nana

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?

To start, I'm a big artist at heart. I just love creating beautiful art in any way shape or form I can.

I used to have a passion for poetry back in my school and college days, and extensively wrote and published poetry and prose later on. I also do traditional art from time to time, such as watercolor or acrylic painting as a recreation to free myself from the stress of life.

But sadly, that passion came to a halt as life's duties began to take up most of my time.

As I was rushing through life, I randomly came across AI art and since then, my hectic life found a little bit of happiness thanks to it! It woke up the creative side in me that had been slumbering ever since I stopped writing.

I guess that's what influences my work: the need for an escape from the mundane duties of life by doing something extraordinary. Like AI Art!

NC: MOST UNDERRATED ARTIST ON NIGHTCAFE?

To be honest, only listing a few wouldn't be fair to the vast majority of the artists out there, as my list is never-ending and I keep finding more new artists with amazing works.

But if you ask me for favorites, a few names pop into mind, like Gazelli, Lapinator, Nylaria, and WhiteHatGFX.

Their artworks are simply breathtaking, and they keep experimenting to find new types of art and make stunning pieces, especially the former two. I've learned a lot from them and wish to give back to the community as much as they've taught me.

NC: PROMPT THAT MOST SURPRISED YOU?

One fine night, I thought of putting random words together that I could think of at that moment and making a prompt out of it. 

Those were: beautiful, celestial, glowing, filigree, imagination, dreamlikeart.

I then put them together in a prompt with a random subject, and voila!

It gave me the type of art that I loved creating, which is all things glowy and sparkly! It's sort of become my trademark art now, and I enjoy making art the most when it is glowing and sparkly!

NC: ANY TIPS FOR PROMPT WRITING?

Have a look at Lapinator's Library.

It has been my go-to study book for almost every new creation I try to create! Studying the various artists or even specifically just their style has helped a lot in my prompt writing skills.

For those of you that don't use artists in your prompts, it would also help you to understand their movement or style instead to add as keywords in your prompts. 

Some of my favorite keywords for getting detailed results are always "hyperdetailed / highly intricately detailed / hypervivid".

Also never forget to use "centered" in your prompts so that your creations don't get cut off (they still do though sometimes, where negative prompts can help).

Lately, my favourite thing to do on NightCafe is creating extensively using the DALL-E 2 algorithm and then evolving it through the Coherent Algorithm to give it some depth and life. This was the pure magic I found thanks to a few creator friends.

Creations from DALL-E 2 tend to look unfinished with many of the prompts I use so I find that evolving them through Coherent gives it a shine and life that I can't seem to get anywhere else, and honestly, it's become my latest obsession.

This is a very personal taste of mine, and I don't think many people would appreciate it, as it sometimes looks too "messy" or "all over the place" without a clean finish.

But then, that's exactly what I love about it! My kind of art has never been clean or neat, I like messy art that seems like it has no pointed focus but rather there's so much to look at and wonder what it could mean. 

Of course, art is subjective and everyone has their tastes, which is why I love our little NightCafe community a lot, it's always fun finding like-minded people!

NC: WHAT LED YOU TO USING NIGHTCAFE?

During a period in my life that was extremely important, but also very difficult and stressful, a friend introduced me to AI art so I could use it as an escape from my stressful reality.  

I was very reluctant at first, because I couldn't get the hang of it. Prompt writing just seemed impossible to me.

But that's when I came across NightCafe and found the lovely community here that was ready to teach me. 

It's kinda scary getting into something new and knowing absolutely about it. You feel scared that you wouldn't be able to catch up to everyone around you, and feel lost within this new world.

Fortunately enough, I have the beautiful people of NightCafe to thank for teaching me all that I know now, and who keep their prompts open.

When I was feeling lost and scared, I looked to them to help me guide my way. I've ultimately stuck around here thanks to that, and all the lovely and kind interactions I've had so far that make creating art so much more fun.