New AI-generated Images for The Heron Kings Rampant

It doesn’t seem that long ago I was putting titles and phrases from my fiction into that Wombo Dream AI app and getting out some very abstract, very hot pink AI-generated images. Now in the blink of an eye you can get more or less realistic portraits. I tried Midjourney, which is incredible but I ran out of credits before I figured out how to upscale the images. Then someone recommended NightCafe and Starryai. Not nearly as powerful, but mostly free. I put some descriptions of some of the characters and locations from my upcoming novel The Heron Kings Rampant just to see what they came up with. Then I made some tweaks and did a little (okay, a lot) of trial and error, and got out these pictures. They’re not exact depictions of the characters as I imagined them, but some are pretty close, with varying levels of realism. Take a look!

Characters:

 

Locations:

Carsolan

Cast’s Lab

 

Murento

 

Thoriglyn

As you can see, some look realistic, some look cartoonish, and some are a blend of both. I’m not skilled enough to know how to control this, though, and I’m not really motivated to learn. It was just a fun exercise to see how closely these algorithms could get to bringing my work to life. Some are annoyingly close but not quite there. I didn’t imagine Cast with a beard until later in the book, and then it’d be ragged and unkempt. I didn’t imagine Jensine with glasses, though I think it works. Gouger Nebb was very tricky, getting it to put that bandana over his eye. Clothing was tough too. I really like how good it is at these rain-slickened Victorian city streets with gaslit buildings, but getting anything close to accurate for the Thoriglyn docks was infuriating.

I know many people have a lot of disdain for AI-generated images. Some say it’s not art and it threatens the livelihood of real artists. Well I’m not calling this art. Just the insane amount of difficulty I’ve had getting these programs to make very simple, specific changes to images proves that. But as someone with zero artistic talent whatsoever, anything that helps me visualize the people and places from my work is a useful tool, and I’m gonna use it.