Odd Prompts: The Kitten

Dec 05, 2023

Rather than attempt to write fiction and disrupt the work in progress, I opted to go with a visual response. What I got is a perfect illustration of why AI will never replace the human artist completely.

I can immediately picture multiple ways to depict this: "The kitten knocked on the mousehole door."

The kitten knocked on the mousehole door, Style of Maria Louise Kirk

I attempted a number of times, with classic children's illustrators, to get the pose at least close, however, the AI fixated on the kitten and door, and ignored all the other aspects of the prompt.

The kitten knocked on the mousehole door, style of beatrix potter

The kitten knocked on the mousehole door, style of Kate Greenaway

The kitten knocked on the mousehole door, style of Eleanor Vere Boyle

Curiously, the first few prompts all yielded rather similar results, and the little kitten in blue wasn't a Beatrix Potter, where I expected it to be. And then, the Ai went entirely off the reservation!

The kitten knocked on the mousehole door, style of Jessie Wilcox Smith

At this point I decided to try and give it more of a hint in the direction I wanted. I think, dear Reader, that you can get a funny little picture in your head with this prompt!

The anthropomorphic kitten straightened his bowtie, affixed his monocle, and rapped at the mousehole door with the head of his cane, his white spats shining, absurdist illustration style of Edward Lear and L Frank Baum --ar 2:3

This was the first one I really liked, even though it didn't fit what I wanted. Still, worth keeping! The expression on that little ruffian!

The anthropomorphic kitten straightened his bowtie, affixed his monocle, and rapped at the mousehole door with the head of his cane, then stepped back, his white spats shining, absurdist illustration style of walter Crane and Edward Lear --s 500 --ar 2:3

Again, I was getting very similar results from the prompts, despite differing artists and styles. So, I added even more direction for the program to render out, in hopes that it would go in the direction I wanted.

The mousehole stood slightly ajar, the pink nose and quivering whiskers of the mouse within barely showing, The anthropomorphic kitten straightened his bowtie, affixed his monocle, and rapped at the mousehole door with the head of his cane, his white spats shining, absurdist illustration style of Beatrix Potter and Edward Lear --s 500 --ar 2:3

Adorable! But not, really, at all what I wanted. I appended the --niji modifier, and finally got something resembling my mental image.

And, still using --niji, I got one that would indeed work for the prompt response.

There were a number of other results that were delightful, but unsuitable for the prompt. Still, I'm sharing them as they were a lot of fun.

The anthropomorphic kitten straightened his bowtie, affixed his monocle, and rapped at the mousehole door with the head of his cane, and then stepped back, his white spats shining, absurdist illustration style of Maxfield Parrish and Edward Lear --s 750

My prompt this week came from Leigh Kimmel with "The kitten knocked on the mousehole door."

I prompted Leigh in return with "A flamenco harpist."

To see all of the prompt responses, and perhaps join in the challenge yourself, hop on over to More Odds Than Ends.

Odd Prompts: The Kitten

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