AI-Generated art has taken the world by storm. It is dramatically changing how we create and understand art, design, movies, film, animation, and everything that creativity touches.
In this article, we discuss AI-generated art and how to make AI-generated art of your own.
AI-Generated Art is impacting every part of creativity.
Creativity is more than just being an artist. Creativity is a rich part of our lives that most people do not even recognize as part of their lives.
For example, we have heard the complaint that schools should cut funding for art and music because they don’t matter. They forget just how large of a role creativity plays in everyone’s daily life – unless they live on a deserted island.
Think of every TV show, film, magazine, or song you have listened to. There are hundreds of thousands of people making that kind of magic happen. In film alone, the amount of people involved in the production and marketing of a single film is astronomical.
What if all creative things disappeared?
Ponder for a second if we removed from the planet all creativity and anything that creatives have created. Yep, that was a bit of a tongue twister – but you get what I am laying down.
The level of boredom would be epic. No TV, games, books, film, or anything that enriched our existence. It would be, as predicted, like living on a deserted island.
I do understand that living on a deserted island in concept sounds appealing to many, as well as never hearing another annoying pop song again for the rest of their lives.
I get it, if I hear the song Toxic by Britney Spears one more time in an elevator, I would also seriously consider moving to a sunny, palm tree inhabited desert island for reprieve.
Yet, the truth is, most people would be extremely devastated without all the magic that creativity gives us and how it impacts our lives every day. People would sadly really miss everything in our world that has been built by creatives and innovators.
Even the silly pop songs that live in our heads rent-free – have merit.
AI-Generated Art is part of that creativity.
That being said, AI-Generated art is moving into every one of those creative fields and opportunities. It is sinking its enigmatic teeth into every aspect of creativity leaving no stone unturned.
Every corner you turn, there is again a shadow that you can’t shake. The elephant in the room walks around, shaking up all forms of creativity in ways we might not even recognize, yet.
You can run but you can’t hide. You can pretend it is not happening, but it is. You can live in denial for all the various reasons people have been since it started.
No matter if you love it, hate it or are confused by it all, it is not going anywhere. You will have to face it one day.
People keep saying it is a fad, but what is considered a fad is becoming a part of our daily lives without us even knowing it. It is integrated into art, film, animation and so much more.
AI-Generated art and design are taking the world by storm at a speed so epic that even those of us that ran track in school can’t keep up. Each day there is something new birthed into the ether.
It is moving so fast and spreading into just about everything.
Image From Art Station
Loving or Hating AI-Generated Art
There is a love-and-hate relationship that is playing out among those who have either been watching from the sidelines or that have been actively involved in what keeps changing and evolving.
Since writing this blog, this conversation has gotten more intense with artists angrily fighting back against AI programs for various reasons.
So if you are looking to make AI-Generated art, just know there is quite a conversation taking place on various aspects of AI-Generated Art such as copyright laws, artists’ works that are being emulated, and whether or not AI-Generated art is killing the artist’s ability to make a living.
All are valid concerns and conversions which are ever evolving day by day and at times minute by minute.
If you want to learn more about those conversations, take a peek at this other blog here on Just Creative, where I explain in great detail How AI-Generated Art Is Changing Art Design.
So you want to make AI art.
Since you are here to learn how to make AI-Generated art of your own, let’s get started. I will talk a bit about what AI-Generated art is and how the magic happened.
Then I will provide you with step-by-step instructions on making your own AI-Generated imagery.
AI-Generating Created By My Myself On Midjourney
Understanding AI-Generated Art
What is AI-Generated art? AI-Generated art is art that is created by humans inputting text (also known as prompts) into a machine. I can understand just how strange that might sound to some people, but it is the simplest way to explain it.
To further explain, AI-Generated art is created with software that uses Machine Learning (ML). Machine Learning is a field of computer science and is one of the six subsets of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The other subsets are neural networks, natural language processing, robotics, deep learning and geometric algorithms which are all very fascinating and diverse.
Machine Learning gets better and better.
Machine learning is a set of algorithms that enable computers to learn how to identify patterns and also learn from historical data. The more input, the more the machine learns.
For example, we create AI-Generated art by inputting a string of text (prompts) into software like Midjourney, Nightcafe, OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, and Stable Diffusion which are run by machine learning. The more strings of text people keep inputting into these programs, the more they learn and the better the programs get at delivering what the user wants.
When AI-Generated art was started, the output of imagery was subpar but impressive nonetheless. You would get final artwork based on human-centered prompts where the hands, eyes and other body parts were severely distorted.
The distortions were creative, messy and endearing but people wanted it to do better. With the power of machine learning, the machines are doing so much better that the outputs of AI-Generated art are beyond mind-blowing and we are watching the outputs evolve in real-time.
ArtBreeder AI-Generating Art Application Home Page
Machine Learning is challenging us in real time.
Some of the newest AI-Generated art is rivaling realism and challenging everything we know. AI-Generated art is being turned into film, music videos, time-lapse videos, and more.
It is hard to keep up with all the buzz and what is going on in the world of AI, but it is exciting so I wanted to share with you how to create your own AI art.
How to Make AI-Generated Art
How can I make AI-Generated Art? It’s a common question.
First, you need to decide which generator you want to use. One of the easiest and widely used is Lensa by Prisma Labs. I am sure you have seen numerous portraits of friends, family, and random people posting AI selfies on special media.
Lensa is one of the main reasons that image generating AI has become more widely known and is getting attention and might be one of the reasons you started reading this blog in the first place. It’s hard not to want to join in the fun.
Lensa is one of the quickest ways to create AI art. You can download the app for a 3-day trial. After your trial is over, you can pay $4.99/month or get billed annually for $29.99. The full access gives you unlimited art creations, faster image processing, and quality images with an ad-free experience.
Give it a try for free and see what all the hype is about.
- Try Lensa in the Apple Store
- Lensa is in the Google Play Store
Examples of Jacob Cass using Lensa
How can I make more sophisticated AI art?
If you find Lensa is not giving you what you need and you want to move into a more complex AI art generating system, this is where programs like Midjourney come in.
There are existing programs like Canva and Jasper that have also integrated the new text-to-image generator technology – it is showing up everywhere.
Since I love Midjourney and have been using it since it was first introduced, I wanted to provide you with instructions on how to get started with Midjourney. Also in this section, you can find another list of other AI image generating options.
Let’s start using Midjourney.
To work in Midjourney, you need to join Discord first. Discord is a free communication app that you can run on your desktop or mobile device and that is how you will run the Midjourney application.
Discord Communication Application Home Page
Next, go to the Midjourney homepage and “Join the Beta”. You can also click “Getting Started” where they provide a Quick Start Guide or “Community Showcase” where you can get a sneak peek into the community before you join.
Midjourney Community Showcase
Once you get there, you can start a free trial and test it out which gives new users 25 credits at the time of this blog post (things are always changing). If you love it and want to join, it is $10/mo for 200 images per month or a standard membership of $30 per month for unlimited use.
Midjourney Home Page
Midjourney Billing
Simple Midjourney directions.
- Midjourney: Visit midjourney.com. Click: Join Beta using the Beta button
- Discord: Sign into Discord Account or Create New Account
- Accept: Discord invite.
- Link to: Midjourney when prompted.
- Welcome: Midjourney beta.
- Find Midjourney on Discord: Next you will want to look to your left and find the Midjourney channel. It looks like a little boat icon.
- Find Newbie: Lastly, look for the “Newbie” room. These rooms will also have a number following it.
It all starts with a prompt.
Once you sign up and find the newbie room, you have made it to the area where AI Generated art is made. It was a long journey to get here, but here we are. Are you ready to make some art?
The main criteria involved in the first steps of creating AI-Generated art involves the prompt. When you open an AI program, it gives you an area to write your prompt. A prompt gives that software a set of instructions like we had mentioned above and will in turn provide you with a specific output based on that prompt.
To find where to enter your first prompt, locate the large chat area on the same Midjourney Newbie room page and scroll down to find the input area. It should say “Message newbie-number”. That is right where you will type your first prompt.
First Type: /imagine (the hit enter) Next Type: Your prompt
Watch out for banned prompts.
As a user, you can type just about anything. There are lists of banned prompts that are specific to the software you are using. For example, if you are using DALL-E, here are some examples of banned words if used in certain contexts.
- Corpse
- Attack
- Cannibal
- Blood
- Dead
- Wars
- Shooting
- Knife
The idea around the banned words is to keep the outputs a little safer than if you could use those prompts. They try to avoid violence in the software.
Your prompts should convey your idea of what an image should contain when adding them to the text-to-image machine learning models like Midjourney. There are many ways to create prompts, so below we have given you a bit of direction on how to start writing prompts.
Here are some tips for writing killer AI-Art prompts.
- Think about what you want to create and try to put that into words.
- Use a minimum of 3 words to get started and you can move to more complex prompts later.
- Choose adjectives that will help the description be more in-depth. Words like shiny, vibrant, colorful, and cold are examples of words that might be enjoyable to try.
- You can also add an art style like Japanese anime style, Pixar movie style, or cyber punk style.
- You can use artist influence like Dali, Picasso, or Andy Warhol. With copyright issues being flung around, it is best to honor living artists’ work by not using their names in prompts.
- Lighting is a big focus for prompts. Use options like dramatic lighting, cinematic lighting, octane render, or even fairy lights.
- Adding chaos to an image prompt can create abstraction of a subject. Using 0-100 (most abstract) will help you control how abstract you want the piece to be.
- Choose dimensions. Most programs have default dimensions, but you can also get more specific dimensions like (–w 600 –h 300) which means 600 pixels wide and 300 pixels high. You can also use aspect ratios like (1:1) which is a perfect square.
- Add the quality of the output that you want by letting it know that you want a low, medium, high, or even 4k image. You can also use descriptive words like photorealistic, detailed, or hyper realistic.
Example prompt in action.
In this example, I used the prompt used in Midjourney. “Cute rabbit, 4K, Cyberpunk style, surrounded by fairy lights in the forest”
This is an amazing and super fun result. Understand that this is a pretty simple prompt and you can get far more unique and creative with your process as you learn and grow.
10 AI-Art Generators to explore
- Midjourney
- DALL-E 2
- Stable Diffusion
- Deep Dream Generator
- Photosonic
- NightCafe
- Artbreeder
- Fotor
- Jasper
- Lensa
You can also check out the 12+ Best AI Art Generators for Creatives
Get started and go enjoy!
Creating AI-Generated art and images is a lot of fun and it is still very much in its infancy. AI tools have been around for a long time but this is the first time so many tools have become mainstream. This will inevitably change art and design.
P.S. If you have not heard about it – take a peek at ChatGPT by Open AI – another tool that is making its mark in history right now.
About the author: Aunia Kahn is a web and graphic designer, digital marketer and internationally awarded fine artist. She is the owner of Rise Visible and has been passionately working in the industry since 1998. As a content writer, her contributions are focused on innovative technologies, women in STEM, and disability visibility in business.