E4 Pokemon fan art - AI edition

[Quuador]

Art made with AI isn’t very popular among artists nor the general public (as can also be seen in this existing thread: The Great AI Art Debate). This is mostly because of existing AI models that make it a very low effort to ‘create art’. In many cases it’s considered lazy/low-effort. Also, since AI uses existing arts to built its models, it could be abused for counterfeiting, as well as for entering art contests, as we’ve seen happening for the Pokémon Illustration contest of 2024: AI usage in Pokemon Illustration contest 2024.

After @xara posted some of their AI artworks in the existing E4 Pokemon fan art and crafts thread, being transparent of them being AI generated artworks, and explaining which methods they’ve used to create it, these ‘AI isn’t art’ discussions were fired again.
So, on request within that thread, I’ve created this new mega thread for artworks made by E4 members, using AI as tools, to keep it separated from the existing thread. The few comments of the existing thread have also been moved to this thread.

PS: I, and I think most people here, of course prefer to see physical or digital artworks like we’ve seen in the E4 Pokemon fan art and crafts thread over AI-art. Nonetheless, I agree with @xara that AI-art (with effort behind it) deserves this new, most likely much smaller, thread.
No matter our opinions, it’s a fact that AI is becoming more and more advanced and getting more and more used and abused.
Regardless, AI is a tool, not a ready-made solution, and we should thread it as such. Low-effort AI artworks (which is like 99% of them) are basically equivalent to basic MS paint artworks. Still, with effort, even MS paint artworks can become so much more (e.g. like this 92 y.o. grandma did).

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Please use this thread to post your artworks created with AI tools, preferably including an explanation how you’ve created them (which models, how you’ve combined them, what kind of prompts you’ve used, did you add any finishing touches afterward, etc.).

All ethical discussions about AI can be posted in the existing earlier linked thread (The Great AI Art Debate). Please keep this post on-topic of just posting artworks; as well as which AI-tools, instead of traditional physical paint brushes or digital Photoshop skills, you’ve used. Also, low effort AI images, that have just used a simple prompt in a single online AI model, aren’t permitted.

Greetz,
Quuador

[xara]

Besides Pokémon, one of my other hobbies is creating art. I made two custom cards of my favorite Pokémon — what do you think?

[Ragdajin]

How have you done them?

[xara]

I used a mix of local and proprietary AI models to generate the artwork — mainly Qwen Image, Qwen Image Edit, HiDream Dev, and Google Nano Banana.
Once I had the final art, I used card templates and manually added all the text.

[banks]

Thanks for being honest about the process, interesting to see how AI art is getting better at passing for human made art

[xara]

Thanks! Yeah, the hardest part is that most AIs don’t really know what Pokémon look like — they do okay with Pikachu or Charizard, but totally mess up Mew or lesser-known ones. The new image-understanding models are finally changing that though.

[AuraBea]

AI art isnt art, it shouldnt be in this thread

[cyberurchin]

uhhhh

[xara]

AI art is absolutely art.

It’s not “just pressing a button.” The artist builds and shapes the entire process, designing complex workflows, chaining models together, training or fine-tuning LoRAs, adjusting denoising, and experimenting with settings until the output matches their creative vision.

It often takes hours, weeks, or even months to refine a setup that produces a single consistent style or mood. The artist directs and curates every step - composition, lighting, color, and emotion - across multiple tools (e.g. using additional neural networks to impose conditions on the AI model).

The AI is just the medium, like a brush or camera. The creativity lies in the design, iteration, and intent behind it.

(Screenshot below: one of my custom workflows — shows how much human control is involved in creating a single piece. Took me about 5 months to set up and tweak. Image 1 is a close-up of the workflow; Image 2 shows the full setup.)

[AuraBea]

All the things its feeding off is stolen art lmao You are creating nothing, just stealing and claiming it as your own

[xara]

That’s a common misconception. AI doesn’t copy art, the neural network learns patterns like color, composition, texture, and form, just like any other artist does. The result is an original creation shaped by the user’s intent, not stolen content.

[niece]

There is a thread for this conversation
AI Art Debate

[decoypalmette]

If a member who’s just having fun tinkering with AI wants to share their images, I think that’s fine. I appreciate it being disclosed of course, which xara did. People can and will decide by themselves regarding the artistic value of such artworks.
I obviously prefer traditional media, but I don’t think being this hostile towards people can help the cause. It’s a different story if those images were used to deceive members or sell ai slop merch.

[bbobrob]

Link needs fixing!

[niece]

Fixed. Thanks @bbobrob

[beccazican]

I LOVE IT WHEN PEOPLE PRESS THEIR KEYBOARD AND THEN CLAIM THEY ARE AN ARTIST ITS THE REALEST SHT OUT THERE

[Dyl]

I would prefer that this thread highlights human-made (non-AI) art. In my opinion, it would be appropriate to create a separate thread dedicated to AI Pokemon art, so folks interested in that content can discuss and share.

[xara]

Yeah, and photographers “just press a button”, and music producers “just click play.” Some people skim a headline or two, call themselves AI experts, and assume it’s just pressing a few keys.

Sure, there’s plenty of low-effort AI spam out there, just like there’s bad photography, painting, music, or writing. But that doesn’t define the medium.

Real AI image work means building and controlling the complete process: adjusting composition, lighting, poses, and depth with tools like ControlNets and IPAdapters, managing schedulers and noise settings, and guiding specific regions or elements. Every part connects like Lego pieces. Prompts are just the creative direction steering it all, requiring ideas, taste, and vision.

Saying this “kills art” is like claiming digital cameras ended photography or that music producers don’t create music because they use computers instead of orchestras. Tools evolve. Artistry comes from the person creating, not the machine assisting.

And yeah, not everyone using AI is an artist, just like not everyone with a camera is a photographer. Most of what’s made will be forgettable, but the good stuff always stands out.

(Disclosure: I am not an artist, just someone who enjoys tinkering with this stuff )

[beccazican]

just say you generated a picture instead of creating art. you are an editor.

simple solution

[beccazican]

Also wanted to add that I agree with a lot of what you said, and my bad for being a bit of a buttmunch.

You’re right that technology allows people to produce things they may not be able to create via traditional methods, and it allows for creativity. I totally agree with you there.

However, I think your function is more as a director/designer, whereas your tools are creating the art - you just happen to tell your artist what you want to see. I think clarifying that would help.

I would love to see what you are able to enhance/elevate if someone gave you their original art to see what you could do with it and AI.