With talk of AI everywhere so far in 2023, I decided to give it a whirl to try to create a gift for my third great-niece, since an artist I am not. I started shortly before her due date and discovered that some of the things I’d heard about image generation glitches were spot on. I also confirmed my earlier suspicions that it wasn’t very good at recreating specific words from the prompt in its output. (See bottom of post for some examples of AI gone wrong.)
Bottom line, though, it gave me what I needed to create something I would not have been able to do any other way, for a personal (as opposed to commercial) use (so my conscience is clear on any potential AI copyright issues).
The process I used
- I started with Google’s Bard and asked for “a pastel-colored painting of a baby girl with a magical aura emanating from her with the words “Welcome to our world, Shelby!” in large script and “June 2023″ in smaller sans serif font.” It gave me a prompt that it assured me would create the image I described.
“The painting is set in a soft, pastel-colored meadow. The baby girl is lying on a blanket of wildflowers in a variety of pastel colors, such as pink, purple, blue, and yellow. The baby is wearing a simple white dress, with skin a delicate shade of pink. She is surrounded by a magical aura of light, which glows in shades of blue, green, and yellow. She is surrounded by butterflies and other small creatures, who seem to be drawn to her light. The words “Welcome to our world, Shelby!” are written in large, flowing script above the baby girl’s head. The words “June 2023” are written in smaller sans serif font below the baby girl’s feet.
The painting is filled with a sense of peace and tranquility. The baby girl’s aura of light symbolizes her innocence and potential. The words “Welcome to our world, Shelby!” welcome the baby girl to the world with love and joy. The date “June 2023” marks the day that the baby girl was born.
The painting is a beautiful and heartwarming depiction of the arrival of a new baby. It is a perfect gift for the parents of the baby girl.
Here are some additional details that you can add to the painting:
The baby girl can be wearing a simple white dress.
The flowers in the meadow can be a variety of pastel colors, such as pink, purple, blue, and yellow.
The aura of light around the baby girl can be swirling and changing colors.
The words “Welcome to our world, Shelby!” can be written in a variety of fonts and colors.
The date “June 2023″ can be written in a small, understated font.”
- I thought this was TMI, so I trimmed it a bit into a prompt for:
“A happy white baby girl in a pale yellow dress is lying on a blanket of wildflowers in a variety of pastel colors, surrounded by butterflies, hummingbirds, and a glowing aura of lilac, green, and white light.
The words “Welcome to our world, Shelby!” are written in large, flowing script at the top with the smaller words “June 2023″ at the bottom.”
- In the first batch of images Bing AI Image Generator returned as options, all the babies had one nostril. So I amended my prompt to request two nostrils (never crossed my mind I would need to do that!). I then realized several options had teeth, so I further updated the prompt to the following:
“A happy white baby girl in a pale yellow dress is lying on a blanket of wildflowers in a variety of pastel colors, surrounded by butterflies, hummingbirds, and a glowing aura of lilac, green, and white light. Baby’s nose has two nostrils. There are no teeth showing in the baby’s mouth.”
- No matter what I did, I could not get the image generator to make accurate hands. The most common problem I’d heard about with AI image generators was hands, so at least this came as no surprise. Some looked fairly normal, but the thumbs look like Pinocchio thumbs. Some looked fairly normal but had extra or missing fingers. And some just looked like something from a horror movie!
- The other issue was the text. The image generator just gave me gibberish, so I opted to add that later.
The outcome
So I settled on an image that was close to what I was looking for, one with issues minor enough that I figured I could touch them up when I manually added the text. Here are the results:
Notice the six fingers on the baby’s right hand and the odd wrist on her left hand in the original image. Her lips also looked severely chapped (or something…not sure WHAT that was about…). I did my best to clean that up with the free tools I have, then uploaded it to Snapfish, added the text there (including the initials on the dress) and had it printed on a onesie for delivery a week after she was born.
New baby, new gift, generated with the help of new tech tools – what a 2023 so far!
The “AI gone wrong” examples I promised
