Art imitates life, and vice versa sometimes.

In this story, a young writer and a young artist have a clash of the stylus.

Let’s see what we can draw from it…

AITA for telling my friend I don’t like her art style?

I literally didn’t know how else to word the title, because it sounds way worse than what I meant.

Anywho, I (21f) have been working on a novel for the last year, and I finished about 10 chapters, almost halfway done with the story itself.

(Plan is 25 chapters)

Impressive! But any freshman effort is bound to encounter some obstacles…

This novel is like my second child, and I’m so proud of how it’s been coming along.

My original plan is to post the first ten chapters to a couple different places, and see how it goes over before I work on making hard copies (after I finish it of course)

On a couple different platforms, you can have cover pictures for the chapters.

I figured this would be a great way to show off each character’s design, and help paint a clear picture of how they look.

Will this young writer get the helpful visuals she seeks?

My friend(26f) has been helping me with the editing process of the chapters.

Not only is she my co-editor, but in her free time, she sells and commissions art work to other authors and businesses, and sometimes people who just want fanart.

Her art, while good, is just not the style I had in mind for my characters.

Nothing wrong with that. But you know, artists can be sensitive… (not me!)

I tried drawing them on my own, and while I’m not an amazing artist, after practicing for almost a month, and using lots of inspiration and how to videos, I created what I thought was a really good rough draft of my MC.

When I showed my friend, she instantly asked if I had traced it, hinting that there was no way I could have drawn it.

I told her I drew it, and had used a lot of inspiration and videos to help me get it perfect.

She listened, then went on a spiel about how I “plagiarized” other people’s work and that I’m not a real artist if I can’t free draw my ideas straight from my head.

Unfair.

She continued to say I should stick to writing and let her or someone else draw my characters instead.

Here’s where things hit the fan.

I told her I would think about paying someone, and when asked, “Why not me?” I straight up said I didn’t like her style of art for my novel.

She draws things in an anime/Manga way, while it’s really cool and I do like her art, I don’t want my novel to be portrayed that way.

I told her that too, but she didn’t wanna listen.

Will her artist friend open her eyes or ears?

She started yelling and screaming at me for “using her” and never telling her she wouldn’t be a part of the art aspect of the novel.

We literally never agreed on anything and only scarcely talked about the cover art.

Or just her mouth?

I tried de-escalating the situation, but she just kept screaming at me until I gathered my stuff and left.

Since then my phone has been BLOWING UP with messages from her and her family, calling me all sorts of names for “using” her just to help edit my novel.

I’m actually really hurt right now, because we’ve been friends for years, and it’s just disheartening that I made her feel this way.

Even my mom is telling me to “just let her do all the art work,” but I genuinely don’t want to because she hates drawing anything outside of her respected style.

Whose side are you on, mom?

Please give me any advice you got and I’ll answer any questions you have.

I’m just so confused….so AITA?

Imitation might be the highest form of flattery, but rejection isn’t.

What do the comments think about this artist’s way?

Someone says, you don’t have an IOU…

Here’s another vote for no IOU.

One poster is like, language is important?

Someone else suggests more info is needed… and language is important.

This person says NTA and her friend should get a grip on her pen.

Pencils down, this artist’s feud ends here.

This is really too bad.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.