Bellemia

The NightCafe Artist Spotlight is your inside look into the influences, inspiration and techniques that drive our community's most original creators.

NC: What influences your work?

Generally what inspires me in art is something that catches my attention, makes me think and allows my imagination to soar.

In reference to AI art, there are so many incredibly talented artists on NightCafe who inspire me, and from whom I have learned so much since joining this community.

Just to name a few: @mormookie with his whimsical and incredibly creative puns; @cilia and @adansito whose images spark the imagination and ignite my creativity; and @GullyDJ, who I call the “Yoda Master of prompting” who has taught me so much about prompt writing.

These are just a few to be honest…there are many, many more. I am extremely grateful to each of these folks as each has helped me learn and grow in one way or another.

NC: Most underrated NightCafe artist?

When I first started I had no idea how to craft a prompt. I started with just very basic instructions. 

Then @GullyDJ began to tutor and teach me through his Facebook NightCafe group with their Testing Branch posts. Through him and the group I met someone who I think is very much underrated on NightCafe, and that is @inggriflam. 

In addition to all of GullyDJs teaching, it is from Ing that I learned the importance of modifiers, how to create them and how to use them to create unexpected and amazing creations.  

What's more, Ing has gone above and beyond by creating a huge set of sample modifier's for folks to explore and use. Just check this out! 

NC: A prompt that surprised you?

Frankly many prompts thrill, delight and often surprise me, so I'm not sure that I can really answer this question effectively. 

Typically some of the most interesting results stem from creative modifiers in the prompt. Adding in multiple allowable reference artists and/or distinctly different styles and see how the AI interprets those instructions.  

As an example for creative modifiers:

“Anthropomorphic Motherboard Molecular schizophrenia the pastel tapestry of my memory, glimmering pastel flowers bloom, cities rise like dreams, and rainbow worlds unfold. The Persistence of Memory echoes in every petal, skyscraper, and ethereal arc—a surreal masterpiece where time dances in kaleidoscopic hues”

Also, adding in an artist reference and maybe an art style, and your creation can be very different:  

“Art Deco Dali and Matisse inspired Anthropomorphic Motherboard Molecular schizophrenia the pastel tapestry of my memory, glimmering pastel flowers bloom, cities rise like dreams, and rainbow worlds unfold. The Persistence of Memory echoes in every petal, skyscraper, and ethereal arc—a surreal masterpiece where time dances in kaleidoscopic hues"

On top of all this using weightings in your prompt or prompt magic can drastically alter results. Not to mention the variation you get when you use the same prompt but with different models. The possibilities are truly endless!

NC: Any tips on prompt writing?

If you are new I would encourage you to explore images shared by the #open-prompt-gang on the Explore page, and to review prompts of images you like. That’s how I started way back when. 

I would also encourage everyone to join the NightCafe Discord and Facebook communities. Both of these are incredible resources to spark your creativity, learn new things, and explore new ideas on better prompt writing. 

I would also encourage folks to just play around. Recently what has impressed me, especially with the newer models and the ability to use “plain text” prompting, is the creativity you can achieve by blending very different prompts into one. Or, with DALLE-3 specifically, indicating that the “image should be a seamless blend of two prompts”, then add the prompts. 

I often try to use this method when I’m thinking about how I can integrate elements I like from different images. Yes, some tweaks will often be needed, but when it works it is magic!

NC: How did you start using NightCafe?

I came across it by accident. I had taken an oil painting class, enjoyed it and wanted to continue. My instructor shared that, for newer artists, finding interesting reference material to practice off of was important. 

So, I went on the hunt for unique artistic reference material. I found some work online by some NightCafe artists, which then led me to NightCafe itself. 

I had never done any sort of AI art. But I found myself drawn in by this new and interesting way of making art, and I got hooked!