Making pictures with AI

Describe, then refine

In the same chat you've been using, just ask: "Draw a watercolor of a small garden at sunrise, with tomatoes and a cat sitting on the fence." A good description names four things: the subject, the style (watercolor, photo, cartoon, oil painting), the mood or colors, and the setting.

Then refine like always: "Make the cat orange." "Softer colors." "Same picture, but at sunset." Each follow-up redraws it. (Some free plans limit how many pictures you can make per day — enough for learning and fun.)

Lovely uses for it

• Birthday and holiday cards with a personal picture no shop sells.
• Posters and flyers for a church, club, or community event.
• Illustrations for a family story or a grandchildren's tale.
• Testing an idea visually: "Show me this room with light blue walls."
• Pure fun — your dog as a Renaissance painting is a classic for a reason.

Know its tells, keep it honest

• Details can be off. Hands, small text, and logos often come out garbled. Keep important words out of the picture and add text yourself later.
• An AI picture is an illustration, not a photograph of something that happened. Never use one to pretend an event occurred, or to fake a document, a product, or a person. If you share one publicly, saying "made with AI" is the honest norm.
• Real people: AI can't truly recreate a specific real person's face from words alone — and pictures claiming to show real people doing things they didn't do are a scam tool (next lesson).