AI Image Generation: A Beginner's Guide to Creating Art With AI

AI image generation has transformed from a research curiosity into a practical creative tool used by millions of people. Whether you want to create concept art, design marketing materials, visualize ideas, or simply have fun, AI image generators can produce stunning visuals from nothing more than a text description. This guide introduces you to the major tools, teaches you basic prompt writing, and addresses the important ethical questions.

How AI Image Generation Works (The Short Version)

AI image generators are trained on billions of image-text pairs scraped from the internet. They learn the relationship between words and visual concepts. When you type a prompt like "a cozy cabin in the woods at sunset, watercolor style," the model uses its learned understanding to generate a new image that matches your description.

The technical process involves something called diffusion: the model starts with random noise and gradually refines it into a coherent image, guided by your text prompt. You do not need to understand the math to use these tools effectively, but knowing this helps explain why results can vary and why small prompt changes can produce dramatically different images.

The Major Tools

Midjourney: The Artist's Choice

Midjourney has earned a reputation for producing the most aesthetically pleasing images with minimal prompting. Its default style leans toward the artistic and dramatic, making it a favorite among concept artists, illustrators, and designers.

How to use it: Midjourney operates through Discord (a messaging platform) or its own web interface. You type prompts in a text channel, and images are generated within seconds to minutes. Plans start at around $10/month.

Strengths: Stunning default aesthetics, excellent at artistic styles, strong composition, great with landscapes and characters.

Best for: Concept art, illustrations, mood boards, creative exploration.

DALL-E: The Semantic Thinker

OpenAI's DALL-E (currently DALL-E 3, integrated into ChatGPT) excels at understanding complex prompts with multiple elements and spatial relationships. If you write "a red ball on top of a blue cube next to a green pyramid," DALL-E is more likely to get the arrangement right.

How to use it: Access through ChatGPT (Plus or free tier with limits), the OpenAI API, or Microsoft's Copilot. ChatGPT actually rewrites your prompts behind the scenes to improve results.

Strengths: Excellent prompt comprehension, good with text in images, strong at following precise instructions, seamless ChatGPT integration.

Best for: Precise visual concepts, marketing materials, images with specific compositional requirements.

Stable Diffusion: The Open-Source Powerhouse

Stable Diffusion is fully open-source, meaning you can run it on your own computer, modify it, and use it without any subscription fees. It has the largest ecosystem of community-created models, extensions, and fine-tunes.

How to use it: Install locally using tools like ComfyUI or Automatic1111's web UI, or use cloud-hosted versions like DreamStudio. Running locally requires a GPU with at least 8 GB VRAM.

Strengths: Free and open-source, massive community, extensive customization through LoRAs (small fine-tuned model add-ons), can be run offline, no content restrictions.

Best for: Users who want full control, specific styles via custom models, high-volume generation, privacy-sensitive use cases.

FLUX: The New Contender

FLUX (from Black Forest Labs, founded by former Stability AI researchers) has quickly become a serious competitor. It offers excellent quality with fast generation times and comes in both open-source and commercial variants.

How to use it: Available through various hosting platforms (Replicate, fal.ai) or run locally. The FLUX.1 Dev model is open-source for non-commercial use, while FLUX Pro is available via API.

Strengths: Excellent text rendering in images, fast generation, strong photorealism, competitive quality with less prompt engineering needed.

Best for: Photorealistic images, images containing text, commercial projects (via Pro tier).

Writing Better Prompts

The quality of your results depends heavily on how you write your prompts. Here are practical tips that work across all tools:

Be Specific About What You Want

Weak: "a dog" Better: "a golden retriever puppy sitting in a sunlit meadow, soft focus background, warm afternoon light"

The more detail you provide, the more control you have over the output. Describe the subject, setting, lighting, mood, and composition.

Specify the Style

Adding style keywords dramatically changes the output:

"digital painting" - polished, colorful illustration
"watercolor" - soft, flowing, painterly
"photograph" or "photorealistic" - realistic image
"pencil sketch" - hand-drawn feel
"Studio Ghibli style" - anime-inspired warmth
"cyberpunk" - neon-lit, futuristic aesthetic

Use Quality Modifiers

Terms like "highly detailed," "professional photography," "8K resolution," "award-winning," and "masterpiece" tend to push results toward higher quality. These work because the training data associates these terms with higher-quality images.

Describe Lighting and Atmosphere

Lighting makes or breaks an image. Try: "golden hour light," "dramatic chiaroscuro," "soft diffused lighting," "neon glow," "moonlit," or "overcast and moody."

Use Negative Prompts

Many tools support negative prompts - telling the model what you do not want. Common negative prompts include: "blurry, low quality, distorted hands, extra fingers, watermark, text." This is especially useful with Stable Diffusion and FLUX.

Iterate and Refine

Rarely will your first prompt produce exactly what you envision. Generate several variations, identify what you like and dislike, and refine your prompt. Most tools let you create variations of an image you like or upscale a favorite result.

Free vs. Paid Options

Completely free:

Stable Diffusion (run locally if you have a GPU)
FLUX.1 Dev (run locally or via some free-tier hosts)
Bing Image Creator (uses DALL-E, limited free generations)
ChatGPT free tier (limited DALL-E access)

Paid (subscription or credits):

Midjourney ($10-60/month depending on plan)
ChatGPT Plus ($20/month, includes DALL-E)
DreamStudio / Stability AI (credit-based)
Various API providers (pay per image)

If you are just exploring, start with free options. Bing Image Creator and ChatGPT's free tier give you a taste of what is possible without spending anything.

Ethics and Copyright: The Important Conversation

AI image generation raises real ethical questions that deserve thoughtful consideration:

Training Data Concerns

AI image models were trained on images scraped from the internet, often without the explicit consent of the artists who created them. Many artists feel their work was used without permission to build tools that can now replicate their styles. This is a legitimate concern, and multiple lawsuits are working through the courts.

Copyright of Generated Images

The legal status of AI-generated images varies by jurisdiction and is still evolving. In the United States, the Copyright Office has generally held that purely AI-generated images cannot be copyrighted, though images with sufficient human creative input may qualify. If you are using AI images commercially, consult a legal professional.

Responsible Use

Some important guidelines for ethical use:

Do not impersonate real people. Generating realistic images of real individuals without their consent is harmful and potentially illegal.
Be transparent. If you use AI-generated images professionally, disclose it. Audiences deserve to know.
Credit the tool. While not legally required in most places, acknowledging AI assistance is good practice.
Support human artists. AI is a tool, not a replacement for human creativity. Commission artists when you need original work with a human touch.

Getting Started Today

The fastest way to try AI image generation right now:

Open ChatGPT or Bing Image Creator.
Describe an image you would like to see. Be specific.
Review the results, then refine your prompt and try again.

From there, explore Midjourney if you want artistic quality, Stable Diffusion if you want full control, or FLUX if you want a modern all-rounder. The tools are accessible, the learning curve is gentle, and the creative possibilities are genuinely exciting.