How to Make AI Art: An Essential Guide for Artists

Learning how to make AI art can open a world of new ways to express yourself creatively by integrating technology with artistic vision. Whether you’re a seasoned artist or just getting started, AI technologies can help you discover previously unavailable styles and approaches. This article will walk you through the whole process of generating AI-generated art, from selecting your desired output to making revisions and using the advanced capabilities of your selected AI art tool.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

•Creating AI art involves using different tools for their unique specialties and creating detailed prompts to generate images close to the ideas you imagined. (Jump to Section)
•Fine-tuning your prompts or using the advanced features of the AI art tool allows you to make necessary changes and improve the AI art tool’s generated image, giving you creative freedom and keeping the output consistent with your vision. (Jump to Section)
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Determining authorship in AI-generated art is difficult—is the artist the human entering the prompts, the engineers who built and trained the AI, or the AI tool itself? This creates legal and ethical questions concerning ownership and intellectual property, as well as discussions about whether AI should be viewed as a tool or a creative collaborator. (Jump to Section)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ToggleWhat is AI Art?How Do AI Art Generators Work?Crafting Detailed AI Art PromptsEffective Prompts vs Ineffective Prompts: Be PreciseCommon Mistakes to Avoid When Making AI ArtStep-by-Step Guide to Creating AI ArtEthical and Legal Considerations of AI ArtBest Practices for Creating AI Art3 Popular AI Art Tools and Platforms3 AI Art Courses to Enhance AI Image CreationFrequently Asked Questions (FAQs)Bottom Line: How to Make AI Art

What is AI Art?

AI art is artwork made with artificial intelligence technology that uses machine learning algorithms to generate, enhance, and modify artistic pieces. This kind of art is gaining popularity because it is more widely accessible than traditional art, allowing untrained creators to generate interesting art pieces. AI art creates new, original artworks by analyzing large databases, identifying patterns, and using that information to respond to user prompts, resulting in fresh art forms that challenge conventional art aesthetics.

People are interested in learning how to make AI art because it provides new chances for experimentation and creative expression. As the art industry adopts digital platforms, AI art coincides with the growing interest in digital art and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Understanding AI art is important in today’s technological context, as it provides insights into how AI alters creative disciplines and influences culture. Learning about AI art provides new prospects for anyone interested in careers in art, design, or technology, as well as a greater respect for the combination of human creativity with machine intelligence.

How Do AI Art Generators Work?

AI art generators make use of neural networks, which are computer models inspired by how our brains function. The most prevalent kind is the generative adversarial networks (GANs), which are made up of two components: a generator and a discriminator. The generator creates fresh pictures, and the discriminator examines them to see if they appear real or not, offering comments to help them develop.

These AI image generators are trained on a large volume of image data representing different styles and themes. This extensive training teaches them how to mimic numerous styles of art. Using this data, the AI can grasp and imitate styles that range from abstract to realistic, depending on the user’s preferences.

Crafting Detailed AI Art Prompts

AI tools can provide excellent results, but their output is only as good as the prompts they are given. The more detailed your prompts are, the better to help these AI tools produce images. Prompts serve as your instructions to AI tools, instructing them on what to generate, whether it is text, automated tasks, or images. Providing explicit cues is critical to attaining the intended result. Including precise aspects like the primary topic, colors, orientation, and backdrop ensures that the AI catches your vision correctly. Crafting precise prompts is a key ability that allows you to direct the AI to produce predictable and accurate outcomes, successfully bringing your visual concepts to life.

Be Specific When Defining Subjects

When specifying your subject, clarity is important. Clearly identifying the subject lets the AI understand what you’re visualizing, whether it is a specific character, animal, or object. Avoid ambiguous terminology and instead use clear descriptions that detail the subject’s form or role in the image. The more specific your subject, the easier it is for AI to provide an accurate and visually appealing result.

Meta AI Prompt: A pack of dogs happily playing in a field of sunflowers.

Describe Attributes in Detail

Focus on offering detailed characteristics such as colors, textures, or unique features. The more specific you are, the better the AI can bring your ideas to life. Include any distinguishing characteristics, such as patterns, materials, or sizes, to help refine the output. These additional features assist the AI in producing complicated and visually rich compositions.

Leonardo AI Prompt: distort forms and exaggerated brushstrokes to convey the complexities of the human psyche.

Set the Style and Mood

Choosing a style and mood can give your image a unique tone. Whether it is realism, abstract, or fantasy, style influences the visual experience you are aiming for. Mood prompts like mysterious, happy, or tragic give emotional depth to the artwork, strengthening the story behind it. Combining style and mood helps ensure the final output is consistent with your creative vision.

Leonardo AI Prompt: An abstract creature shedding, picking away scabs of shadowy skin, emerging vividly from a chaotic past.

Incorporate Lighting and Perspective

Using lighting effects and angles may have a significant impact on the image’s depth and atmosphere. Defining these characteristics allows you to create dynamic graphics with a strong sense of space. Consider using soft, natural, or dramatic lighting to highlight specific aspects of the picture. Perspective also influences the viewer’s pont, whether close-up, wide-angle, or bird’s eye view.

Leonardo Prompt: An anime-style iCamera angle back; the atmosphere should be bright and sunny with clouds in the sky.

Establish Context and Setting

Adding context or background elements sets the subject in a clear environment and adds dimension to the scene, making it more immersive and compelling. Consider detailing the area, season, or cultural characteristics that make the image come to life. Context not only anchors the image, but also determines how viewers interpret the subject and the general concept.

Copilot Prompt: A landscape image of a farm and a farmer with his horse and carriage with a barn in front of them.

Invoke Emotion and Action

Capturing an emotion or action enhances the image’s dynamic and emotive qualities. Describing these features adds life, making the artwork more alive and intriguing. These emotional or action-oriented signals—whether it is a happy dance, a melancholy glance, or a wild storm—help to generate more impactful images. The AI will use these elements to give the scenario a feeling of story and purpose.

Leonardo AI Prompt: Pale complexion, exhausted eyes with dark circles, and a furrowed brow, their facial expression contorted in a mix of anguish and despair.

Effective Prompts vs Ineffective Prompts: Be Precise

Effective prompts are specific and clear, providing detailed descriptions of desired image elements, settings, background, artistic style, mood, perspective, lighting, actions, and emotions. They guide AI to produce images that accurately reflect the creator’s imagination. Ineffective prompts, on the other hand, lack detail and are vague, ambiguous, or overly-complex, leading to results not close to what you wanted.

Effective Prompt: “Envision a captivating realistic portrait of a woman, reminiscent of the Gothic era’s mystique. Adorn her in a stunning deep red, green, and black lace dress, complemented by an elegant black pearl necklace and earrings. Accentuate her features with bold red lipstick. Set against a soft gray background, incorporate lush greenery and subtle floral elements to create a sense of depth. Balance the warm lighting to illuminate her pale skin without distortion, evoking an aura of elegance and refinement.”

Ineffective Prompt: “Create an image where the point of view is looking down and a family of four, a pirate, and a mermaid is looking back up.”

Leonardo AI image of a gothic woman.

Leonardo AI image of a lighthouse with a pirate, a family of four, and a strange looking fish.

Even if ineffective prompts don’t show the results you wanted, you can still edit and refine your image by adding more information. Some AI image generator tools also have advanced features that can make the necessary changes to specific details on the rendered image.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making AI Art

When producing AI-generated images, it is important to be mindful of numerous frequent mistakes. These errors frequently occur because the AI relies on massive volumes of data to generate results. By avoiding these typical pitfalls, you may maximize the potential of AI-generated photos while retaining ethical integrity and artistic excellence:

Plagiarism and Ethical Oversights: Users who plagiarize other works with AI create ethical issues around originality. Violations of privacy and consent can have serious negative implications—make sure your art follows ethical guidelines.

Poorly Constructed Prompts: Vague or ambiguous prompts might lead to mediocre or irrelevant visuals. To successfully lead the AI, offer explicit and thorough descriptions of the desired goal.

Over-Reliance on AI Without Human Oversight: Relying only on AI for concept generation might result in a loss of human understanding and creativity. Combining AI skills with human input will enhance the creative process.

Failure to Define Objectives: Without defined objectives, the created images may not fulfill your expectations. Set explicit goals for what you want to achieve using AI to ensure success.

Ignoring the Importance of Image Composition: An image’s composition is critical to its efficacy. Balance, contrast, and emphasis are important things to consider when creating visually pleasing outcomes.

Over-Editing of Images: Excessive manipulation of images might detract from their natural charm and authenticity. Aim for a balanced technique that improves the image while maintaining its original character.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating AI Art

AI art has become more and more popular in recent years since the launch of text-based AI, which lets you create art by describing what you want to the AI art tool. When it comes to creating AI art or images, the more detailed and specific you are with your prompts, the more likely the AI image generator will create an image close to what you asked for.

Identify Your Ideal Output

First, define your concept for the artwork you want to produce. Consider what type of artwork appeals to you, whether it’s a particular style, topic, or subject. Consider the tone or feeling you want your work to communicate, since this will inform your creative process.

Next, look at other art styles and methods for inspiration. Explore trends like impressionism, surrealism, and abstract art. Most AI art tools, such as Leonardo.ai and Stable Diffusion, have a gallery of preset image formats made in collaboration with its users. You can use these presets without making a lot of technical adjustments once you start creating your own image. This step will help you improve your concept and discover how to turn your thoughts into art.

Finally, choose the format and medium for your artwork. Determine if you want a digital picture, print, or other format, and take into account the size and resolution requirements for your output to ensure your final piece meets your expectations.

Leonardo.AI: Range of art style templates to use as image preset.

Write Your Initial Prompt

After establishing your ideal output or goal, create your initial prompts. These prompts serve as your instruction to the AI image tool so that it can generate an image close to or exactly what you want. The more detailed you are with your prompts, the more accurate the AI image tool will be able to generate. Include specific features such as colors, objects, or sceneries to help the AI create the image.

Use adjectives to describe the intended style, mood, and atmosphere, making sure it is vivid and precise. Incorporate creative phrases linked to the art movement you’re inspired by, such as “impressionist brush strokes” or “realistic image” to influence the AI’s work further. While providing enough detail to guide the AI, remain flexible to creative interpretation and the surprises that AI may offer to your artwork.

Image created using Meta AI Imagine ChatBot.

Generate the First Image

PIck the AI tool—Meta AI Imagine, Leonardo.ai, Midjourney, or Stable Diffusion, for example—that will best meet your needs. These tools’ diverse capabilities mean that choosing the one that matches your vision is important. The first thing you need to do is input your prompt into the AI tool, guaranteeing that there are no spelling or grammatical issues that might influence the outcome.

After providing your prompt, use the AI to create the first rendition of your artwork. Wait for the AI to process your request and create the initial image that will bring your ideal image to life through the lens of artificial intelligence.

Image created using Meta AI Imagine ChatBot.

Make Necessary Adjustments and Refinements

With the first generated image in hand, assess how well it matches your ideal image. Analyze the generated image to find areas for improvements or modification, and adjust your prompts by adding details to improve the next image. You may also want to manually edit some parts of your image, depending on the AI tool you are using.

Experiment with different variations by changing the items in your prompts and creating many versions to explore different options. As shown in the two images below, this iterative approach allows you to fine-tune your artwork and experiment with new creative possibilities using the AI tool of your choice.

Image created using Meta AI Imagine ChatBot.

Image created using Meta AI Imagine ChatBot.

Use Advanced Features

After making the necessary changes to your AI-generated image, explore your chosen AI tool’s advanced features. You can use post-processing options such as built-in editing tools or external software to make extra adjustments, making your final product more polished and more professional. Some free AI image tools have advanced editing features that let you adjust the parameters of the image generator setting.

For example, if you want to adjust specific elements of your AI-generated images, tools such as Adobe Firefly and Photoroom can make these changes with a combination of AI-generated edits and manual edits. Once you’re satisfied with the outcome, download your image in the preferred format and use it however you please.

Image from Adobe.

Ethical and Legal Considerations of AI Art

As AI art tools become increasingly popular, it is important to address the ethical and legal aspects of AI use. These tools rely on a variety of datasets, and their implementation can raise issues regarding copyright, responsible use, and appropriate tool selection. Owners and users of these AI image-generating tools must maintain legal compliance and ethical conduct. Here are some of the main issues to look out for:

Copyright Issues: AI art tools often train on datasets including copyrighted images, which may raise legal issues if images resemble the originals too closely.

Responsible Use of AI Art: Ethical considerations include proper attribution of original sources and making sure that datasets are diverse and representative to avoid propagating bias. The potential misuse of AI-generated art, such as making deep fakes, or deceptive images, must also be addressed.

Human and AI Collaboration: AI art raises ethical issues about authorship, ownership, and creative agency. Identifying who owns AI-generated art can be difficult, and the dispute over whether AI can genuinely be termed “creative” highlights the significance of the human artist’s role in guiding and interpreting AI outputs.

Bias in AI Art Creation: AI-generated art can reinforce stereotypes and exclude different cultural perspectives. The nature of the training data has a significant impact on whether these biases are mitigated or worsened, creating ethical concerns regarding fairness and inclusivity.

Best Practices for Creating AI Art

Similar to traditional art-making, AI art is an iterative process. This may require you to use different art styles, experiment with different AI art tools or platforms, and fine-tune your prompts for the AI art tool to generate the right image. Following a handful of best practices can help ensure success.

Experiment with Different Art Styles: Experimenting with different styles or combining different styles can broaden your AI art vision. Through experimenting, a lot of surprises may come your way that will turn out to be better than expected.

Combine AI Platforms for Better Results: Combining multiple AI platforms or tools can significantly improve the creative process, resulting in more sophisticated and nuanced art pieces. One tool may excel in creating realistic images, while another may be good at abstract composition—combining them allows artists to create more sophisticated and detailed pieces.

Iterate and Fine-Tune Outputs: The iteration process is as important in AI art as in traditional art, and it’s common to go through numerous cycles of refinement or editing, modifying parameters, retraining models, and adjusting the prompt input data to reach the desired creative vision. This also offers opportunities to correct errors, confront biases, and experiment with new ideas.

3 Popular AI Art Tools and Platforms

The marketplace for AI art tools is broad and growing. Each tool offers unique specialties to meet your desired output. Some of the more popular include Leonardo.AI, Midjourney, and DALL-E, each of which has a wide range of features and abilities.

Leonardo.AI

Leonardo.AI is known for producing high-quality, customizable images, particularly in concept art, gaming assets, and other character designs. It has advanced capabilities such as fine-tuning and style transfer, making it excellent for professionals that require detailed and precise results. The platform is easy to use with features that allow for hefty customization, and it facilitates community sharing for collaborative work. The free version gives 150 tokens per day to generate artwork. The number of tokens varies depending on the design and format. For additional tokens, pricing starts at $9 per month for 3,500 tokens and runs to $299 per month for 200,000 tokens.

Visit Leonardo AI

Midjourney

Midjourney creates visually stunning, surreal, and imaginative artworks that frequently challenge standard aesthetics. It works through a Discord bot, making it both accessible and collaborative, with users adjusting their prompts to create unique graphics. It is famous among artists and designers because it can create abstract compositions that stand out in creative projects. Midjourney offers a subscription plan that starts at $10 per month for the basic plan and up to $120 per month for its mega plan. Users can generate images through a private chatbot and will have a faster turnaround time, since subscribed users are prioritized in the image-generating queue.

Visit Midjourney

DALL-E

OpenAI’s DALL-E is a versatile tool that creates images from textual descriptions. Capable of generating both realistic and imaginative results, it’s user-friendly, with customizable levels of abstraction or realism. DALL-E excels at interpreting complicated prompts and blending realism and fantasy, making it ideal for creating unique digital content. Users can access DALL-E through a paid subscription with OpenAI, which costs $30 per month and includes access to ChatGPT GPT-4, GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, and DALL-E.

Visit DALL-E

3 AI Art Courses to Enhance AI Image Creation

Though AI art tools are relatively easy to use, training can give you a competitive edge by teaching you how to use the advanced features and functions. These courses will teach you how to use AI art tools and provide an overview of how these tools work to help you create high-quality and professional images with minimal effort and enhance your creative projects with the use of AI.

DALL-E Mastery: Create Impressive AI Art

This course offered by Udemy helps you master the powerful Dall-E AI image-generating tool. It covers fundamental strategies such as the “Seven Golden Prompts” for producing ideal AI-generated images and provides lessons on prompt engineering using ChatGPT. You will learn how to use the DALL-E interface and apply your knowledge to real-world tasks. This $7 course fee includes a certificate upon completion.

Visit DALL-E Mastery at Udemy

Your Ultimate Starter Kit for Leonardo AI

Udemy’s course provides a thorough introduction to Leonardo.AI, covering fundamental concepts to sophisticated AI art creation techniques. It also covers tool integration and shows you how to use Leonardo alongside tools like Adobe Firefly. In addition, this course has step-by-step instructions to help you produce distinctive and visually appealing AI art through hands-on activities. It costs $7 to access all lectures and includes a certificate.

Visit Leonardo AI Starter Kit at Udemy

Midjourney Mastery: Create Visually Stunning AI Art

This course focuses on using Midourney to create high-quality AI art using different mediums such as films, websites, and logos. It covers advanced prompt engineering techniques and explores prominent AI art platforms such as Midjourney, DALL-E, and Leonardo AI to help you maximize their potential for your projects. This course costs $7 and comes with hands-on exercises and a certification upon completion.

Visit Midjourney Mastery at Udemy

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How do I Turn an Image into AI Art?

Several AI art tools can transform your image into digital art. Tools such as DALL-E, DeepArt, and PicAI allow you to upload your existing image and turn it into AI art. All you need to do is choose a style that you want, and some of these tools even allow you to blend two images. In addition, tools such as Adobe Firefly allow you to modify different aspects of your image, such as color, texture, or form. You can try different parameters until the image matches your artistic vision. Once you’re satisfied with the results, you may download or share your new AI-enhanced artwork. This approach can be as hands-on or as automated as you like, depending on how much creative control you want to keep.

How Much Does AI Art Cost?

AI art prices vary greatly based on the artist’s reputation, the AI platform used, and the market where it is sold. Custom AI-generated art, for example, can range in price from a few dollars to thousands of dollars, depending on its originality and demand. This can be extremely beneficial in the domain of NFTs. NFTs are purchased and sold using cryptocurrency, and their prices change depending on the piece’s uniqueness, the artist’s popularity, and the current value of the cryptocurrency being used. Some AI-generated NFTs have sold for millions of dollars, particularly if the work has a unique concept or gains popularity.

Why is AI Art Controversial?

AI art is controversial for several reasons—one of the primary concerns is the use of human-created art as training material for AI art models. This has raised concerns regarding copyright infringement, as artists may not agree to their work being used to train these algorithms. Another gray issue is the ownership of AI-generated art, as it is uncertain if the final output is owned by the AI tool, its developer, or the user. AI systems can occasionally reinforce prejudices by reflecting preconceptions or providing information that violates ethical or cultural standards.

Bottom Line: How to Make AI Art

Creating effective AI art starts with immersing yourself in your vision, accumulating ideas, and thoroughly imagining the desired output. This creative journey is an exploration of possibilities in which you experiment with different styles and AI tools, allowing you the freedom to improve your work through iteration. Every draft brings you closer to making your ideas a reality.

However, as with any creative approach, it is important to be aware of broader issues. Addressing typical challenges such as copyright concerns and inherent biases in AI-generated art not only safeguards your work but also guarantees that it contributes responsibility to the ever-changing world of digital art. By blending artistic creativity with ethical considerations, you may produce both visually spectacular creations and important contributions.

Make the most out of your AI art creation by learning how to construct the right prompts by reading through our article about Prompt Engineering Guide: Unlocking the Potential of AI Models.
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