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My Cheating Art

Creating Digital Art Using The Artificial Intelligence of Night Cafe

By Mike Singleton - MikeydredPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
Top Story - September 2022
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Introduction

I am no artist, and I am hardly a writer or musician either but I would describe myself as a creator.

As I have written for Vocal the issue of plagiarism keeps raising its head and sometimes I want to use an image but cannot find the proper way to credit the original creator because it was just found on a Google search.

Discovering The Night Cafe

One way of avoiding the plagiarism charge is to create your own pictures, manually or digitally. There are a lot of AI Image generators that can create an image for you although some people treat this as cheating. I wrote my first piece on this subject below, effectively arguing the Night Cafe generator was just a tool to use. If I wanted a definite image I would have to draw it myself, take a photograph or commission an artist to do it.

I started on Night Cafe and generated some weird images, but the more I tried the odd really good image dropped out and were perfect for the story that I was writing. One of the weird things about Night Cafe is that they give you free daily credits, and while you can pay for extra credits, my free credits more than cover the “cost” of my creations.

These creations can be sold for free as NFTs (Non-fungible tokens which are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other) but I can’t really be bothered with bitcoin and blockchains.

I upload pictures to various sites but the only one that will take my creations is Pixabay (see my profile below). I allow free downloads for credit but people can send tips via Paypal if they so desire.

Pixabay have now featured two of my images because they were impressed with them, which means I am officially being recognised for the digital art that I have created. I will be happy when I see one of my pieces used by a friend or acknowledged publicly then I can say that I am successful.

Furbaby

Burning Sartori

I pursue my writing, music and digital art according to these words from the wonderful Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favourite authors.

“People should practice an art in order to make their souls grow and not to make money or become famous. Paint a picture. Write.”

Quote is taken from this site here.

People may criticize and call me lazy for not trying to make money, but I believe that if I am to make money from my art it will be a stroke of luck, and if I don’t I treasure the fact that I have an audience and friends who appreciate what I do.

My Cheating Art

If people do think I am a cheat I can argue that anyone who uses any kind of tool is, therefore, a cheat, but the reality is that they are not. These AI generators are just another artistic tool the same as a paintbrush or pen or sculpture hammer. Without those tools, art could not be created no matter how vivid the artist's imagination is. A painter without brushes or a writer without a pen (or keyboard) cannot adequately express themselves.

I have received much encouragement for my artwork and will continue to produce it and if you want to use it it is yours as long as you tag me.

Using an AI Generator can be frustrating because it has the control not you, but as you use these more and more you will start to get images that will cause people to ask "Did You Paint That?" though no one has asked me that yet.

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About the Creator

Mike Singleton - Mikeydred

Weaver of Tales, Poems, Music & Love

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Comments (25)

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  • Raymond G. Taylor5 months ago

    Thanks for the recent pointer to this article which is really helpful. I too like to use AI image generation and, like you, my first attempts produced nothing useable. Modern cameras (not to mention 'smart' phones) allow people with no photography training to make good images so why not AI for 'non-artists' like us too? As long as the image is clearly marked, which yours are. Well done, you have produced some really good illustrations for your stories.

  • Bassewitzabout a year ago

    It was so much fun!

  • Matras Dohrmannabout a year ago

    👏👏👏

  • Dana Stewart2 years ago

    Interesting and intriguing. Art is art, subjective to each. I think you’re a brilliant creative.

  • Natalia Grin2 years ago

    Interesting and informative. Thank you for sharing.

  • Heather Hubler2 years ago

    I loved your song choice for this one, lol :) You are definitely a creator through and through. I enjoyed learning in this article and am even more impressed by you. The best part is that you enjoy what you do. You can't ask for more than that.

  • Heather Cumbo2 years ago

    Very interesting

  • Emby Lat2 years ago

    Interesting article. You are right, AI graphics generators are one more tool that helps us to create new works. I didn't know Night Cafe but I have used Stable Diffusion and I see that site is also using it to improve their works.

  • This is fabulous, and I'm heading to your pixabay right now to see if I can find something for a project I've been working on 🖤

  • Amazing 🤩 congratulations Mike my brother beautiful imagery so creative

  • Kat Thorne2 years ago

    Had no idea tools like this existed. Checked out your page, you've made some really cool things!

  • Very cool and congratulations on Top Story💕

  • Joe Young2 years ago

    First of all, great title for the piece - a clever play on words that acknowledges that the results were not 'all my own work', as you might say. Next, thanks for the interesting guide through what is an emerging tool. And finally, I did see a post elsewhere on a similar topic, and the writer demonstrated the versatility of AI image creators when he asked for three bears dancing in a kitchen. We'd struggle to find that on Pixabay.

  • Informative article. I use Night Cafe (for fun) also. I really like the image you used for this story.

  • Babs Iverson2 years ago

    The art you created using a tool and your story!!! Loving it! Congratulations on another TOP Story. Woohoo!!!

  • Cathy holmes2 years ago

    Good article. Congrats on the top story.

  • Great art!! And great to know about digital choices. Top Story - well done!

  • Hey I really enjoyed this piece! Keep up the awesome glorious work! Thank you.

  • Pam Reeder2 years ago

    I love your play on words, "My Cheating Art" --- so perfectly paired with a song, as you always do. Great points about AI art being a tool. I haven't really utilized this tool, but I have done others where I manipulated photographs or collaged elements to create something totally different than what I started with. If it brings you peace and joy, I say go for it! And your creations are quite smashing!

  • Brilliant!

  • Dawn Salois2 years ago

    Great article, Mike! You are my inspiration for creating my own images for my writing. I love using Nightcafe now!

  • I'm so happy that Pixabay featured two of your creations!

  • Also brilliant headline

  • Mike this is fascinating!! I need to learn more about AI but in meantime need to use your Art. Amazing stuff and it seems like magic.

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