Using Photoshop to get the most out of AI tools

The client had a general idea of their goal in this project example. A T-shirt design that reflected their YouTube channel. A craft channel that worked with Acrylics and Resin.  They had one reference from stock libraries, as shown in the second example but wanted to create something unique in their brand colours: Fluorescent pinks, purples and aqua.

The idea of a heart pouring out the paint was not hard to achieve using AI, and I devised many great ideas. But the client was very particular about what to include and how to present the idea. Getting something very particular by using AI alone is very difficult, and even feeding in reference ideas the AI tends to have a mind of its own about what it sees on that reference. AI also has a limited library of references and historical ideas to draw on from any text prompt.

I found that the best way to achieve a specific composition was to generate raw ingredients for my client-supplied composition idea and combine those ideas in Photoshop. If I needed a splat I’d just focus on a few of those. If I needed a  heart I’d focus on that and so on. Once you have all of the elements you need, you can tweak shapes and colours. Below you can see ten or so of the ideas I used to go from the original composition and brand colours to a finished original idea.

The three images on the left are clients’ references. The middle images are blends of about 50-100 image prompts. The right images were tweaked within Photoshop, and the final solution is featured.

Interesting results were achieved during the prompting process.

Before the client honed in on a final composition, some of these ideas were explored in AI.

Here are some other ideas that were generated by firstly trying a bunch of prompts and then combining some of those solutions with what is called ‘Blending‘, where you ask the AI to blend 2-5 images you are generated to come up with unique and exciting solutions of textures with shapes and colours. This is where you push the AI into new directions that a prompt alone would not achieve.

The main benefit of using AI in the illustration and design process is the ability to create designs that would be difficult or impossible to make by hand. AI algorithms can generate intricate and complex designs that are impossible to create with traditional illustration methods without spending hours on sketches and ideas. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for him to push the boundaries of what is possible in art.

Efficiency of ideas

Instead of presenting rough sketches, you can present many finished quality original ideas that can open up conversations on both the side of the artist and the client. 

Contact me today for a free consult about optimising your next design or illustration project using AI.