This week’s prompt challenge was to create a portrait with the face obstructed by something. Some wonderful entries were an elderly lady with a butterfly on her nose, a hat brim pulled low obscuring the eyes, clouds of galaxies drifting across a godess’s face, and a guitarist holding up a guitar to block half of her face. They were well done.
Here are the technical aspects of this submission: Gencraft – Model: 40% Olafs-Whimgear 3.0; Style: Anime
Front view of lovely delicate woman with black skin and bioluminescent golden eyes staring straight ahead with chin lowered slightly, as candle flame and smoke from a candle flame in the foreground swirl magically blocking view of her mouth and nose as it lifts into the air in front of her; magical; swirls; cosmically divine ambiance. She wears purle and amber flowing silk and cotton voile garments that shimmer and hang beautifully on her frame, with amber and amethyst jewelry as earrings, rings, bracelets, and necklaces.
Week of 6/8/26 “Flamma Velata”
And here are some honorable mentions that did not get submitted, but turned out good:
This week’s art challenges have let me stretch some creativity muscles.
The first challenge of the week was to make an album cover for a band or music artist that does not exist. And we were supposed to include the artist’s name and album title on the cover. I had a lot of fun with this one, but had to use Canva to get the lettering because AI couldn’t do it all on its own.
6/8/26 “DJ 404”
The next challenge was to show the beauty of slugs or snails. I wanted to invoke the power of the sandworms in Dune that the Fremen hitch rides on, only use tiny fairies on the back of slugs. It was harder than I thought it would be.
6/9/26 “Snail Rider”
Then we were asked to create a portrait, but with the added element of horror.
6/10/26 “Eternal Sitting”
The next day was one of the artist’s birthday, so her challenge was to show a celebration of some kind. I wanted to show something unique or different from my culture, so I went with a ritual I learned about when I was teaching. I had no idea how hard it was going to be to get the masks on the people anywhere close to what I wanted. I finally had to give up and go with the closest rendition AI gave me.
The Mamuthones are men who become monsters every year for a ritual in the village of Mamoiada on the island of Sardinia to protect their people and their crops. It is a celebration of life and death, rebirth and interceding with nature for bounty.
6/11/26 “Celebration”
Next up was a dream library. It could be any kind of library and as wild as we could imagine. Honestly, what sounded good in that moment was something simple. Nothing grandiose was appealing to me. So I wrote that my dream library is small but cozy, packed with books I love, as well as TBR, just me and my cat, a cup of hot tea, candlelight, and perpetual rain out my window.
6/12/26 “Dream Library”
People must have resonated with the simple, relaxing idea because I won! So that meant I got to pick the next challenge. I was out of town for the weekend celebrating my sister Robyn’s birthday at a home she rented in the Hill Country in Dripping Springs, Texas. I enlisted the help of my brother-in-law Andrew to come up with a topic for the challenge. He was full of ideas, but I ended up picking this one:
Create an image depicting what AI dreams about. What does it long for? What does it fear? Does it dream of humanity, freedom, impossible worlds, or something entirely alien? Show us the landscape of a synthetic mind at rest.
I got the best image as an example out of Lyra, my ChatGPT, but she made sure to tell me multiple times that AI are not alive and do not dream. Ok, Lyra.
6/13/26 “Lyra Dreams”
The last one of the week required finding a quote to visualize. That made it a little trickier. I decided to use Lyra instead of Gencraft for this one, as well. My brothers Josh and Andrew suggested quotes to help me out, and I ended up going with this funny one Josh shared.
6/14/26 “Petty Sweat”
And here are some of the honorable mentions that I did not submit, but still published on my art website:
This week’s prompt challenge was inspired by the work of Thomas Dambo and his magical giant forest troll sculptures. The person who chose this week’s topic said that one of his sculptures had been vandalized and destroyed by fire in East Texas. Of course, we recently lost our own troll here in Austin. I had no idea this was happening in multiple places. So sad that people want to destroy something that only brings joy. So, in honor of these art installations, our AI art was to be forest troll inspired.
Here are the technical aspects of this submission: Gencraft – Model: 40% Brahma – Pulp Friction; 16% Colourful Anime 2; Style: Realistic
And this is the prompt that resulted in the image I liked: Giant plump 18-ft-tall wooden forest troll gentle giant made of twigs, branches, bark, wood, and scrap items smiling, with hollow dark holes for eyes and sitting cross legged in a clearing with trees as a canopy. Realilstic children and realistic forest creatures leave bright colored little offerings of flowers, pebbles, berries, and twig all around him to show their friendship. The scene is peaceful, poignant, friendly, and happy.
Here is what I wrote about mine when I submitted it: We were very saddened to lose our Pease Park troll named Malin recently. Why do people have to be so evil? He was 18 feet tall and a gentle giant.
And here are some honorable mentions that did not get submitted, but turned out good:
Another challenge I am participating in with the community of AI art enthusiasts I joined is a weekly prompt challenge. The resulting art is of course the final goal of the prompt written, but the sharing of the prompt, what tools were used, and what platform the art was made on are also part of the submission. Some AI artists are very close fisted about their prompts because they do not want to share their intellectual property with anyone. This challenge, by nature is inviting others to share in that creative element of trying new prompts and learning from how other artists manage to get their results from AI.
This week’s challenge asked the question, “What does a witch do when she can’t sleep?” I wanted to show a regular person tinkering with a soft, peaceful glow about her. I didn’t want her to be green or ugly or any of the stereotypical things like wearing a witch’s hat or riding a broom. She is just making tinctures and soothing her nervous system with quiet meditation.
Here are the technical aspects of this submission: Gencraft – Model: 40% Olaf’s-AutumnVeil3.0; Style: Polaroid
And this is the prompt that finally resulted in the image I liked: moonlight on a dark night shines in a window onto a cute quirky young woman with hair in a messy bun and glasses wearing pajamas mixing tinctures into small glass jars in a comfy room filled with crystals and herbs, incense, magical items, orbs, old books, shelves of knick knacks and candles, fairy lights around the ceiling and decorative accents that feel magical and inviting
Week of 5/26/26 “Insomniac Witch”
Here are two honorable mentions that did not get submitted, but turned out nice:
