Artificial intelligence (AI) is a creative bridge

How a Coder Became an Illustrator: The Story Behind CritterCute

I come from a background in code—logic, structure, and syntax. For most of my career, I built digital things with keystrokes and brackets, not brushstrokes or sketchpads. I’ve always admired great illustrators and visual storytellers, but until recently, that world felt like it belonged to someone else—someone who majored in it, trained in it, lived in it. I had ideas in my head, vivid and full of personality, but no way to get them out visually. I didn’t have the artistic skillset to match the creative concepts I carried around.

Then came AI.

AI changed the game—not just for me, but for anyone who’s ever wanted to cross creative lines that used to be solid walls. With the help of AI tools, I could finally bring the characters and creatures in my imagination to life. I wasn’t asking AI to create for me—I was collaborating with it, shaping, refining, and directing it until what I saw in my mind’s eye came to life on the screen. It became a tool, not a crutch. A partner, not a shortcut.

CritterCute was born from this intersection—where a code-driven brain met a design-driven dream. I built it because I wanted to prove something quietly revolutionary: that coders can be artists, and artists can be coders. We no longer have to live inside one box. AI makes that flexibility real.

Of course, there’s an elephant in the room. Everyone’s wondering, “Isn’t AI replacing artists?” I don’t see it that way. What I see is expansion—of possibility, of voice, of access. For me, it unlocked creativity. It didn’t replace talent; it revealed what had always been sitting quietly in the background, waiting for a bridge.

CritterCute is personal. Every sticker, every creature, every quirky expression started with an idea in my head—and thanks to AI, it didn’t have to stay there.

If you’re a coder, you can draw.

If you’re an artist, you can build.

AI is just the medium in between.

Welcome to the in-between. Welcome to the bridge...