How to Use AI to Create Stunning Art for Free

Not long ago, we covered how you can take AI selfies with the Lensa app on your phone. The results can be stunning, but the AI ​​can go beyond using an existing photo as a reference point and create artwork from scratch.

There are now many AI image generators that will produce images based on text descriptions. That means you can imagine anything, type it in, and seconds later you’ll see a selection of images that match that description.

For example, the image at the top was generated using the description “steam train crossing a curved viaduct over green hills with a river flowing below, cloudy blue sky”.

But you can enter as many details as you want. For example, the following produced these variations “A beach on a cloudy day. In the distance, people are walking towards the cliffs in the background”.

Or “1970s Porsche race car on track leading a field of vintage cars with a crowd of spectators in the stands in the background”.

Mid Road

AI is good at generating images of people. For example, “a 35-year-old computer scientist working at his desk, wearing glasses and a blue blazer” led to this:

Mid Road

These generators vary in quality and usually only allow you to generate a few images before you have to pay to use their services.

But it’s fun to do and worth trying because chances are you’ll be blown away by the results.

Whichever generator you decide to use, the process is the same: type in a detailed description of what you want. The longer this description, the better.

Shorter descriptions can still generate amazing images, as the bird above shows, but they might not be quite what you intended. Also, the AI ​​isn’t human – duh! — so while some of the images look pristine, others have clear errors, and the AI ​​struggles with the text in particular.

Really, you also need to specify the image style you want. That’s because the AI ​​has to figure out if you want photorealistic images, a cartoon, a sketch, or something else. If you don’t specify, it can choose randomly.

Since the images are created by powerful servers, you can use these generators on any device you have: a phone, laptop, tablet or PC.

Some generators are only available as mobile apps, but others work in a web browser. Here are a few to try now.

DALL-E is one of the best known and comes from the same people – OpenAI – who created ChatGPT. Unfortunately, its popularity means it’s virtually impossible to use: we could barely create an account without the website crashing, probably due to overload.

However, Midjourney stands out from the crowd, partly because of the quality of the frames it creates, but also because you get 25 minutes of free GPU time: you’re not limited to a specific number of frames. .

The only catch is that it uses Discord, which can be a bit confusing to use if you don’t know it. You will also need to create a Discord account if you don’t have one.

How to use Midjourney