You heard the buzz: there’s another way to do art. You type a few text prompts, and the AI will return results. One of the recent AI generative art lab is Midjourney. You can try it for free on MidJourney’s Discord server with a limited number of images.

Here are some of my attempts:

The prompts I gave are: “oil painting, still life, bronze vase, light pink roses, curtain, table, realism, expressive strokes, worn palette;” – basically, a Watts’ Atelier homework. The first result it returns contains 4 choices:

You can choose to further develop them and make variations till you are satisfied or give up. Some of the “final” ones:

Here are some of my Kandinsky (kandinsky with expressive bold strokes, fish, abstract colors) and André Masson (André Masson drawing, colored pencil, street musicians, metro, gloomy):

A few notes:

• It’s a lot of fun. Thanks to the limited number of trials that I didn’t end up spending my life on it.
• I don’t really know how to make the best out of this Midjourney. I have seen amazing artworks coming out of it. I assume the the prompts you give make all the difference, but I didn’t spend time digging what the algorithm handling better, more general or specific instructions, more or fewer words etc.
• Also, if the attempts are not limited (with a subscription I assume), you can keep manipulating them. The result may get much better or worse.
• If you are into digital art, this can be a tool, and if you are making abstract art, this can be a great idea generator.
• But, who can claim the authorship? In a few pieces, there’s even an attempt of signature. Whose signature? It seems to me like Kandinsky or Mason. So does the algorithm aims at creation or imitation?
• I also like the fact that in some cases the painting comes with a frame.
• One thing for sure, if the big names in art history and all the prodigies online haven’t stopped us attempting new artworks, AI wouldn’t either. Back to painting! 🙂