Some Guy Named David

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?

If anyone reading this knows me from Discord or is familiar with my art, you may already know that my main inspiration is... CORN! Just kidding. Truthfully, my work is mostly influenced by how I am feeling and the random ADHD thoughts that pop into my head. I am a writer at heart, and I enjoy crafting unique prompts by finding creative ways to describe scenes or ideas. 

While I come across interesting open prompts on NightCafe, I deconstruct them and reshape them in my style. I borrow and rewrite elements from the prompt rather than just simply changing one or two modifiers. This lets me feel like I own my work, rather than "borrowing" the hard work of others. Once I've created a prompt that I really like, I am far from done. I try to stretch it even more and keep adjusting it bit by bit to see how small subtle changes can influence the creation. 

As a father of two and a self-proclaimed master of the dad joke, I try to incorporate humor into my work whenever possible. I prefer to create humorous creations and give my art a witty title to help tell the story of the image. If I bring a smirk to someone's face, that's a success in my book.

When I choose to publish and showcase my creations, I try not to be influenced by trends and what's popular. I publish the work I enjoy and think others will like too. Early on in my "NightCafe career", I learned that I don't enjoy creating solely for others or following trends to gain popularity. Trying to win every challenge or hit the top of the trending charts was stressful and soiled the experience for me. Now I create art for me, and whether my creation receives one like or 500, it brings me equal happiness. 

NC: MOST UNDERRATED ARTIST ON NIGHTCAFE?

I'll bring three underrated artists to your attention in no particular order:

JEFFY40HANDS (also known as SoundlessMage) has created some amazing cyberpunk and anime-style art.

Queren is an awesome artist, who is great at experimenting with prompts and has given me excellent advice on multiple occasions. They recently completed a phenomenal project where they recreated every Artwork from all 295 cards in the Alpha (Original) set of Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game in SDXL .9. You should check out the collection.

Jonathan Kennedy doesn't publish every day, but when he does they are all fantastic. It's always a gift when I see him post a new creation.

NC: PROMPT THAT MOST SURPRISED YOU?

SDXL is very good at crochet dolls and it was very surprising how realistic they came out.

"A Photograph of a cute crochet doll of _________" and some additional photography and quality modifiers put out adorable crochet dolls that I wish I had on my computer desk. 

I'm always amazed by how negative prompts can shape the output. It's important not to rely solely on the standard negative prompt provided by NightCafe.

While that prompt is a good starting point for newer artists, it's a good idea to customize it for each creation. I follow the rule of opposites. For example, if I want to create art featuring a cat, adding "canine" or "dog" to the negative prompt helps to emphasize cat-like elements in the image.

By specifying what I don't want to see, I can reduce the randomness of the AI, and produce more coherent pieces. 

NC: ANY TIPS FOR PROMPT WRITING?

In my professional career, where I do software enablement and training, I always stress the importance of using available resources.
The best resources I've found are a thesaurus, dictionary, and, of course, Chat-GPT.

The English language is complex, and changing words like "blue" to "indigo" or "happy" to "jubilated" can have a big impact on your art by changing how the algorithm pulls from the dataset. If you're struggling to describe something, ask Chat-GPT to make it more detailed.

When including artists in your prompts, research their styles beforehand to ensure the desired impact. Look up "artists similar to (Artist Name)" to add variety. I usually stick to 2-3 artists with similar styles. Including too many artists or those with conflicting styles can lead to inconsistent results.

Lastly, remember that creating art with the algorithm is a collaboration, and the algorithm has no contextual knowledge. You need to provide that context through your prompt.

While helping newer artists, I've noticed they often write prompts that lack context or have too many modifiers. "Beautiful, woman, chair, trees, photograph" will produce a different result from "A photograph of a beautiful woman sitting calmly in a lush green forest." The latter prompt will give you closer to what you want with fewer attempts, especially with the newer SDXL Model.

NC: WHAT LED YOU TO USING NIGHTCAFE?

I discovered NightCafe on Reddit almost two years ago. Someone used the Artistic algorithm to create art inspired by one of my favorite videogames, and I thought it was cool, so I joined and made some simple art pieces. I visited the site a few times after that, but I started using it more frequently after Stable 1.5 was released.

Initially, I used it to create character portraits for my Dungeons and Dragons and Starfinder campaigns. But as I explored more, I realized how much creativity it sparked in me, and I felt more fulfilled. I've always had an artistic side, but due to marriage, long work hours, and being a father, I never had time to hone any sort of visual art skill.

My creative outlet was writing TTRPG campaigns and short stories but I barely had time for that. NightCafe provided the visual creative outlet I was missing, along with a community that appreciates my creative efforts. Don't underestimate the therapeutic power of art and how it can positively impact your life!