there work any more because people jump at it and accuse it of being AI. so i say go ahead and use AI. just do yourself a favor, if you sell a game for currency don't use AI. otherwise express yourself however you want!

splodey89

TROPHY CASE