What counts as "HAND-DRAWN" anymore?

[Redrobes]

The marks on the map made with the action of your moving hand are hand drawn whether on a digital tablet or an ink pen. But if your going to point and fill in a bit of the map with an icon then that is not hand drawn. Ok it might be a grey area if the icon you place down is a bit of artwork that you have also hand drawn. But if were talking textures or external icons then generally not.

But a map that is or is not hand drawn is no better or worse, its just different. Just style.

The real interesting questions are going to come up when you prompt the AI to deliver a bit of your map that you need and you collage many bits of AI driven content. Then did you even draw it yourself or not ? Its going to be a very wide ranging sliding scale from "completely hand drawn" to "practically no input into the piece whatsoever". There is going to be some tools that allow you to hand draw a shape and the AI paints it for you. That's clearly not "hand drawn" but assisted.

Will these new "barely any input whatsoever" maps have a place here ? I think so, as long as they are created, unique and new. Whether we get to the point where there will be a flood of easily created AI driven artworks being posted I don't know. Some people think so but I believe for a map to be useful it has to convey the right sort of information not just be some pretty artwork. So the curating of the information is important in a map as opposed to a pure piece of art. Which is why when looking at the challenges we vote based not only on whether the artwork is fine and pretty but also how well it meets the challenge specification and how well it conveys the information required. I think the AI is going to have a harder time with that aspect of it. But how hand drawn it is, is a very arbitrary criterion to be judging a piece of work by in my opinion.

I am sure that Michelangelo would have used Photoshop and tools other than a brush or chisel if they had existed at the time he was able to use them. And I am sure he would have done better than most today with them too.