What qualifies as Human-Made Art? Verification criteria
The Human-Made Art badge certifies that your artwork is created by human hands, without AI generation. This guide explains the line we draw, what qualifies, what doesn’t, and how the review process works.
The principle: tools that assist, not replace
Artists have always used tools. Photographers use Photoshop. Painters use digital sketches. Writers use spellcheck. The line we draw is simple: if the making still happens through you, we’re in. If the making happens without you, we’re out.
What’s welcome
These tools are fine — they support your eye and your hand:
Editing software — Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture One, and the photographer’s edit pipeline.
AI writing assistants — for titles, descriptions, captions, artist statements. Using AI to write a clearer description is the modern version of hiring a copywriter; the artwork is still yours.
Digital painting and 3D tools — Procreate, Blender, Figma, Photoshop’s brush engine, and similar.
AI-powered organization — search, layout, tagging, and management of your own portfolio.
What’s not allowed
These tools cross the line — they do the making instead of you:
Generative image models as the source of the artwork — Midjourney, DALL·E, Stable Diffusion, Sora outputs.
Prompt-to-image as the primary act of making. Describing an idea isn’t the same as making one.
Heavy generative fills that produce the image rather than refine it.
Re-uploading someone else’s generated work as your own.
The mark is a blanket certificate on you, the artist — not stamped on a single painting. Once verified, your whole body of work carries it.
How verification works
You subscribe to Human-Made Art verification from the Verify page.
Your uploaded portfolio is automatically scanned for AI markers by a detection model.
If your portfolio is clean, you’re verified instantly.
If anything is flagged, the work goes to our human trust team for review. This typically takes 2-3 business days.
You’ll get an email when the review is complete — either confirming verification, or explaining what didn’t pass.
If your verification isn’t approved
If the review finds work that doesn’t pass, you’ll see the reason on your profile under the Verification Not Approved banner. You can:
Remove any flagged images from your portfolio.
Click Re-apply for Verification on the verification status card.
The remaining work is automatically re-scanned. If it’s clean, you’re verified.
How edge cases are handled
There are gray areas — hybrid work, heavy generative fills, honest uncertainty about whether something crosses the line. For these cases:
Flagged — the detection model or a community member raises a question about a work.
Reviewed — trusted, long-standing community members see the work in context and vote.
Decided — the work is either accepted back with a public note, or declined with the reason shown.
When the line isn’t clear, the community decides — not a single moderator.
What the badge gives you
Site badge on your profile and artwork across ArtHelper.
Green ring around your avatar across the community.
Gallery visibility — increased visibility in consumer-facing galleries and feeds.
Artist Spotlight eligibility — rotation across email, social, and the homepage.
Embeddable widget — a verification badge you can place on your own website, Shopify, Squarespace, anywhere HTML runs.
Merch store access — exclusive access to Human-Made-themed products.
Common questions
Is using ChatGPT to write my artist bio allowed?
Yes. AI writing assistance for titles, descriptions, captions, and statements is on the welcome side of the line. The making is still yours.
I do digital painting in Procreate — does that count as human-made?
Yes. Digital painting tools (Procreate, brushes in Photoshop, etc.) are tools the hand drives. The making still happens through you.
What about photography that uses AI denoising or sharpening?
Normal photographic editing — denoising, sharpening, color correction, retouching — is fine. That’s the photographer’s edit, not a generative tool replacing the shot.
I started with a Midjourney image and painted over it. Does that count?
This is the gray area. If the generated image is what people see and your overpaint is incidental, it crosses the line. If you used it as a private reference and the final piece is entirely your hand, it’s closer to allowed. Edge cases like this end up in the community review queue.
How long does the human review take?
Typically 2-3 business days. You’ll get an email when it’s done.
Can I lose the badge later?
Yes, if work that doesn’t meet the criteria appears in your portfolio after verification. Keep your portfolio aligned with the rules above.