What an incredible week. One of the AI courses that I enrolled in was completed this week. It was a deep dive into chatGPT and how we can utilize that tool in our business. WOW. Interesting, exciting, and at the same time, scary as I have said before. I will be sharing some of that information in the coming weeks but this week I wanted to continue on the track that we started. This weeks video is a real time look at using Midjourney to create an image that I can then digitally paint, then print and use for the basis of an oil and cold wax image.
I change my mind on the fly frequently, this video shows that and how I work through a few different prompting issues using - - iw which is image weight. The other prompt short code I use is - - ar which is aspect ratio. While I don’t go into much detail I do talk about it a bit and it shows pretty clearly in the video. The goal for the next few weeks is to have a really short video series showing one way to use a text to image AI. I want to paint a portrait of a young steam punk girl. I don’t have any personal stock of what I am looking for. In the old days (a year ago), I would have found a model, created a background either in real life or in photoshop, created props and costume in real life or photoshop then put my piece together. That process, depending on the complexity of the props and costumes, could be 30-40 hours. Playing with AI, Midjourney was able to come up with a photo reference that I like within 30 minutes. The beginning of the painting process for me starts with a vision of what I want to create. Then, I will research various sites and resources for further ideas. If it is for a steampunk portrait for example, I might look as visuals from the Victorian and Edwardian era fashion world. Midjourney also can give some research ideas, not all necessarily based on fact.
AI and Your Art Business | 25 April 2025