AI Robot Midjourney

story by sam fowler

how to use ai like an artist

key art generated in midjourney

Sam Fowler is a motion graphics designer at Ceros. She is also a AI enthusiast and the owner of the AI TikTok account @ai_lens

imagine art ai prompt ai prompt generate unique imagination ai robot zombie sketch soap artists ai art

In the past two months, artificial intelligence (or at least our awareness of it) has exploded. On LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok, thousands of people are experimenting with AI and demonstrating what it can really do. Quite a lot, as it turns out. This has led to some beautiful and bizarre creations, and it's also raised some uncomfortable ethical questions in the process. And while prompt-writing is itself a skill, using AI to pull data from existing images without permission or input from the original creator can feel inauthentic and unfair.

So I tried to figure out how to use AI in a way that felt more honest. I decided to conduct my own experiment to see how AI can be used as a tool to refine and enhance an original artwork—the product of human imagination—rather than using it as a generator.

What would happen if the foundational image was a real sketch?

There are many AI art-creation softwares out there, but the most popular ones are Midjourney and Wonder. On those sites, users write up a prompt describing what they want to see, and AI brings that prompt to life. It produces multiple versions, and by refining your prompts, you can improve upon the generated images.

Click on the example prompTs below:

Black pen portrait of a Persian cat wearing a bowtie and sunglasses while playing with a pearl necklace.

anime tyle of blonde women in a car with 2 guys, 1 tall Hawaiian and the other German with narrow head

Illustration of a nature landscape with 2 people in the distance, a man with black hair and a woman with blond hair

a painting of Teddy Roosevelt in a Speedo floating on a pink flamingo inflatable in a pool after Coachella, Baroque style

how AI works

I took a drawing my uncle (Trip Park, a professional artist himself) sketched when he visited late last year. I wanted to see how AI (I used Wonder for this) could use that hand-drawn image as a foundation to guide the AI towards a purposeful image.

In the first prompt, I basically just described the drawing, with a bit of personal interpretation.

futuristic robot with colorful metal and bubbles coming out of his antenna, half domed shape head, cylindrical can like body, one hand on hip and the other raised as if he was talking, horizontal stripe on head

Prompt for A.I:

see the results

After a few minutes, Wonder generates dozen of new sketches based on the initial reference image. I narrow down to these two unique creations. Let's explore them individually further to see how far they can go.

Which version would you like to continue with?

OPTION 1 — Zombie Robot

Option 2 — Soap Robot

Option 1: Zombie robot

option 2: soap robot

creepy 6 eyed zombie robot with blood coming out of his mouth, big teeth and green acid bubbles coming out of his antenna, half domed shape head, cylindrical can like body, one hand on hip and the other raised as if he was talking, horizontal stripe on head in front of a brick wall, horror movie lighting, cinematic feel, Pixar zombie 3d

new Prompt for A.I:

go to soap robot

Now that I have chosen a new sketch, I'm going to put it back into the AI Image Input and continue the process. In this version, I see soap and bubbles, so I'm going to give it a more descriptive prompt to reflect the new idea.

Every time AI gives me new images, I save the ones I like and put them back into the Image Input, imporoving my prompts as I go. Each time I evolve the artwork, I would highlight certain aspects I like and repeat the process.

pink, mint and yellow colored cleaning robot made out of soap with colorful iridescent soap bubbles coming out of his antenna, half domed shape head, cylindrical can like body, one hand on hip and the other raised as if he was talking, horizontal stripe on head, in a retro pastel bathroom

new Prompt for A.I:

go to zombie robot

Takeaway

Imagine you want to create a dog version of Marie Antoinette without an image input.

Have a vision in mind. Have a clear subject. Choose words that AI can find.

Be descriptive. Add a location or background. Give it a style.

A dog like Marie Antoinette

A french poodle with white curly fur wearing a pearl collar that makes it look like Marie Antoinette, sitting in front of the Versailles palace with a big cake in front of the dog, pastel colors, baroque style, volumetric lighting

Don't:

Do:

Personally, I believe that artists who can draw by hand will always be held in higher regard than purely AI artists, but using methods like this, with AI serving as a tool instead of a generator, can yield some pretty amazing results without artistic vision, direction, and the ability to curate images that match that vision. It’s the imagination in each creative's head that directs the AI to pull out unique and beautiful combinations of images. That imagination, vision, and ability to choose which images work is something that artists have that AI does not.

the sketch

new sketches

soap robot

final results

zombie robot

the sketch

new sketches

zombie robot

soap robot

In the end, I ended up with two very different creations. To fully test my theory that AI does a better job with human input, I went back and typed the same exact initial prompts with no foundational image. The result was… different…

Option 1 — zombie robot

option 2 — Soap Robot

Original Sketch

AI Creation from Sketch

AI Creation without Sketch

final results

original sketch

Zombie robot — 1/10

zombie robot — 2/10

zombie robot — 3/10

zombie robot — 4/10

zombie robot — 5/10

zombie robot — 6/10

zombie robot — 7/10

zombie robot — 8/10

zombie robot — 9/10

zombie robot — final form

original sketch

soap robot — 1/10

soap robot — 2/10

soap robot — 3/10

soap robot — 4/10

soap robot — 5/10

soap robot — 6/10

soap robot — 7/10

soap robot — 8/10

soap robot — 9/10

soap robot — final form

final results

Now that I have chosen a new sketch, I'm going to put it back into the AI Image Input and continue the process. In this version, I see a creepy six-eyed zombie, so I'm going to give it a more descriptive prompt to reflect the new idea.

Every time AI gives me new images, I save the ones I like and put them back into the Image Input and continue to improve on my prompts.

imagineartpromptgenerateartistsmidjourneyaiupscale wonderaiimaginepromptartsketchhumanrobotzombie imagineartpromptgenerateartistsmidjourneyaiupscale wonderaiimaginepromptartsketchhumanrobotzombie imagineartpromptgenerateartistsmidjourneyaiupscale wonderaiimaginepromptartsketchhumanrobotzombie imagineartpromptgenerateartistsmidjourneyaiupscale wonderaiimaginepromptartsketchhumanrobotzombie imagineartpromptgenerateartistsmidjourneyaiupscale wonderaiimaginepromptartsketchhumanrobotzombie imagineartpromptgenerateartistsmidjourneyaiupscale wonderaiimaginepromptartsketchhumanrobotzombie imagineartpromptgenerateartistsmidjourneyaiupscale wonderaiimaginepromptartsketchhumanrobotzombie imagineartpromptgenerateartistsmidjourneyaiupscale wonderaiimaginepromptartsketchhumanrobotzombie

Click on image to view progress

Hover to see the original sketch

ai prompt tips

a painting of Teddy Roosevelt in a Speedo floating on a pink flamingo inflatable in a pool after Coachella, Baroque style

anime tyle of blonde women in a car with 2 guys, 1 tall Hawaiian and the other German with narrow head

Black pen portrait of a Persian cat wearing a bowtie and sunglasses while playing with a pearl necklace.

sketch

zombie

soap

In this version, I see a creepy six-eyed zombie, so I'm going to give it a more descriptive prompt to reflect the new idea.

Every time AI gives me new images, I save the ones I like and put them back into the Image Input and continue to improve on my prompts.

sketch

zombie

soap

Tap on Image

Original Sketch

AI Creation from Sketch

AI Creation without Sketch

A dog like Marie Antoinette