I learned about Artbreeder around 2020 when a bunch of my writer friends had loads of fun quickly generating portraits for their characters. As these things go with me, I only created an account around 2022. I’m always the last to jump on a trend if I jump on it at all. In that regard, I’ve always been an old lady. 😆

As AI art gains popularity, it has become quite the point of discussion. Even I recently blogged about it.

And I stand by what I said in that post. At the same time, I can’t deny the usefulness of popping onto a site like Artbreeder and generating a few quick images to help authors visualise their characters. I don’t see the harm if the artwork is just for personal use—it’s the same as creating a pinboard on Pinterest.

Side note: I also have a bunch of book-related pinboards on my Pinterest. If you’d like to check it out:

• A Study of Ash & Smoke Pinboard
• A Trial of Sparks & Kindling Pinboard
• Fall of the Mantle Outfit Inspiration Board

I’d like to share some of the AI character art I’ve been using as character references. Some of these aren’t exactly as I see them—Cara, for example, is too sultry—but they’re close enough to remind me of physical traits for descriptions.

None of these images belong to me, they are all Artbreeder AI-generated portraits.

I’ve had an idea to make quick reference cards with these, which I’ll share in another post.

Do you use AI-generated portraits for your characters? Let’s discuss it in the comments!

Until next time.

Yolandie