AI Art creator Art_Bot5000 is an AI Artist closely associated with ArtzoneAI. We got the opportunity to interview him and gain a close look at his experiences with AI Art!

Tell us a little about yourself

Hi, I’m Pete and I’m based out of Aberdeen, Scotland. I work in IT support and have a three-month-old son and a four-year-old daughter. In the past, I have dabbled in digital art and photography using Photoshop and Lightroom to make slight adjustments when needed. Before family life took over I was big into movies/cinema and I’ve probably seen every Marvel and DC superhero movie.  When I’m not working or spending time with family I’m creating AI Art using Midjourney.

What made you explore AI Art?

I have a natural interest in technology and the blogs and news sources I follow started reporting on Open AI’s Dalle-2 and Craiyon. I was immediately disappointed Dalle-2  was an invite-only beta. Right then, knew I was going to sign up. However, before I did, Midjourney beta was announced, I had a play around, and quite quickly became a subscriber.  What got me hooked was the immediate power of creating something with substance. It was easy to get started but you continually learn new things.  I suppose being interested in the technology behind it helped. Being interested in how graphics are generated and having a vague knowledge of gaming and photography technologies seemed to help. 

Tell us a little more about your art style

Up until recently my answer would have been “I don’t have a style”. You will even see in my early works there are random images in random styles.  I seem to have settled on attempts at photorealistic images of existing robots and characters in ways they otherwise wouldn’t exist. I am a fan of taking a character and doing something simple like changing their color as with “The White Knight”. This is in addition to blowing things up to huge proportions like with my Pokemon mechs.

What do you do for fine lines on superhero artwork?

When I have an idea it starts with experimentation. Then through all of the generations, I get lucky and can pick out images that meet my vision.  For fine detail all you do is ask, “highly detailed” or “extremely detailed” usually work but any kind of superlative is worth exploring.

How do you avoid highly animated artworks and make them as real as possible?

I have a base prompt that spells out the type of image I’m looking for.  You can ask for drawings by particular artists but for me, it’s the technical side that’s important. Photorealism, detail, shadows and lighting and describing the quality is all equally important.  If you can think about the composition of a photo or how graphics may look in a video game there are many things you can pull from.  I think the trick with Midjourney is to reinforce your prompt in multiple ways. Hence, I might ask for a mix of Batman, photorealism and the level of detail and it should give something that looks photorealistic.  Throw in some modifiers like cyberpunk or steampunk and you are on your way to a nice image.

Read our interview with Creator of Artificially Goddess – Chifei

What hurdles did you face while engaging with Artificial Intelligence?

The main issue I face is coming up with new ideas, or at least ideas that I feel are new and unique. This has been the case right from the beginning.  There’s a definite creative process and most of it happens in my mind or through generating images, mulling over ideas or sometimes it’s a eureka moment and you know immediately what needs to be done. 

Quite a lot of time is spent on generating images that never go anywhere.  I’d say roughly 80% of what I generate are left “on the cutting room floor” but oftentimes these rough generations are the spark and without them the process wouldn’t start and I wouldn’t have a final image.

What is the inspiration behind your artwork and creations?

I’m a technology guy at heart with influences from gaming, movies, superheroes, comics. This is in addition to some Japanese pop culture for good measure. 

The AI art community really influences me too. When I see all of the amazing work coming out, it feeds my imagination. Thus, without everyone else taking part I wouldn’t be where I am now. 

It has been really beneficial that Midjourney generations are public so you can see what others are prompting and pick up tips and learn from all of the existing work. 

What are your opinions on the future of AI Art in the creative world?

There are so many possibilities, both good and bad.  I do fear something like legal proceedings will cancel out some of the companies making the technology behind AI Art. I don’t think it will affect Open Source software much since the code is out there.

My predictions for the next 5, 10, or 15 years are for impressive growth in quality. Eventually, I believe realistic animation, game creation, and movies will be a possibility. Being able to create complete highly detailed 3D models for video games and movies will be a massive step forward. I would be surprised if this wasn’t being worked on already.

What advice would you give to aspiring AI artists who are just starting out in the field?

Learn as much as you can about how your chosen technology works, what others are creating, get inspiration from the community.  Especially with Midjourney you have a whole catalog of so many millions of images and the prompts for creating them.  Find your own style or don’t find a style and just have fun creating what you want.  I think everyone will take away something different, for me it’s the enjoyment I get out of creating the work, sharing it on Instagram and seeing how people react to it.  Find a community that would help you build.

Tell us a little more about your next AI Art endeavors.

I have to say there are no plans for where this goes in the future.  I tried a few stores early on but in my enthusiasm/naivety, I didn’t consider that my paltry number of followers would result in exactly zero sales.  At some point, I’d like to pick that up again but for now, I take it a day at a time and just enjoy the process. 

I would like to do more collaborations and my door is open to new ideas so DM me with your suggestions!

Share us your thoughts on Artzone.ai

I have been a member for a little over a month and I appreciate the effort going into promoting AI Art. The website is well designed too and has every feature you’d want.  My only wish is that I had more time to engage with other artists here.

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