Artist: rhode arts (locked)

Staff members involved: Lafcadio, Rainbow Dash, spe, Strikerman

On 2026-03-19, Lafcadio came across post #6273505, finding it immediately suspicious. From there, certain trends were identified in the rest of the artist's work, along with a particularly close resemblance to certain AI image models. Further review of the artist's history brought up posts like https://x.com/RhodeyArts/status/1731689481860694516, showing a wide gulf in the quality of their humans/anthros vs. the quality of their ferals at the time. This specific image would later be brought up to the artist in the interest of seeking an explanation. Improvements seen in the artist's ability to draw feral Pokémon were also accompanied by a much stronger resemblance to official works.

At the same time, pre-Stable Diffusion works existed to compare styles against, including works already deleted from e621 for failing to meet quality standards or being human-only. Posts were immediately selected for deletion based on trends including visual styles.

An appeal was started 2026-03-21. Lafcadio briefly explained the appeal process, and Rainbow Dash left a reply announcing her presence. While Lafcadio was away, the artist posted a video of a bust-up of a female Mudbray in an 88-minute drawing process. Initial sketches lasted around 10 minutes, at about 33 minutes in the artist wrote a note about taking a break for food, lasting for about 3 minutes. Coloring was finally started around the 1:11:11 mark, with the remainder of the video consisting of coloring, highlighting, and shading.

The video had proven a certain ability to make suspicious-looking materials, as falsification was not immediately evident, but there was still more to be established by interview: what about changes in the artist's poses and compositions? Did they have sketches to share from older works?

The interview continued. The artist shared an anecdote about changes in their education and personal life, associating with more artists and clients, etc. Their testimony certainly did suggest an increased interest in art and an increased output, along with increased practice and the purchase of a new tablet, but there were few direct statements about changes in their style and decision-making. They did credit changes in latex detailing, shading, and reflections to artists they met online in 2025, and talked about drawing feral Pokémon less often due to controversy related to feral artists.

They also admitted to being scouted for certain real-world events as an artist. Following up from there had the artist sharing sketches, as well as several safe-for-work art pieces that were not in their e621 gallery. The artist quickly confirmed the name of the event they were scouted for, as well as an alternative alias associated with their public work.

Review of further images brought several things to attention: the artist had posts with strange quirks that were seemingly only found in AI-generated images. Certain images were pulled from an AI-only website for comparison, and sure enough, similar quirks were found there. Although a baseline ability to draw had been demonstrated, there was additional evidence unrelated to proving the ability to draw, or judging the artist's personal style.

The artist had posted 34 sketches and WIPs before Lafcadio brought up a recent post by the artist, portraying TwoKinds's Clovis in Tom Fischbach's style. The artist's ability to draw in Tom Fischbach's style was not proven by the prior video, but at the same time, Lafcadio could not justify demanding more and more videos. Even an innocent artist would balk at being asked to record three more videos trying to imitate other art styles. He asked: "Is this your first time doing TwoKinds-styled stuff?" The artist responded that this was the first commission of this type, but not the first drawing.

After another break for food, the artist posted a further 28 works-in-progress in the form of instant messaging logs with Telegram associates. Lafcadio asked for materials related to the Clovis drawing, including references, prior art studies, and direct trace sources from the comic itself, along with similar materials for Atlyss-style drawings by the same artist.

Then, a sudden 30-minute gap occurred. The artist posted a photo of a paper drawing showing Clovis with several slight differences: among these, the paper drawing had the character's tail flowing behind, while the final digital work had it wrapped around a leg instead. Several other more subtle differences were present. Lafcadio could not discount the possibility that this paper drawing was faked for the appeal.

Then, Lafcadio asked for references related to one final image, hoping that one of the prior AI-only quirks he discovered would simply be explained away by the submission of something like a reference sheet. The artist's submissions failed to prove this, but they did post a reference image: a specific photo of Wisin & Yandel that had become a meme in certain internet circles, showing one reaching towards the camera with an open hand, and the other pressing his arms together in a "folded hands"-like gesture. Their art had only the barest of resemblances to this reference, with the character with folded hands facing the wrong way entirely. This would be an odd deviation for an artist using a specific reference image, but it made perfect sense for an novice AI prompter who lacks particularly fine detail over character poses.

Lafcadio left one final reply, admitting that the evidence was as such that he could not discuss further concerns with the artist (such as AI-only errors), and could not repeatedly demand more videos for every possible style they had demonstrated. He then moved on to discussing changes in the artist's fundamental decision-making that aligned with AI adoption, and their position as somebody in close association with peers and artists meant that Rhode_Arts would've been in a position that necessitated creating sketches and WIPs, regardless of innocence or guilt. Effectively, the quantity of works-in-progress could not be used as proof of innocence.

A more important detail was that only once throughout the entire appeal did the artist offer a traditional drawing instead of a digital one: the Clovis drawing preceded by an unexplained 30-minute pause. It was well within the artist's ability to create a sketch of this level in 30 minutes, as proven by the 10-minute sketch process in their video. However, the sketch also had several changes in the shape, size, and arrangement of various body parts.

If real, the Clovis drawing would have to have significant differences from the digital work-in-progress, and the artist did discuss having a digital process for this image. Yet, no such digital version was submitted by the artist, and even if it were submitted, this left quirks in other images completely unexplained. Even in a best-case scenario of the Clovis image having its origin proven, other works remained where it was impossible to reliably prove innocence.

With all that laid out, Lafcadio closed the appeal in order to preserve evidence, and gave directions on how to escalate to higher staff. The artist immediately took the offer, so Lafcadio alerted the Janitor Lead Strikerman to speak with Rhode_Arts while providing his own notes on the case.

Strikerman later inquired about the Clovis piece that Lafcadio had suspected, offering some works-in-progress to bridge the gap between differences in the sketch and the final work. The digital WIP bridging the final version and the paper sketch itself exhibited a few other differences, such as the tail going from two different shapes to curling around the character's leg. More 2022-2023 sketches were submitted, showing several traits consistent with their pre-AI portfolio, and a smaller selection of sketches "from [...] last year" with traits more consistent with their post-AI work. Another paper drawing showed a Steelix and Dusclops in a similar style to official Pokémon art.

Certain AI-like quirks remained entirely unproven in spite of the submission of additional evidence, and the appeal process had itself caused more proof of AI assistance to be discovered.

The artist followed up later after Strikerman spent a bit of time juggling other tasks, then came down with a migraine on 2026-03-30. As the matter was already privately discussed and Lafcadio's findings explained in detail, Strikerman directed him to break the bad news. Lafcadio left a reply stating that the additional submissions had not changed the verdict, and the publication of this writeup would soon follow.