Artists You Should Know: Greg Rutkowski

Recently, Greg Rutkowski (not to be confused by Mark Rutkowski, who is also a concept artist) has entered the general net “zeitgeist” as a result of his name being used in prompts for AI art generation. This article attempts to link the name to the work. In, this, my continuing, sometimes sporadic posting of “Artists You Should Know” I am doing a little summary on Greg Rutkowski.

Artists You Should Know is an ongoing series showcasing and bringing to the forefront artists who have influenced me and who are worthy of the spotlight.

Who is Greg Rutkowski

Greg Rutkowski is a talented concept artist with a passion for creating imaginative and visually stunning artwork. His portfolio showcases a diverse range of styles, from futuristic cityscapes and alien landscapes to character designs and creatures. With his attention to detail and ability to bring his ideas to life, Rutkowski has garnered a strong following and has worked on projects for clients such as Magic the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons and many more.

Rutkowski’s work involves creating digital paintings or illustrations that depict dreamy, fantastical landscapes or characters inspired by classical painting styles. His paintings often have a naturalistic, textural approach. These works may be created using digital tools such as graphic design software or may be a combination of traditional and digital techniques.

Greg Rutkowski’s work

One of Rutkowski’s most notable works is his renderings for Magic The Gathering. Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game in which players use a deck of cards featuring a variety of spells, creatures, and other abilities to battle against each other. Each player starts the game with a certain amount of life points, and the goal is to reduce the opponent’s life points to zero before they do the same to you. Players can draw new cards from their deck and play them on their turn, using the abilities of the cards to try and gain an advantage over their opponent. The game has a rich lore and a complex set of rules, and there are many different ways to build a deck and approach the game. It has been popular for over 25 years and has a dedicated player base around the world.

Depictions of dragons, wizards and other fantastic beasts form the bulk of Rutkowski’s work. Commissioned by Wizards of the Coast to create fantastic imagery for each individual card, Rutowkski’s painting style is synonymous with the fantasy card playing brand. It’s no surprise that his renderings stand out amongst the other artists employed by WOTC, such as Rebecca Guay, Jeremy Jarvis and Noah Bradley to name a few. Here are a few examples of his cards.

Rutkowski’s work is marked by broad, almost abstract paint strokes. Building up over layers to form shapes and characters but not going into great minute detail. Detailing is seen in armor and facial features, but backgrounds are out of focus and help push the subject forward. This brushwork, digitally rendered, seeks to mimic oil/acrylic painting, but without the headache of working a canvas to achieve the final result. Here’s a short example of his process.

Another example of his work is his studies of landscapes and almost surreal images. Rutkowski seems to prefer painting somewhat abstract landscapes. Quick studies of mountains, and forests. His artstation portfolio is equally populated by portraits that depict a post-modernist look, rendering it down to the bare “feelings”of the subject, to equal parts landscapes that also seek to render scenes as dreamy and otherworldly. Here are some notable examples:

For these reasons Rutkowski’s style has become popular in the field of text-to-image AI generation, and is now one of the most commonly used prompts in the open-source AI art generator Stable Diffusion. This tool allows users to create images based on text prompts, and can produce results that are similar to Rutkowski’s style.

The AI art controversy and Greg Rutkowski

Initially Rutkowski defended the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the art world. He believes that AI can be a powerful tool for artists, allowing them to create more complex and detailed artwork faster and more efficiently. Rutkowski has even experimented with using AI himself, using it to generate concept art for various projects. However he quickly realized that the AI generator was pushing him out of the spotlight.

Rutkowski became concerned after finding that his name was attached to works that he had not created. Rutkowski’s name has been used as a prompt 93,000 times. According to Lexica, a website that tracks the use of prompts in the text-to-image AI generator Stable Diffusion. This is much more than famous artists such as Michelangelo, Pablo Picasso, and Leonardo da Vinci. They only had around 2,000 prompts. Rutkowski now worries that with the increasing use of AI art generators, it will become difficult to find his own work online in the future.

Rutkowski’s views on AI art are falling quickly in line with other traditionalists. They believe that it undermines the value and uniqueness of human-created art. However, Rukowski sees Ai Art as being a double edged sword of sorts, arguing that though AI can be used to augment the creative process rather than replace it, it can also seek to replace the artist in the one sphere that can provide an income for them: The internet. An artist must show their work to the world, unfortunately the software also gives it the opportunity to train a bot to produce work just like it. Just one more piece of competition to fight against.

The Artist You Now Know: Greg Rutkowski

In conclusion, Greg Rutkowski is a talented concept artist known for creating imaginative and visually stunning artwork in a variety of styles. His work often involves creating digital paintings or illustrations that depict dreamy, fantastical landscapes or characters inspired by classical painting styles. He has gained a strong following and has worked on projects for clients such as Magic the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. Recently, his style has become popular in the field of text-to-image AI generation, and is now one of the most commonly used prompts in the open-source AI art generator Stable Diffusion. While initially supportive of the use of AI in the art world, Rutkowski has become concerned about the potential impact on his own work and the art industry as a whole. He believes that it is important for artists to embrace new technologies, but also to be mindful of the potential risks and challenges that they may present. Now you know an Artist You Should Know.

If you found this informative consider buying me a book. Thanks for reading. The writer of this blog is Ian Reid, he runs his own creative agency ReidDesigns.pro specializing in creative content and advertising, if you need work commissioned or just want to drop a private message get in touch here.