I have a feeling this is AI-generated, to be honest. I first found it on a German site IIRC, but couldn’t find any significant matches apart from that.
I’ll try to avoid posting AI art in future, but I have to admit… some of it is pretty flippin’ impressive!
EDIT: No, I guess I’ll post more AI art in future, based on the positive response and discussion below. I’m frankly a little torn, but I’ll abide.
No worries, we’re on the same page with all of that, and when the time comes, you’ll know my guillotine from the rest by the words emblazoned on its top beam, “Heroes work here”.
To the other point, I was more drawing a comparison of the ease by which such public domain pieces are churned out like technicolor toilet paper and the low-effort of those AI reiterations you’d mentioned. Their simple existence, much less their undeniably derivative creation process, does not prove the tech as largely plagiaristic — unless, of course, that also includes every student of any artform at all. Reduce the barrier of qualification enough, and everything is derivative, after all.
Additionally, there will always be those that ride coattails for scraps rather than go to the effort themselves, but no one questions the shark’s process because of the lamprey’s tendencies. 🤙🏼