As someone who has spent thousands and thousands of dollars to commission art surrounding and inspired by my novels, I’m deeply committed to human artists. Caterina Kalymniou, J-P Mavinga, and Epic Made have all produced some amazing commissions for me. Such as my covers (by Caterina) and the Kickstarter art cards by J-P and E-M. They all do beautiful work. They produce reliable, predictable work. They also take a lot of time to do so. (And they’re not cheap! But definitely worth the every penny to me.)
Still it’s fun (for me) to play with Stable Diffusion and DALL-E. I have no illusion that so-called airt is going to replace human art…not ever. Things will evolve and grow. New hybrids and chimaera’s will be produced. Not too long ago there was a holy war between so-called photo manipulation cover artists and “purist” painters. Before that, there was a long-running spat between digital freehand painters and 3D artists—maybe still is. Dunno. Don’t care.
I’m going to continue to explore and experiment with airt, because it only costs me my playtime. I’m also going to continue to commission new original paintings from my human friends. Both make me happy.
Here’s a couple random things that Night Cafe produced for me from the simple prompt “raven queen triumphant” (no postwork) and while imperfect, they definitely capture the vibe I was hoping for. I’m sure I have a lot to learn as I play with all the different options in Night Cafe, Midjourney, and Diffusion Bee.
If you’d like a free read evokes that kind of vibe, the prequel to the Temple of Vengeance quadrilogy is yours for the taking, Death Descends. Grab yours today!
Righteous Disobedience will be free to newsletter subscribers when it’s released.
