How to Write an Effective AI Art Prompt

Good prompts are the backbone of good outputs. This is true for ChatGPT and even more so for AI image generation tools. While ChatGPT provides solid responses even with super basic prompts, AI art generators tend to require more attention to detail—and more attempts—before you get what you’re looking for. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore the art of writing effective AI art prompts, with a focus on the structure of a well-constructed prompt and key strategies to make your images go from “ok…?” to “wow.” 

The Structure of an AI Art Prompt 

AI art prompting is much more of an art than a science, but I’ve put together a starting point for you. I’ll start with the structure of a good AI art prompt, and then I’ll give you some starting words and expressions you can use to make images go from “ok…?” to “wow.”

Part 1: Image Content 

Start by stating the subject or content of the image. This part is self-explanatory, and entering it into an AI image generation app will produce predictable results. Do you want a picture of a city at sunset? A green forest at dawn? In addition to the content, you can also describe actions, how they’re being done, and the mood of the image.

Part 2: Art Form, Style, and Artist References

Next up is guiding the AI model toward the overarching aesthetic. Is it a watercolor painting? A sculpture? A lo-fi image? You can explore various art forms, techniques, art movements, and even specific artist references to influence the outcome.

Part 3: Additional Details

After adding the subject and art form, there are plenty of extras you can add to your prompt to further influence the end result. Consider factors such as framing, lighting, color scheme, level of detail and realism, and even advanced parameters specific to certain AI art tools.

As you add more elements to your prompt, be sure to separate them with commas. This will help the AI model interpret your prompt and make it easier for you to remember what you’ve asked for.

How Long Should an AI Art Prompt Be?

There aren’t hard limits on how long or short a prompt should be, but it’s important to play around with it. Midjourney works well with 60-word prompts, while Stable Diffusion does best if you stay below 380 characters. 

What Style of Language Should You Use in an AI Art Prompt?

Vivid details and concrete language produce more predictable results, while poetic or abstract wording can lead to surprising outcomes. You can mix and match these styles depending on your creative objectives.

Advanced AI Prompt Tools and Strategies:

To become an AI art prompt master, you can employ advanced tools and strategies:

1. Reverse Engineer Real Images: Use CLIP Interrogator to take an image and generate a text prompt based on its content. Then, use this result to build more detailed prompts and enter them into text-to-image models.
2. Image-to-Image: Instead of using just text, provide an image as inspiration and further refine it with text or model controls. Tools like Runway can assist with this.
3. AI Outpainting: Upload an image to an AI outpainting model, which can expand it beyond its frame, allowing you to get the exact framing you desire or create larger images from smaller details.
4. Fine-Tune Generation Settings: Some models, like Stable Diffusion, offer advanced generation settings. Adjusting factors such as the number of steps can impact the level of detail in the final image.
5. Train Your Own AI Image Model: Tools like Leap AI enable you to train your own image model, reducing output variance and allowing you to achieve a unique look and feel.
6. Edit Images with AI: Utilize AI tools like Canva or Photoshop to select parts of images and modify them using text prompts.
7. Use ChatGPT for Prompt Generation: Employ AI chatbots like ChatGPT to generate better text prompts, unlocking new aesthetics, compositions, or subject combinations.

Where to Find AI Art Prompt Ideas 

Finding inspiration for your AI art prompts is essential. You can: 

1. Join AI image generation communities on platforms like Discord, such as OpenAI’s server and Midjourney’s server, to engage with the community, ask questions, and collaborate with others.
2. Explore collections of images and corresponding prompts on platforms like neural.love’s public library, Lexica for Stable Diffusion prompts, and Midjourney’s Discord channels.

Prompt Examples

Here are some AI art prompts to get you started:

1. “A cat on the sofa.”
2. “Impressionist oil painting of a cute robot.”
3. “Illustration of dinosaurs drawn by a child, the illustrations are cute and heartwarming.”
4. “Isolated convenience store in the middle of the desert at sunset, car parked outside, lo-fi, nostalgic.”
5. “Buildings on fire, old film still.”
6. “Person with strong determined attitude, forest fire background, close-up shot, realistic.”
7. “Lonely evil bananas on a table, hard light chiaroscuro, realistic.”
8. “A futuristic hopeful busy city, purple and green color scheme.”
9. “A distant galaxy filled with tiny colorful stars, a blue, Earth-like planet in the foreground, realistic, colorful, 8k, trending on art station.”

Conclusion

AI image generation is an exciting field with limitless creative possibilities. Writing effective AI art prompts requires practice and experimentation. By mastering the structure of prompts, incorporating advanced strategies, and seeking inspiration from AI communities and existing prompts, you can progressively achieve better results and unlock your full creative potential in the world of AI-generated art. So, embrace the AI art prompt as your artistic palette and let your imagination soar.