AI Art for Fall 2024
AI-generated image services are still entertaining enough to keep me off the streets and out of the karaoke bars. The greatest hits are still dominated by MidJourney, but Ideogram and others are rising up the charts. These are my adventures in AI art for Fall 2024.
Adventures in AI-Generated Art • More Fun with A.I. Art • A.I. Art for December • A.I. Art for January 2023 • A.I. Art for February 2023 • A.I. Art for March 2023 • A.I. Art for April 2023 • A.I. Art for Summer 2023 • A.I. Art for Autumn 2023 • A.I. Art for Winter 2024 • A.I. Art for Spring 2024 • A.I. Art for Summer 2024
Note: This is an image-heavy post. Click the thumbnails below to see larger versions.
State of the AI Art
This post mostly has images MidJourney (MJ) and Ideogram (ID) below. However, I still dabble with NightCafé and others when I have time. Or when MJ and ID are stubbornly refusing to interpret my prompts in pleasing ways.
AI-generated video services are making progress, too, though they're probably 12 to 18 months behind the refinement capabilities of the image generators. On a related note, AI-generated music and voiceovers are making (sound) waves. In my copious free time (hah!), I will play with both and figure out how to share the results on my long-neglected YouTube channel.
MidJourney
I usually create images when I have a particular need, such as new computer wallpaper or an illustration for one of my books. Speaking of which, my MidJourney (MJ) paid subscription includes a commercial license to use the images for business use, which makes the legal to use for book cover designs, put on T-shirts to sell at a fair, etc. A member of a Facebook group I'm in ran a fun challenge in November to create an image per day following a simple provided prompt, so I've included some of those, too.
Prompt: Closeup of a modern roadmap but with a sprinkling of glittery fairy dust and magic. Magical surrealism illustration using colored pencil and oil pastels, symbolizing new horizons
NOTE: MJ wasn't in the mood to create a regular map, so I tried another route. Not what I expected, but interesting nonethless.
Prompt: One longhair adult black cat and one shorthair adult black cat, books, gift boxes. A simple ink and watercolor banner by Beardsley and Steinlen for a middle-grade fantasy story
NOTE: It is unreasonably time-consuming to get MJ to draw one longhair and one shorthair cat in the same image. Maybe 1 in 50 images has what I ask for.
Prompt: Sci-fi poster, vibrant spacecore colors. A massive capital spaceship looms in deep space, bristling with weaponry. Its armored hull is lined with laser turrets, missile bays, and energy shields. The ship's structure is sleek yet imposing, with reinforced plating, glowing thrusters, and command towers. It radiates power, ready for battle.
NOTE: If you've seen my other AI art adventures, you'll know I can't resist coming back to starship images.
Prompt: Urban fantasy cover design. World-weary Brazilian-Japanese woman age 40 in a dark city alley. Behind her, transparent ghosts are killing each other. She has one brown eye and one crystal blue eye. She wears a faded red motorcycle jacket.
NOTE: Part of the 30-day challenge. This would make a dandy book cover for an urban fantasy.
Prompt: National Geographic photo of a beautiful natural snow leopard with warm fur and pale eyes that has one photorealistic, sculpted metal and yellow-glowing cybernetic leg, natural light golden hour, high detail, Canon, Nikon, shallow depth of focus, rocky terrain, snow
NOTE: Part of the 30-day challenge. The inspiration for this image came from my space opera story Pet Trade, which features a snow leopard with a cybernetic leg.
Prompt: realistic urban fantasy illustration, a busy gleaming, modern, high-tech coffee shop with minimal decor. Behind the counter, a laughing male barista age 50 with silver hair, wearing a nametag that says “POPS”, serving fancy coffee. The barista is a dark elf.
NOTE: Part of the 30-day challenge. MJ and the other good AI art services can't help themselves in making elf ears embarrassingly large. The inspiration for this image came from my paranormal romance story Shift of Destiny, which features a dark elf that owns a diner.
Ideogram
As of today, Ideogram (ID) excels at text placement and poster-style designs with only a few tweaks needed. If I ever learn to write short stories, I will definitely try ID first to create cover images for them.
Prompt: A vibrant, colorful book cover design for a paranormal romance with magical realism. The story's title is “IN GRAVES BELOW” and the author name is “AUTHO RIS HEERE”. The realistic couple consists of a handsome, long-haired modern American Indian Navajo man wearing a denim shirt, with mystical design tattoos partially visible on his chest and neck, and his face is in profile looking at a beautiful dark-haired woman from India who is a modern dancer, who is smiling and looking at the camera. The background is a blended double-exposure collage of a magical landscape in hot southern New Mexico and the skyline of Denver, Colorado with a storm brewing overhead.
📘 SIDE NOTE: This is a pretend cover for my existing story, In Graves Below (Magic, New Mexico).
Prompt: A sci-fi poster features a vibrant spacecore colors and cinematic depiction of a single massive capital spaceship speeding through a realistic, colorful deep space. The spacecraft is intricately designed with reinforced plating, glowing thrusters, and powerful engines. It is surrounded by a mesmerizing backdrop of nebulous clouds in hues of red, blue, and orange. The futuristic warship's sleek structure is graceful yet imposing, bristling with weaponry and lined with laser emplacements, launch bays, and energy shields. The CGI 3D render showcases a galaxy, nebula, and dust.
NOTE: ID creates fairly decent starships, at least for cinematic styles.
Prompt: A poster with the text “BOOKS TO TAKE YOU OUT OF THIS WORLD”. The text is made up of various science fiction and fantasy elements, such as an avant-garde starship, a moon, magic charms, a night sky with the Milky Way galaxy, and a spaceship control room. The background is an otherworldly blend of sci-fi reds and fantasy greens, with a sense of adventure and romance, and portals to new worlds. The overall composition is visually appealing and inviting, perfect for a library or a bookstore.
NOTE: This is a refined prompt for an image I tried when Ideogram first came out about a year ago.
Other AI Art Services
Here are the best images I came up with from other AI art services I've dabbled with lately. I don't have commercial licenses for any of these; they're just for fun. I like the fox's cheeky “what are you looking at me for?” expression.
Service: Google Imagen, via Gemini
Prompt: Oops, I forgot to write it down, and Imagen doesn't store anything once you close the window.
NOTE: If I can get Imagen images via my AI platform, I might play with it more to see what it can do.
Service: NightCafé
Prompt: Sample sets of minimalist simple border illustrations for a children's book, with dancing red foxes and golden moon, ink and watercolor, whimsical
NOTE: NightCafé is actually an aggregator that provides access to various models, both free and paid. I stick to the free models for now.
Service: Recraft.ai
Prompt: Because I only have a free account, Recraft doesn't save my history, and I forgot to write the prompt down. Something like “isolated, flatlay, an open 5×8 book with both pages showing, blank pages, product hero”
NOTE: Recraft's interface has gotten complicated, meaning I probably won't use it much. It is surprisingly difficult to get AI art services to create an isolated open book with blank pages. Sadly, none of the AI services would know a paperback book vs. hardback book if it bit them.
