Because I’m a terrible illustrator, I’ve always used whatever help I can get to produce artwork. Until November 2022, this generally meant using stock images in conjunction with Photoshop and Illustrator to excerpt and colorize.
As for many other creatives, AI has been a game-changer for me. But instead of using it to create illustrations that are far outside of my technical grasp, I use it as a helper and use it to create drawings in my own style.
Here are a few pointers:
Have AI help you write the prompts You can use A.I. or even a Google search to help create prompts. For this picture of Zorgon, I didn’t know how to describe the arms and legs. Google told me it was “rubber hose animation.”
Color library If you have a color palette you want to use for a group of illustrations, create a “project” and save that color palette in the instructions for the project.
Be aware of context, historical and otherwise I asked ChatGPT to paint a group of 17th century Americans eating a spaghetti dinner. A human artist might have asked me whether I meant colonists or Native Americans. They might have questioned my choice of a menu that was unavailable in 17th century America. Finally, a human artist may have asked the men to remove their hats before sitting down to dinner.
Count fingers and toes As of this writing you still ought to count fingers, toes, legs, and arms.
Add your own touches in editing I usually ask A.I. to create images in black and white, and then colorize them myself in Photoshop. I will also erase parts of them in Photoshop, and redraw them myself because it makes them a little bit messier. Or I import the A.I.-generated picture into Procreate and trace it.
As I’ve gotten a bit more critical and spent more time with the output of AI, I’ve found that I feel a greater “ownership” of it, and this in turn helps me add more of my own personal stamp on it. What about you?
