Statistics, Strategy, and Controversy
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I've been digging through the numbers behind my recent reels, and they revealed a few surprises.
The illustration that got the most attention was The Titanic Pub in Southampton with more than 2k views (table below) some Landmarks have also done well, as did the private commission of the house in Ireland (Acres 2026).
Strategy
I have some common themes running through my reels such as The Best Gift Ever, 20 Hours in 20 Seconds, etc. Although these reels have been getting a good number of views, the average view time was around 2 seconds (probably the length of time it took someone to scroll past) so I clearly needed to do something to keep viewers interested for longer.
Lots of ‘content creators’ use tricks to do this – making outrageous claims or statements at the start of the reel that really have no basis in truth or relevance to the actual content or using sex or shocking images as ‘click-bait’. My own values won’t let me do that. I want people to be genuinely interested and engaged in my art. I want my views to mean something other than just a number.
So, I have to be more creative about creating that interest to keep people engaged for longer. The new I’m Not AI series has done exactly that with more than 3.5k views averaging 8 seconds, and with 20% staying to watch the whole 45 seconds. However, there have been some unforeseen consequences of this wider audience (see below). But it is encouraging to know that I can increase the view time without relying on gimmicks.
Controversy
When I posted the I'm Not AI real I thought at first I was attracting trolls as some of the comments accused me of either being AI myself or using AI to create my illustrations. However, among the more ridiculous comments were some thoughtful observations.
Some commentators pointed out the contradiction of saying “I'm not AI” and then freely using it in my promotional work, which was not something that had occurred to me before. One pointed out that, if I was vegetarian and extolling its virtues, it would be hypocritical to then have pictures of me eating steak. It is a slightly clumsy analogy but also an apt one. It’s jarring for me to promote myself as ‘AI free’ if that isn’t entirely true. Although I am only saying that I’m not computer generated and the illustrations for sale on the website are made by a human (me).
When I started making reels to promote my illustrations back in May 2026, I used ChatGPT to create some of the Best Gift Ever reels. This was partly because AI was something I hadn’t explored before and it was interesting to see what it was capable of, and also because it was much quicker than doing these single use drawings myself. I have also used ChatGPT to create the realistic photos to show framed examples of my drawings in everyday rooms to help people visualise what it might look like in their own home for my website.
My previous blog Is Artificial Intelligence the End of Human Creativity? discusses both the benefits and dangers of AI. And my newest reel seems to have touched a nerve with quite a few who have similar doubts and concerns. I had already made the decision to not use AI in future reels – hence the I'm Not AI theme. But this seemed to annoy them, perhaps rightly so, when they then looked back at my past reels.
I had several very interesting, and respectful, exchanges with some of the commentators who had made valid points which led me to make the decision to remove the older Best Gift Ever reels to avoid others making the same comparison in the future.
The Future
I will not be stopping my use of AI completely. It remains a useful tool in some circumstances. I decided to stop using it in my reels not because I see AI as a bad thing, but because I wanted to use its absence as a way of creating interest and to let viewers know they were watching a real artist at work. As I say in my previous blog, AI is just the latest in a long line of innovations that are available to creators.
The fact that I now use a digital screen to create my illustrations, rather than the real pen and real ink which I did 20 years ago, appears to annoy a lot of people too. They seem to think my work is less worthy because I’m using modern technology. I disagree.
Every generation has adopted new tools. For me, what matters isn't whether the pen uses ink or pixels to create the image. It's whether there's still a human hand, a human eye and a human story behind the artwork.
Whatever happens with algorithms, comments or view counts, my next illustration is already on the (digital) drawing board. That's still the part I enjoy most.
