How to Make Computer Generated Art Using AI

The popularity of computer-generated art using AI is at an all-time high. Nowadays, it’s simply referred to as AI-generated art. Thanks to major technological developments in the field of generative AI systems, just about anyone can produce stunning AI images by describing what they want to see. Whether you have ever picked up a paintbrush or not, you can create amazing art using AI.

In this article, we’ll explain what computer-generated art is and how you can start creating your own AI images straight away.

What Is AI-Generated Art?

AI-generated art is any image created using a generative AI model. Usually, this involves entering some text—called a prompt—into an AI art generator.

These text-to-image systems use a range of complex technologies such as deep learning algorithms and generative adversarial networks (GANs), with the end product being quite amazing. Using just a few words or sentences, the model can generate an image based on your description.

AI technology can certainly be difficult to wrap your head around, but the fun part about AI-generated art is you don’t have to know a single thing about how to draw or paint, nor do you need to know anything about computer programming. There are plenty of free apps you can use to generate unique artwork, the only thing you need to bring is your imagination.

Choosing an AI Art Generator

AI art generators can be downloaded as an app or used on a browser through web-based applications. If you’re looking to dip your toes into the AI pond, then the best place to start is with one of many AI text-to-image generators available for free. Some of the most powerful AI art generators you can use include:

For those interested in which one comes out on top, you can read a side-by-side comparison of the best AI art generators.

Other apps worth checking out are Nightcafe, OpenArt, and Dream by Wombo. They’re free, simple to use, and are continuing to improve as the technology gets better.

How to Use an AI Art Generator

Most text-to-image AI art generators work in the same way. All you need to do is enter a text prompt and watch the art come to life before your eyes. The results will appear quickly, sometimes in less than a minute, and from there you can download the image or choose to generate another set of images based on the first result.

In the text box, start by entering a sentence that describes the image you want to create. When you are happy with your description, press Enter or the button that says Generate, Create, or similar. Below is one idea that we tried out in DALL-E.

Prompt: A digital painting of a girl baking croissants in outer space

On most platforms, you can click on the image to preview or download it. Another trick is to look for a button that says Upscale, this will give you the option to download a higher-resolution image.

Many platforms offer free credits to spend on generating art before you need to pay for anything, so you can try several art generators for fun before you need to consider buying more credits.

If you’re ready to start making art, here are a few specific guides on how to create images using AI art generators:

Crafting a Good Prompt

After giving it an initial go, you can start thinking about how to craft a good prompt.

“Prompt Engineering” is a term that refers to people using different methods to get an AI image result that’s as close as possible to what they intended. One method we suggest is starting with a list of questions about what is it you want to create.

For example, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you want to generate a photo, painting, drawing, or 3D render?
• Is the image of an object, landscape, or scene?
• What colors should the image include? I.e., pastel, neon, dark, vibrant hues, or muted tones?
• Do you have a specific material in mind? I.e., plastic, concrete, metal, or fur?
• What do you want to see in the background and foreground?

You can then take the answers to these questions and form a prompt like the following:

Prompt: An oil painting of a country house by a pond, in muted earth tones, a forest in the background

Of course, this isn’t all that you can include in your prompt. Much like a real artist, thinking about the kind of lighting you want or describing each subject in the image with great detail will help produce better images. Even writing down the emotion of the scene will alter the results.

As you can see in the above example, you can easily combine many of these things into one sentence by separating each idea by a comma. If the image isn’t exactly what you want, changing the word order can produce quite different results.

You can see how this works in practice in the images below:

Prompt: An acrylic painting of a cow in the desert, vibrant blue sky above, midday, realistic, serene

Prompt: An acrylic painting of a desert with a cow in it, vibrant blue sky above, midday, realistic, serene

The only difference between the prompts is that we changed the order of words from “a cow in the desert” to “a desert with a cow in it”. That small change shifted the focus away from the cow, resulting in an image that highlighted the landscape instead.

Some AI models will give more importance to words that are at the start of a sentence than at the end. So it’s worth spending time experimenting with different prompt variations before abandoning an idea.

Improving Your AI-Generated Art

There are tons of fantastic prompt ideas to get you started creating AI art, but the best advice for improving your own art is to be specific about what exactly you want in your image, right down to the art style, color, and material.

Because many AI art generators are trained using famous art styles, they can understand terms like “impressionist”, “digital art”, or “watercolor painting”. You can even ask it to generate art in the style of a famous artist like Van Gogh or Picasso, or to reflect a specific time period.

Other modifiers are less obvious but can produce some surprisingly great results. For example, NightCafe explains that using the keyword “unreal engine” produces results that look like high-resolution 3D rendered images. That’s because the AI model understands that Unreal Engine is a 3D rendering engine largely used for game development.

Prompts aside, there are plenty of tips and tricks for creating better AI art. Among them is learning how to increase the resolution of your AI-generated image, so you can start sharing high-quality versions of your AI art online. You can also learn a few Photoshop skills to fix mistakes in your AI art.

Some AI art generators offer unique tools as well, such as DALL-E’s Outpainting feature, which lets you generate new AI-generated images that blend seamlessly into your own art. With these developments in technology, many communities have sprung up around a shared interest in AI art.

There are plenty of other neat things you can do inside an AI art generator that will extend your creativity in different ways.

The simplest function of them all is to generate a new set of variations. In technical terms, the AI model is non-deterministic, which means that it can keep on producing different images despite using the exact same prompt. If you don’t like the results, hit the button that says Regenerate, NewVariations, or similar.

Another common feature across AI art generators is the ability to erase and edit parts of an image. This is useful for those images that are almost perfect, except for one weird distortion or random object in the frame. You can do this in DALL-E by selecting an image and pressing Edit. Use the Erase tool to remove parts of the image you want to change, then click Generate again.

Some AI art generators even give you the option of uploading your own image as a starting point. From there, you can erase parts of the image and regenerate new AI frames. Or use the original image as a reference for generating new variations.

You can also use Outpainting in DALL-E to extend an image out in different directions to create larger scenes, meaning you can break out of the 1:1 ratio it uses by default.

Get the Most Out of AI Art Generators

The beauty of using AI to create computer-generated art is how easy it is. Writing a sentence is all it takes to generate your first AI painting, and there are plenty of platforms you can try for free.

Once you get the hang of the process, the next step is to work on crafting high-quality prompts. Get your imagination flowing by thinking about the specific art style, color themes, and lighting you want your image to have. It will take a few attempts to get it just right, but that’s all part of the fun!