Lapinator

The Artist Spotlight is your inside look into the influences, collaborations and prompts that drive the NightCafe community.

We catch up with some of our most original creators to find what inspires them, who their favorite creators are, and how they use image generator algorithms as part of their work.

NC: WHAT INFLUENCES YOUR WORK?

Many things actually, and it evolved a lot over time. At first, it was my fellow artists, mostly those with open prompts.

When I saw something I liked, in terms of composition or style, I would try to dissect it, to understand what each word did and create something based on what I learned.

Then I started the studies, trying a prompt using just an artist that came to mind, then two, adding a modifier here and there. With every creation came a surprise, an interesting composition or style which I then used as inspiration for a more refined creation.

More recently the Daily Challenges, as the Discord ones have been influencing the subjects of my creations. 

NC: MOST UNDERRATED ARTIST ON NIGHTCAFE?

That’s a hard one, I think I don’t spend enough time browsing as I used to, and I’m sure many great creators don’t get the attention they deserve.

I’d recommend checking Eclectic and AndrogynBun.

Every time you browse the creations and see something different, if there’s an open prompt, that’s someone deserving some investigating time. 

NC: PROMPT THAT MOST SURPRISED YOU?

I find complex intricate multi-prompts creation sometimes interesting. 

But more often than not you realize that most of the elements just don’t get through on the final creation. 

Try “Portrait by Klaus Wittmann” (SD1.5) to get an amazing creation, or “By Guido Borellii” and you’ll get an amazing landscape. 

NC: ANY TIPS FOR PROMPT WRITING?

The first tip, and maybe the only one that matters: Study!!

To get better at writing prompts, you need to study. Study other people's prompts, study the effect of each modifier you use and study how each artist you add to your prompt will have an impact when his style adds to it.

With Stable Diffusion v2.1, it means studying everything again. Each artist and each modifier has a different impact than in v1.5.

The second tip is to keep it simple. You’ll see many great creators having intricately hyper detailed prompts.

Some know what they’re doing, and some just pile up things hoping for the best results and it sometimes works.

That’s not how you start prompt writing, because you’re just throwing the dice and hoping for the best. That’s what you do when you are comfortable and experienced. 

Finally, carefully craft and tinker with your prompt. Usually, the process when you want to create something new and unique is: 

• Get the description right to be sure the AI knows what you're going for. Now with free creations you can give it as many trials as you want. So just try a simple description with no modifier and see if that works. If it doesn’t, try something else. 

• Add artists. You don’t need to put a dozen, just two, maybe three or four is enough. You just need to find the right ones. Know that the first one will have a huge impact in terms of composition, so better go with one that fits your description. The others can influence the result in more subtle ways. Be mindful that not every artist has the same strength (if you put Carne Griffiths, don’t bother putting other artists, they’ll basically be ignored). 

• Add modifiers to describe factors such as style, art movement, genre, lighting, or color. 

• Don’t use the basic negative prompt unless you need to. It will often reduce any artistic attempt to nothing. Just add one with a few keywords of things you don’t want in your creation. Now, that can be a lot of work if you don’t know any artists, or what modifiers do. Here’s a library of studies that should be a good starting point.

If you still don’t know what to do, just reach out to your favorite creator and ask for help. NC has an amazing community and many of us are always happy to help. 

NC: WHAT LED YOU TO USING NIGHTCAFE?

I first tried some different platforms to create some tailored art for the party I’m DMing, and NightCafe was one of them.

I soon realized that the possibilities were endless. Every time I tried something new, I discovered more use to what I was creating, until I just got caught up in the fun of creating anything that came to mind, and studying every aspect this amazing tool has to offer.