Cinematic digital painting of Drake Ridgeback and Eirwyn Starweaver standing at a glowing rune-framed portal that splits two worlds. On one side, a riot-filled modern city burns under drone surveillance and flashing lights; on the other, the misty Whispering Woods stretch into ancient mountains. Drake stands alert in dark modern clothing with one hand raised defensively, while Eirwyn, barefoot in a flowing blue cloak, conjures swirling blue magic in her palm. The scene captures the tense collision between modern chaos and enchanted tyranny in The Witch of Thornvale.
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ChatGPT hit a homerun with character art in my portal fantasy series

ByTC Marti

I have a love/hate relationship with ChatGPT. It’s a great tool, but at times, it reminds me how new this AI tech is. That said, it recently hit a homerun.

Once upon a time, before I published my first book, I said to myself, “Damn, if only I could type a description into a computer of what my characters would look like and have it spit out an image, that’d be great.”

Little did I know, five years later, that would become a reality. Say what you will about AI and hate on it all you want, and you know I do at times, but it’s a game-changer for indies everywhere.

And you know what? You can’t call that a bad thing. Will AI tools take jobs? Sure. But every revolution before AI did the same, and it made our lives better.

Don’t believe me? Ask your parents what your grandparents and great-grandparents did for a living. Both of my grandfathers worked their asses off in steel mills. My paternal great-grandfathers got to play with dynamite at their jobs, which were both coal-based.

What would they have given to make money from a freaking screen? Something they only watched TV on back in the day. That’s when they had access to a TV.

While my use of AI art to show scenes from my work or for promotions might turn some readers off, I don’t care. Especially when it can give me a little promo scene within seconds, and one that’s pretty accurate to the source material.

What did ChatGPT spit out that has me talking?

The featured image for this article is beautiful, as it looks like a complete teaser for The Witch of Thornvale, my serialized portal fantasy. Drake isn’t in the exact attire, but the scene behind him is accurate to a T.

As for Eirwyn Starweaver? Perfect. The right body build, right skin tone, right hair color, and she’s conjuring blue energy from her palm. Then, of course, there’s the mirror that Drake falls through to enter Eirwyn’s world.

But that wasn’t the only one Chatty cooked up. Take a look at what it gave me for my Act I collection below:

Cinematic digital painting of Drake Ridgeback and Eirwyn Starweaver in the misty Whispering Woods. Drake stands alert with one hand raised defensively while Eirwyn conjures pale blue magic in her palm. Towering forest trees and faint glowing runes create a tense, mythic portal fantasy atmosphere.

It looks just like the Whispering Woods in the background, while Eirwyn’s again conjuring her trademark blue energy, this time clenching a fist and looking fierce, but confident.

Meanwhile, Drake looks worn-out. Completely out of place in this strange world, and that’s a good thing. Best yet, the image is consistent with previous promos, giving both characters looks that will resonate with readers, like Drake’s light-olive skin (intended to rep my Scandinavian-Italian background) and athletic clothes, and Eirwyn’s blue cloak.

For all you naysayers out there, AI art is only going to keep getting better. And no, that’s not a loss for even graphic artists, as many have found AI useful to help create more accurate depictions of characters and scenes for book covers. So, it’s helping indies of all stripes in the literature world.

I will keep using The Witch of Thornvale as a test outlet

The Witch of Thornvale is my first real foray into using ChatGPT to not only generate art, but to write an entire novel. While it’s awful at creating booklore, I’ve found that it’s not half-bad at creating first drafts if you’re fine with putting on your editor’s cap and giving it reminders to avoid AI drift.

It’s how I created Chapters 1-6 of The Witch of Thornvale, but by getting rid of AI crutches, correcting errors, and such, it’s been a clean read and a good experience so far. Now, it’s time to see if that trend continues in Acts II and III. And you know I’ll be providing updates.

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