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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?

A lot of times, I come to AI tools with a task in mind.

For example, I want to create a poster for an event, or artwork for a story, or I'm looking for ideas for a music video, or something else of that kind.

That "bigger" project usually drives me in one direction or the other.

But I think my favorite works that I got in NightCafe are the result of idle curiosity: how it handles abstract descriptions and abstract starting images.

NC: MOST UNDERRATED ARTIST ON NIGHTCAFE?

From interesting accounts I have stumbled upon, I find /u/crazydancingguy to be very interesting, and it seems few people saw their profile.

They don't have a lot of works published, yet each one I'm excited to look at and think about. I particularly enjoy these works (1, 2, 3). 

NC: PROMPT THAT MOST SURPRISED YOU?

The absolute best image I got had lots of prompt sets, the main one being "mathematics and typography simple minimalistic design composition with seafoam and yellow colors".

What I didn't expect was an arrangement of textile and wood objects resembling an IKEA catalog picture.

It allowed a natural crop to cut off the recognizable shapes, and as a result, I was left with a beautiful decorative flat artwork that strongly reminds me of late Matisse.

NC: ANY TIPS FOR PROMPT WRITING?

I like using a lot of prompt sets to be able to emphasize things I look for the most (for me usually it's the main colors or names of geometric shapes) and make an associative cloud for the rest and then play with weights. 

Using starting images for me is an important part of prompting, and I love to crop images or recolor them / invert brightness in the process of evolving. In a way, it reminds me of the Rorschach test or rather a Rorschach game with AI. If you feel a bit bored, try doing that

Also, for me, the ""Artistic"" model is incredibly useful as it has an option for creating video effects that I can later use for transitions in my videos. So, if you are into making videos, I encourage you to explore the ""Artistic"" model and its video-generating option."

NC: WHAT LED YOU TO USING NIGHTCAFE?

I became curious because of the hype.

I started using it, among many other tools, to explore how I could add it to my workflow as a designer.

Now I find that it's wonderful, both as an artistic curiosity and as a fellow designer providing high-quality backgrounds and functional elements.