In case you’ve just returned from 24 months in the wilderness with no phone connection or contact with the outside world…generative AI is a big thing nowadays. In fact, even as you sit reading this sentence, it’s busy revolutionizing the creative process and the world of art. In some cases, it’s created whole new worlds of art that simply weren’t a thing beforehand.
As we look to keep up with the breakneck pace of development and get to grips with this new revolutionary technology, we’re taking a look at how to generate effective AI art prompts. What are they, why do they matter so much, and how can we master this new art form to enhance our own creative processes?
What is an AI art prompt?
First and foremost, let’s take a moment to understand what AI image prompts actually are. Generative AI models need input from you in order to generate the art. So, at its basic level, an AI art prompt is a short description or a set of instructions that tells an AI art generator what kind of image you’d like to create. It can include details about the subject, style, colors, mood, or setting, which all guide the AI in producing the desired artwork.
For the image below, here’s the prompt I used: “Create an image of a neon-lit cyber-punk-style metropolis at night, with heavy rain falling. Paint it in a soft watercolor style.”
Why are prompts so important?
If you’re wondering how to generate AI images, it starts with a great prompt — they need to be accurate and effective. Getting an AI art prompt right is crucial to make sure the AI really understands your vision, and creates artwork that matches what you want.
A clear and detailed prompt reduces any guesswork, saving time by minimizing the trial and error period. Knowing how to create brilliant prompts for AI art gives you creative control over the style, mood, and composition while improving the quality of the output. So, by crafting a precise prompt, you can efficiently achieve high-quality, visually appealing results tailored to your goals.
The anatomy of a good prompt
We all have our own ideas when it comes to generating AI art, but there are a few key rules and guidelines we can follow so that our prompts get the results we want.
Subject
Think about the subject. What’s the central focus or main element of the image? You should clearly state what you want to see — things like “a serene mountain,” “a futuristic city,” or “a whimsical forest creature.”
Details
You should provide some descriptive adjectives that help refine the subject. These add specificity, like “snow-capped” for a mountain or “neon-lit” for a city, helping the AI understand how the subject should appear.
Style
Selecting and specifying a style plays a huge role in how the final image looks. You should research and understand various artistic mediums and aesthetics, such as “oil painting,” “watercolor,” or “digital realism.” This ensures the generative AI model renders your image exactly how you envision it.
Context
The setting, atmosphere, and mood can all add depth and emotion, so think about the context of the image. Some examples include “at sunrise,” “in a storm,” or “with a mystical aura.” When you swap each of these contexts and settings out, the image changes drastically.
Real-life analogy
Think of crafting a prompt like you’re giving directions to a co-worker or friend — you want to be as clear and specific as possible to help guide the AI precisely to your desired result.
By combining all of these components, a good prompt might look something like: “A snow-capped mountain at sunrise, with mist rolling through the valley, painted in a soft watercolor style.” Take some time to play around and experiment with different generative AI models to see how changing your text prompts alters the image.
Common prompt-writing mistakes and how to avoid them
As with any craft, there are common mistakes that often crop up when it comes to writing AI image prompts. Here are a few to avoid:
Vagueness
When you’re too vague, it means you’re writing overly broad or unclear prompts like “a landscape” or “a person.” Because the AI has too little direction, it can lead to very generic or random outputs that don’t match your vision. So, always be very specific about what you want. Instead of “a landscape,” try “a tranquil meadow with wildflowers and a distant mountain under a clear blue sky.”
Overloading with too many ideas at once
At the same time, you want to be careful that you’re not including too many conflicting or unrelated elements. For example, “a futuristic city, a medieval castle, and a spaceship in a stormy jungle.” If you add too much, the AI struggles to mix these ideas well, resulting in a messy image. It’s better to stick to one idea or theme. If necessary, split big ideas into separate prompts, such as “a futuristic city at night” and “a medieval castle in the jungle.”
Ignoring style for generic outputs
If you leave out any mention of artistic style, medium, or mood, don’t be surprised when you end up with bland, unclear results. Without style guidance, the AI will most likely default to a generic look that lacks personality and is nowhere near your desired vision. You always want to specify a style, such as “digital realism,” “impressionist oil painting,” or “vibrant cartoon style,” to give the artwork a distinct character.
With the above in mind, a bad prompt may read like this: “Create a landscape with a city on a hill, and a medieval castle opposite, across a raging river, which leads to a big stormy sea. ”
Prompt glossary
When you enter the world of AI art prompts, you’ll come across some of these words and phrases. Understanding what they mean will be very useful when mastering prompts for AI art.
| Seed | A seed in AI prompts is a number that influences how the AI generates results. Using the same seed with a prompt will produce the exact same result each time. Changing the seed generates a different variation of the output. This feature is useful for maintaining consistency when refining results or exploring multiple creative options. Some AI-powered tools and apps (like AI image or video generators) allow users to input a seed number to get consistent results. However, in some consumer-friendly AI tools, seeds are handled in the background, and only advanced users can manually set seeds for precise control. |
| Model | This is the specific AI framework or trained dataset used for image generation, such as Stable Diffusion, DALL·E, or MidJourney. Each model has its strengths, limitations, and artistic styles. |
| Negative prompt | A set of instructions explaining what not to include in the image. It helps refine results by getting rid of unwanted elements. For example, “no blur” or “exclude dark colors.” |
| Prompt strength | This setting controls how closely the AI follows the prompt. A higher value means the AI will stick to the description, while a lower strength lets the AI be more creative. |
| Rerun | This means generating a new image using the same prompt and parameters but often with a different seed. This gives you a unique version of the original image. |
| Remix | To remix is to alter an existing prompt or adjust its parameters to create a modified version of the original image. This allows for iterative refinement or exploring new directions. |
| Generate variations | When generating variations, you’re generating multiple images based on the same prompt but with subtle changes in composition, style, or other attributes, often using the same or similar seeds. |
| Reference image | This is an input image provided to guide the AI’s output, influencing composition, style, or specific visual elements while still allowing flexibility for creative adjustments. |
| Steps | Steps are the number of iterations the AI uses to refine the image. Higher step counts typically result in more detailed and polished outputs but require more processing time. |
| Sampler | The algorithm used to generate the image from the prompt and parameters is called a sampler. Different samplers (Euler, DDIM) affect the rendering process, speed, and final look of the image. |
| Prompt weight | Similar to prompt strength, this value adjusts the importance of specific parts of the prompt. Increasing the weight of certain words or phrases ensures they have a stronger influence on the final image. |
Time to take the next steps in your creative AI journey
The world of generative AI is still very new and can feel quite daunting for creatives. Here at Artlist, we’re here to help you get to grips with this technology and make it work for you and your creative process. From tips to get the perfect voiceover to AI generator image prompts, we’ve got your back.
The best way to learn is to practice, practice, practice. So, using the guidelines above, why not explore some of the generative AI art models available today and start experimenting with your prompts today?
*The text prompt used to create this article’s main image was “Cinematic shot of a realistic white horse with wings running on the street in a Hungarian old town, with yellow buildings in the background, captured during the day using an Arri Alexa Mini camera.”
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