I have never been very good at drawing or painting. I continually try, but often fall short of making anything more than a simple design. As a computer programmer, I often wonder:
Can we make a computer draw (or paint) like a skilled human?
Digital Painting
There are many different mediums for drawing and painting. Unless we use robotics or some kind of printing mechanism, we are restricted to digital creations.
To simplify things, let us restrict ourselves to a special kind of digital creation called a digital painting. Digital paintings can be created on a digital canvas. A digital canvas is a 2D digital region where colors can be applied with defined patterns and drawing tools. Paint, Photoshop, GIMP, and most other computer drawing programs enable users to draw on digital canvases.
Digital painting has become popular in recent years with digital painting timelapses on Youtube. In these timelapses, artists show the entire drawing process from start to finish in a matter of seconds.
My Solution
For my side project, I made an AI-based computer program that creates digital paintings on a digital canvas.
Here we visualize the drawing process of a series of flowers by the AI from start to finish.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the AI’s drawings versus the original photographs.
Side-by-side comparison (source: Michael Wehar)
How does the AI work?
First, we feed the AI-based program an image to draw. Then, the program one at a time draws line segments onto the digital canvas. The line segments have varying thickness and color.
Selecting the line segments to draw can be thought of as a one player game. For each turn, the AI is trying to get closer to the solution by making an optimal selection.
What do you think?
This was my first attempt at AI Generated Digital Painting. I hope to continue to make improvements and am open to collaboration. Leave a comment below if you have any thoughts or feedback. Thank you!
Introduction
In this article we visualize AI Generated Digital Painting from Start to Finish.
Table of contents
My Question
I have never been very good at drawing or painting. I continually try, but often fall short of making anything more than a simple design. As a computer programmer, I often wonder:
Can we make a computer draw (or paint) like a skilled human?
Digital Painting
There are many different mediums for drawing and painting. Unless we use robotics or some kind of printing mechanism, we are restricted to digital creations.
To simplify things, let us restrict ourselves to a special kind of digital creation called a digital painting. Digital paintings can be created on a digital canvas. A digital canvas is a 2D digital region where colors can be applied with defined patterns and drawing tools. Paint, Photoshop, GIMP, and most other computer drawing programs enable users to draw on digital canvases.
Digital painting has become popular in recent years with digital painting timelapses on Youtube. In these timelapses, artists show the entire drawing process from start to finish in a matter of seconds.
My Solution
For my side project, I made an AI-based computer program that creates digital paintings on a digital canvas.
Here we visualize the drawing process of a series of flowers by the AI from start to finish.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the AI’s drawings versus the original photographs.
How does the AI work?
First, we feed the AI-based program an image to draw. Then, the program one at a time draws line segments onto the digital canvas. The line segments have varying thickness and color.
Selecting the line segments to draw can be thought of as a one player game. For each turn, the AI is trying to get closer to the solution by making an optimal selection.
What do you think?
This was my first attempt at AI Generated Digital Painting. I hope to continue to make improvements and am open to collaboration. Leave a comment below if you have any thoughts or feedback. Thank you!
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