AI Art for Summer 2025
The big news in AI art services is that MidJourney (MJ) introduced video capability. It has competition, of course, but a lot of people like me have thousands of images already generated that can be the starting place for a bit of animation. These are my adventures in AI art for summer 2025.
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 • A.I. Art for Fall 2024
Note: This is an image-heavy post. Click the thumbnails below to see larger versions.
State of the AI Art
MidJourney (MJ) released a new image generator version (7.0), then in spring, released its first-generation video generator. For now, you must provide an image to serve as the first frame, but you can let it guess what to animate by simply selecting “auto” for automatic and a speed (slow or fast) and letting MidJourney work its magic. It creates 5 seconds of video to start, then allows you to extend the video up to 21 seconds long. I’ve played a little, but I need more time to figure out its limitations and the ins and outs of prompting.
Sample video:
I do play with other AI art, video, voice, and music services when I get the chance, but I’m not nearly as experienced at prompting with them. My dream is to write a script and work with an AI to generate a short (e.g., 30 seconds) movie scene with realistic people, dialogue, and background music. I imagine I’ll be waiting a few years for that to become reality.
MidJourney
MJ has new-ish features that I’ve only begun to explore. One of my challenges is getting consistent style and object permanence. For example, keeping a cinematic style for a starship interior image, or placing the same character in different settings. MidJourney offers a few features that can help (style reference [–sref], omni-reference [–oref], and personal profiles [–p]), but for me, they are hit and miss. In June 2025, MJ introduced a style-ref “random” feature that helps you discover useful styles. However, there are billions(!) to wade through, so I have to be in a mood to do that.
Prompt: pets in space, charming
NOTE: I lucked into this whimsical cat-in-space image during a session of fishing for interesting style references.
Prompt: sci-fi diecut sticker: starship, exploration, helix, stars, navy blue and garnet, 2-D, vector art, logo, minimalist, white background
NOTE: This would make a dandy design for the hardcover version of a space opera novel, for example, Last Ship Off Polaris-G.
Prompt: black wolf and Siberian tiger, magic in the air, by Bev Doolittle
NOTE: The subject choice came from my paranormal romance novel, Heart of a Dire Wolf. Sometimes MJ creates excellent promotion-style images on the first try.
Prompt: Book cover/poster, paranormal romance, eerie midnight with red and green northern lights in the sky, photorealistic couple consisting of an Inuit man with long brown hair and a Persian woman in the foreground, in a cold and forbidding mountain setting, background snow leopard
NOTE: If I had the time, I’d write a romantasy story just so I could use this image for the cover design.
travel poster, foreground massive spaceship intricate detail, stylized planet in the background, distant universe, red halfrear lighting 360 panorama, matte painting, concept art by John Berkey
NOTE: I absolutely cannot resist making starship images. This one turned out pretty damn good.
Prompt: alien exoplanet
NOTE: This stark and evocative image came out of a fishing session for style references.
MidJourney Style Reference Comparison
Here is an example of how style references (–sref) in MJ can result in wildly different output. In all three images below, the prompt was “photo or illustration, woman in her 40s, futuristic character”, using version 7, with stylization strength at 200.
–sref 1206707948
–sref 648704020
–sref 648704020
Other AI Art Services
Here are the best images I came up with from other AI art services I’ve dabbled with. I don’t have commercial licenses for any of these; they’re just for fun. NightCafé is an aggregator that provides access to various models, both free and paid. I stick to the free models for now
Service: NightCafé
Prompt: Dreamy celestial abstract alcohol ink illustration 🚀💙 🪐 ☄️ 🌟
NOTE: A pleasing abstract image of the cosmos. And yes, the prompt included those specific emojis.
Service: NightCafé
Prompt: Acid ink and airbrush illustration, one short-hair adult black cat and one long-hair adult black cat, autumn garden environment
NOTE: This is as close as my indoor-only cats will get to playing in the autumn leaves.
Service: NightCafé
Prompt: white background, minimalist circular logo, vector cartoon, whimsical magenta cats joyriding a cyan-blue second-hand bohemian starship, synthwave, transparent background
NOTE: Cats in future settings can be useful for promoting the Pets In Space® anthologies. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.
