iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

First it was Graphic Designers who used AI to rid themselves of Illustrators. Now it's Illustrators using AI to rid themselves of Graphic Designers. The visual design world is a snake eating its tail. Don't they know that soon it'll just be "Art Directors" with no real design skills typing prompts?

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Our kitty was interested, and this photo was kind of perfect and made me laugh.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Neighbors fireworks went nonstop from 8pm to 1am last night. Thousands of them. Fireworks are illegal in CT. We live three blocks from the cops. Cats were terrified. And now they're starting up again for night 2....

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

New artwork for "Club XL" from Excision and Level Up. Mostly painted in Photoshop, building background modeled in Blender.

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Reposted by Ven Locklear

key-lime pie @keymonster.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

✨I have 2 spots left in my August commission queue! ✨ Please share around so I can fill these two spots by month’s end. If you are interested, check out my TOS and send me an email. 💌 Thank you everyone! 🌱 [ #art #commsopen #supportartists ]

A commissions info card. The image shows a bunch of illustrations cropped into rectangles. They are mostly dogs and cats, but there are also a few birds. They are all mixed with various plants and flowers. The text across the image reads “commissions are open”

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Belated art post here, single artwork for Excision and Subtronics. It was a collab with Subtronic's creative director Ray Elemento, who did the space background and other parts of the environment. Of course I did the big silly monster. Song in comments (with lightly animated art!)

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

I just hope everyone goes Standard and Adobe realizes that people don't value their AI tools enough to make them a good business choice long term. A boy can dream!

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

If you're someone like me that has to use Adobe for industry reasons, just a reminder to read the fine print in the latest plan changes. "All Apps" is now "Pro" which is $170/yr more expensive, but you can change to Standard, keep all the apps, and just forego some extra AI features.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Caught up on Stranger Things, didn't hate the finale like some! Maybe because I was never a superfan? I was just here for the synthwave, the monsters, and the friendship themes, and Season 5 delivered those. I'll miss the show!

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

This was a blast! Happy holidays!

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Reposted by Ven Locklear

sleepyrogue 🔪 @sleepyrogue.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

anti ai, pro hag

Text reads: USE AI? No thanks. I'd rather get my misinformation from the local swamp hag.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Oh yeah and I should mention that this is painted in Photoshop. I also use 3d and photobashing on certain illustration/concept projects, but my preference is drawing/painting.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Yeah, I've heard of artists avoiding certain styles because of it.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

My most recent artwork on Subsidia for Excision and Sullivan King. I'm not on twitter, but apparently there was a kerfuffle over there with some fans claiming it was AI art. HA. HA. HA.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Predator Badlands was a delight. Maybe Predator movies shouldn't be delightful. But I was delighted nonetheless 😁

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Reposted by Ven Locklear

key-lime pie @keymonster.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Happy whale explosion day to those who celebrate! 🐋

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Yeah but was it AI generated?? I discovered that at a nail salon recently, but it was country pop/slop.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

New single artwork, always fun to draw meat and chrome.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Great movie weekend! Saw Frankenstein in theaters, really felt the love from Del Toro. Beautiful and thoughtful....aaaand for a palette cleanser rented the new Toxic Avenger, lol

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Yup, and it's really hard to tell, at least for the average listener like me. This time I only suspected because it was an album with five versions of the same song. It's now been taken down, but it's still depressing that it's a new norm.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

I'll look into it. A while back I switched to Youtube Music, since I heard it was SLIGHTLY better at paying artists and didn't have rogan, but I think neither of those things are true anymore so I've been giving Spotify another try. YT music was just terrible for keeping track of artists.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Also, I'm sorry if this makes you depressed too. I've been avoiding social media BOTH because of all the AI slop AND because of everyone posting about how sad they are about the AI slop. So I'm sorry to add to that part of it!

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Spotify's newest trend is AI tracks and albums impersonating smaller artists who either aren't producing music anymore, are on a hiatus, or have passed away. So now when I go to hear new releases from my favorite artists, I regularly encounter illegal AI slop. And it makes me want to cry.

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Mar Julia ➰〰️➰ @marjulia.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

CHINGA LA MIGRA 🐊💥 risograph prints will be with me at SPX on some kind of sliding scale, with sales donated to the Florida Immigrant Coalition, a coalition of advocacy groups across the state, and CASA, a group active here in Maryland as well as Virginia and Pennsylvania.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Ah, there's nothing like waking up to see a post from a past client where they've used AI instead of a real artist. I shouldn't look at Instagram in the morning.

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

RIP Graham Greene. I've never seen Dances With Wolves, I guess it won 6 Oscars. What didn't win six Oscars was Clearcut, but god damn is that a fascinating movie with an eerie performance from him. He goes from hilarious to scary just like that, and oh boy that de-barking scene. GO WATCH IT NOW!!!

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Guilhem Bedos Art @guilhem-bedos-art.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

💗 ARTSHARE 💗 To celebrate my 500 followers milestone, I host my very first #artshare thread here on BlueSky! You know the drill: - share this post so others can join - present yourself (optional) - show your art (obviously... 😅) - no NSFW please (artistic nudity/erotica is allowed) - have fun!

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Late here because I'm on vacation! But thanks so much for the tag. I'm Ven, illustrator and concept artist, and here are couple of my Excision album arts:

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

I got my copy of Bad Space Comics!!!!!!

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Take good care of her for me 🥹 I moved away last year.

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Reposted by Ven Locklear

key-lime pie @keymonster.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Stop using generative AI. There is no legitimate use of generative AI. There is no “I hate AI but this is ok”. Not everyone is using it. We do not have to “get used to it or be left behind.” Just don’t. Just stop. Delete the app. Close your account. Save some money. Take the first step. #noai

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

I was like "haha 20 years ago" and then was like...oh yeah that's when I started digital art too! The years fly by! Cool stuff...

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Ven Locklear @venlocklear.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Congrats on the 3k! Posting a few pieces that I hope are creepy but a little pretty too.

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Reposted by Ven Locklear

Dusty Ray @sloppjockey.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

reminder that every print ordered from my shop is made, proofed, and hand signed by me personally and never dropshipped from some anonymous print factory farm <3

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Priya @gingerpk.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

A blue summer 💙

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