The feeling of being caught by the muse, caught and swept away is not uncommon to the creative process. The work does not feel like our own, it is being channeled through us and our faculties. 

Stephen King suggests that his muse is a chain smoker in a basement who must be whipped into shape, given structure and cartons of cigarettes to work.

I’d have to give deeper thought to how I might anthropomorphise my own muse. Perhaps a rabbit or a seasonal spring or a kite.

AI art is a hideous muse especially when applied to an illustrated narrative like a webtoon. It is possible to exert just enough control to guide the story and feel like you’re the agent, but not enough to actually have the final say. 

If you’re to have success with AI art you must leave your specificty at the door and allow your will to be bent to that of the computer. It is good at certain things, and those things are not immediately clear; you must allow them to be revealed to you through repetition and exploration. 

The image here is the beginning of a comic, it needs some words and some additional nonsense. I wanted a spaceship, I wanted a girl with short hair, I wanted an orange flight suit. I got those things, but not exactly as I had imagined them.

I had other ideas like having her float, or having the spaceship curve in a certain way, but those things are impossible, I’m afraid. 

What I ended up with is certainly interesting. It’s honestly pretty incredible, all things considered. But it’s not anything I would have set out to make specifically. 

In photography I find that kind of hands-off-ness to be compelling and beautiful, even. But in AI are it just feels like a sad sort of concession. 

Phone bad.