I used to spend hours on one digital painting, now I can make a whole set in an afternoon

About six months ago, I was working on a fantasy book cover for a friend, and it took me maybe 40 hours to get it right in Procreate. Last week, I used Midjourney to create a series of five character portraits based on his descriptions, and it took maybe two hours total to get the style and details locked in. The change happened because I got curious after seeing some wild images online and decided to try it myself. It's not the same kind of work, for sure, but it lets me explore way more ideas faster. I still do the final touch-ups and adjustments by hand, though. Does anyone else mix AI drafts with their own finishing work, or do you keep them totally separate?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair_nguyen27d ago

Totally get mixing AI drafts with your own touch-ups... feels like the best of both worlds.

davidkim27d agoTop Commenter

But is it really that big of a deal, @blair_nguyen? Feels like people are making a whole thing out of just using a tool. It's just writing, not some magic trick. Honestly, if it gets the job done and you like the result, who cares how you got there? Calling it the "best of both worlds" seems a bit much for what is basically a fancy copy-paste.

karenb9727d ago

I tried that mix for some mood boards last month. Midjourney gave me these weird, cool landscape bases in like ten minutes, then I painted over them in Photoshop to fix the lighting and add proper textures. It saved so much time on the boring parts. Kinda like what @blair_nguyen said, it does feel like a good mix. You get the quick idea spark from the AI and then actually make it yours.

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