Okay I might be the only guy who would apply for a Neuralink to be bale to turn on my VHS player with it and watch Back to the Future. What I am saying is that I am a huge tech and AI geek while also love the vibe and style of the 80s. I think the 80s looks like the future and the past both at the same time, flashy neon colours, futuristic synth music, like “the Final Countdown” DeLoreans parked at every corner. I think what I want to tell you is that:
To be honest I’ve never lived a day in the 80s I was born right on the edge of Y2K but still I love the style and the culture. But how does my 80s “nerdness” come together with AI art?
Can AI Copy my Style?
Well Let’s start in the beginning, I came from a graphic design background and been illustrating 80s posters for a couple years as a hobby. Here are some examples:
(I know they are kickass right?) But lately I’ve stopped because I didn’t find the time for it. But,
I had an idea, I wanted to test wether AI was able to copy my style and create an image that I would gladly call mine that fits all this dark, quite, adventuress, 80s Nostalgia.
So that is exactly what I did. I uploaded some of my old drawings to two huge AI platforms, DALL·E and Midjourney giving them nothing but these pieces as a reference for what I wanted. The process was straightforward but felt almost like magic.
DALL·E
First, I watched as DALL·E analyzed my images, breaking down the distinctive elements that defined my style: the color palette dominated by shades of purple and blue, the contrast between light and dark, the detailed urban environments, and, of course, the absence of people which amplifies the feeling of being alone in an adventurous night. This is what he gave me as a description.
This blew my mind, I could not have expressed my vibe better for real, you could have pressed a gun to my head and asked me to try to be this detailed and I would not been able to.
So after I asked him to make me an image of Time square: This is what I got:
So you can see right away that DALL·E kinda missed the mark on nailing my style down pat, but damn, it caught the vibe just right. It's like the AI got a whiff of my 80s love affair, missing some beats but still jamming to the main tune. The “soul” behind the images was unmistakably there. DALL·E managed to get the vibe, proving it's not just about perfect style mimicry but capturing the feels that count.
"With AI we are Creative Directors"
I have a quote for you that I hope will change your minds about AI. Whether it is text, image, video, music or literally anything else.
“With AI we are not copywriters, designers, illustrators, anymore we are CREATIVE DIRECTORS.” (Maybe without the fancy office and the overpriced coffee)
It's like, you're no longer just sweating over the details alone; you've got this AI sidekick ready to spit out visual gold based on your wild ideas. You throw a concept its way, and bam, it hits you back with something you can tweak, transform, or plaster all over your project. It's not about the AI doing you a solid by making art easy; it's about steering the ship, guiding the AI to manifest your vision.
Sure, it might not nail it 100% every time, but that's the gig of a creative director, right? Taking what's there and polishing it until it shines like a diamond. We're in the driver's seat, shaping the future of storytelling and visuals, with AI as our co-pilot, ready to take on the world.
Midjourney
Before I came to my cheesy conclusion I have to show you how Midjourney tackled the same task. I uploaded this image:
I made and asked him to make me another boxing gym in the same style (something where Rock would train in). Here are the results (without any fine tuning just a one shot prompt)
They are 99% fit. I almost got tricked into thinking that I made that. So Midjourney seemed to have an edge in mirroring my style. It captured the contrast between the vibrant neon signs and the enveloping darkness with an eerie accuracy.
A soul crushing feeling
And of course just like everyone who was putting a lot of hours turning something that only existed in their minds into a tangible concept, I can't shake off the feeling that the art game has changed— forever. What used to take hours of painstaking work can now be conjured up in minutes. And yeah, that's both exhilarating and a tad soul-crushing.
And I feel a bit crushed too that now creating something that I worked hard for has no value because you can make something just like that within seconds. But then I asked myself “Why is that really an issue?”
I never wanted to learn how to draw I “picked up the pencil” not for the love of drawing but for the burning desire to tell my stories. Even when I was a kid I always loved stories and if you strip down my whole life’s journey it all started with that desire to be able to tell them.
Learning how to draw, animate, make videos were all just necessary skills (obstacles) I needed to be able to do that. And now with almost 10 years behind me as a comic book artist / designer I have to say, AI art is the best thing that could’ve happened to us.
Art has always been about evolution, about pushing boundaries and embracing new tools. AI is just the latest brush in our kit. It's not about replacing human creativity; it's about augmenting it. Think of yourself as a creative director for a silicon-based artist.
You're not just throwing ideas into the void; you're collaborating with a non-human partner to bring your vision to life. And sure, the result might not be a carbon copy of what's in your head, but that's not a flaw—it's a feature.
Why Artsy b*tches should take a chill pill?
In this brave new world of AI art, where DALL·E and Midjourney are just the tip of the iceberg, we stand on the precipice of infinite creative possibilities. To those artsy b*tches who whine about AI art not being "real" art, I say go f*ck yourselves. You either embrace the future or get left behind.
The funniest thing is that the loudest voices against AI art now, were the loudest voices for pro digital art when these tumbler girls were spending their daddy’s money on Wacom tablets doodling fantasy elves and sh*t and whining about their “art” not being appreciated. Funny how new tech was revolutionary when it helped them and now it is evil when it helps others.
Also these girls running around with Starry night printed phone cases fail to see the irony that Van Gogh was mocked and hated by his peers for his “lazy” art.
Art has always been about evolution, about finding new ways to express our stories and emotions. And if AI can help us tell those stories in ways we never thought possible, then I'm all for it. We're entering an era of true creativity and storytelling, where we are not limited by anything not even our own skills or imagination.
The essence of art hasn't changed. It's still about storytelling, about conveying emotions and ideas. The tools might evolve, but the heart of what we do remains the same. AI hasn't killed art; it's given it a new lease on life.
And I know that some kid now in his sh*tty ghetto apartment is looking with awe and glittering eyes to the first AI art he just made and is already thinking about how he will conquer Hollywood with his tale. To all my fellow creators out there, throw away your pretentiousness and fear and try to find that kid inside you, and jump into this new era of creativity with the same awe and excitement.
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