Lúcia Lemos was 7 years old when she realized her drawings could put food on the table. Growing up in Rio de Janeiro's North Zone, where money was always tight, she sold her art to classmates for R$2 apiece — enough for a snack or medicine. By 16, she was doing freelance logos, portraits, tattoo designs.
"Sempre usei meu desenho como forma de sobreviver, para comprar pão. E isso está acabando." (I always used my drawing as a way to survive, to buy bread. And that's ending.)
She graduated in visual communication from UFRJ, specializing in book illustrations and game character design. During the pandemic, commissions boomed. In 2021, her best month, she earned R$7,000 — enough, combined with her programmer husband's salary, to keep their household comfortable.
Then the AI wave hit. One conversation with an old client still echoes in her head: "Ele me disse que, por melhor que eu fosse, não valia mais a pena contratar meu trabalho. Ele falou: 'eu te contrato, e você demora uma semana para fazer um desenho para um livro, agora, eu digito uma linha de código e consigo 20 desenhos na hora com a inteligência artificial.'" (He told me that, as good as I was, it wasn't worth hiring me anymore. He said: 'I hire you and you take a week to make a drawing for a book — now I type one line of code and get 20 drawings instantly with AI.')
By 2024, the losses were palpable. "Colegas de trabalho foram demitidos, outros agora trabalham apenas 'corrigindo' desenhos feitos por IA." (Colleagues got fired. Others now only work 'correcting' AI-made drawings.) When BBC News Brasil spoke with her, she expected to earn less than R$300 that month from commissioned work.
Wagner Loud, a creative director and illustrator in São Paulo with ten years in the market, has seen the same pattern. Illustration departments at companies have been shut down or reduced to a skeleton crew. "Quem antes sentava e pensava em uma arte, com ideias novas, agora senta e coloca palavras-chave no sistema para gerar um desenho novo. Isso é triste." (Who used to sit and think about art, with new ideas, now sits and types keywords into a system to generate a new drawing. That's sad.)
Lúcia's solution? She started selling her original drawings at independent artist fairs — buttons, sticker sheets, keychains. "É o que tem me salvado. Quem vai a esses eventos de fato está interessado em adquirir um trabalho de um artista, não de IA." (It's what's been saving me. People who go to these events are actually interested in buying work from an artist, not from AI.)
But the income is more unstable and smaller than before. "Estou com medo de não conseguir mais me sustentar." (I'm scared I won't be able to support myself anymore.)