ChatGPT Comes to Me

 

Digital Image
by ChatGPT and Me

So my son gave me a tutorial recently re: using ChatGPT to expand upon one of my paintings, and what you see above is the result.

He took the image of a painting of mine (see below) and we asked the image generator to add to it so that there would be an expanded painting rendered in the same style as my original painting. We progressed in quadrants; the image generator gave us four options per quadrant to choose from. 

We both agreed that the final result was an improvement upon my original painting. The three other people I asked thought so too. 

I especially like the way ChatGPT laced the center-right yellow coneflower with pink streaks. I wouldn't have thought of that.

It's exciting...and weird.

This helped me see how artists, writers, musicians, and other creatives can use AI tools for idea generation. In this case, I was looking for ways to improve upon the original painting, and in just ten minutes, I had a good plan.

On the other hand, it does beg the question, Why even bother creating art/writing/music if AI can do it better?

Of course, makers/creators know the answer to that: because we have to. We don’t choose our art; it choose us.

Still…collaborating and competing with machines—it’s all rather mind-bending.

Coneflower
8" x 8" watercolor
on Arches 100% cotton cold press paper