Creating Imaginative Prompts to Use with AI Art

Over the past few months I have been following a few AI Generated Art groups on Facebook. One of the things that has fascinated me has been the creativity of the prompts that people come up with to create objects. I've seen cat inspired modern chairs, handbags with a Van Gogh theme, and owls knitted from yarn. I know there is much discussion about how AI art borrows without permission from artists (which is another valid conversation), but I am so intrigued by the combinations that it puts together using simple words.

A week ago I received access to the beta version of Adobe Firefly. Adobe trains their AI on their own Adobe Stock as well as open licensed and public domain work. Currently it will generate text to image and also will generate text style with a theme from your text. It has a number of presets which you can add to your image to explore different styles. It works fast, so it is easy to generate many versions of your prompt.                     

I decided to explore "decorating" Easter eggs using a prompt with different materials and mediums. I've been blown away by the creativity and beauty of the results! Downloads have a watermark from Adobe showing that it was generated by Firefly - see above. (The download feature doesn't always work on the iPad, but you can also download individual images to your photos without the watermark.)

Here is a screenshot what the interface looks like. You can see my prompt and some of the preset buttons along the side. Each prompt generates four images. You can keep hitting refresh to generate infinite results.

Here you can see the variety of crocheted eggs that it generated. Some were very wonky and crazy and when you look closely you can see the flaws. But in a few minutes, I could generate dozens of these designs, saving the ones that looked the best!

It is addicting once you get going! This picture above is a screen shot of some of my saved images. This prompt was : "One embroidered Easter egg, blue and white floral thread, floral designs with repeats, white background, detailed.

By simply changing the color palette, you can generate different results. This prompt: "A single Easter egg, decorated decoupage style with cuts from old magazine illustrations of flowers, birds, butterfly, botanicals, muted tones." 

How about lace and pearl eggs? I discovered many of my Facebook friends were thinking I was actually making these in real life and were very confused!

I even did wood carved eggs in the style of cuckoo clocks. By adding words like flowers, birds, and swirls along with trying the preset buttons, I could slightly adjust the results until I got a look that I liked.

Call to Action: Truly, there is so much imagination and creativity involved in generating prompts that produce amazing and beautiful results! Do you think a future job will be a "prompt engineer?" Do you have any other ideas of an ordinary object that could be generated using usual materials?

I plan to continue to create and post on social media one Easter egg style each day up until Easter. If you have any great ideas to use to "decorate" my Easter eggs, let me know!

One Best Thing:

This post is a part of my One Best Thing Project "AI Art for Inspiration, Creativity, and Learning." I am collecting my AI Art project ideas and resources at this website:

https://sites.google.com/view/creativeapptitude/ai-art


All Comments

Posted on April 01, 2023

I definitely think it takes a certain skill level to write a prompt that generates the results you want. These are beautiful, Karen!

Posted on April 01, 2023

Wow some amazing images that your prompt has produced! Yes, I’ve read several articles about the need for prompt engineers. Our computer science teachers are now teaching students how to prompt. Thanks so much for sharing your egg decorations.

Posted on April 02, 2023

How amazing! Wouldn't it be interesting to use with students to help them develop more ways to be expressive in their writing...details...details...details.

Thanks for sharing!

Posted on April 03, 2023

I second Heidi's comment above. As we as eductators think of creating prompts for AI, it helps us to develop better prompts for our students' creative activities.

As a music professor, I can see a time (maybe today?) in which we might prompt students to perform their trumpet solo in the style of Phil Smith, to improvise a solo in the style of Thelonius Monk, to conduct this selection how you imagine that Dudamel would, to compose a piece of music in the style of Brahms, etc. This process requires the student to become familiar with the music styles and interpretations of the greats, to analyze their creative efforts, and to use the 'DNA' of those musical interpretations in creating a rendition in a similar style. A well-presented project/performance would reveal much more about the depth of learning than many other common types of assessment.

We do want students to become independently creative, but I do feel that this type of activity has a place in the curriculum for young artists.

Posted on April 03, 2023

Yes, Heidi, a lot of thoughtful writing skills! And it is so much fun to see the changes as you adjust the prompt.

Posted on April 02, 2023

Wow! I am excited about the possibilities of AI. While there will be downsides ( just like everything) I think the positives will be amazing.

I have been reading a lot about AI (geeking out) and there were a lot of conversations about being able to write great prompts to get the most out of AI, as a prompt engineer.

I think it is exciting. Thank you for sharing. Now we just need to create a 3d printer that can print those AI eggs.

Posted on April 03, 2023

Brian, I've requested an invite to another beta that is text to 3D creations. I think it is more for objects and characters for games, but wouldn't it be fun to so easily generate beautiful complex designs to print!

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