Process of Elimination

I was messing around with art, and thought it would be fun to unpack my thought process as I worked towards what I wanted. 

My first prompt to MidJourney was "graceful dryad in green chiffon, fashion photography, green vines --ar 2:3" 

I wanted to see what I got for dryad, first, and I really like the way the AI renders light filmy dresses. Fashion photography is a good style modifier for near-photorealistic results. Since I wanted to emphasize the vegetation, I mentioned green vines. Finally, I used the aspect ratio of 2 to 3, to get a rectangular portrait size, which often results in a full-body image, rather than just a face or bust. 

This is the initial seed of four results from that. 

I also asked for the same prompt, but in a landscape aspect ratio of 3:2 (--ar 3:2) to look at the results for the different layout. 

All of these results are a bit more monochromatic than I'd like. Also, I decided that rather than portraying a dryad as stuck in the past, what if the trees outlive us all? What if I asked for a dryad of the future? 

"graceful dryad in green cybernetic armor, fashion photography, green vines --ar 3:2"

Hm. More of a fantasy video game armor vibe to those. Ok, let's tweak this more. 

I changed up my wording on the prompt, and got a lot more detailed on what I was thinking about. 

"graceful dryad in cybernetic armor, postapocalyptic forested world, crumbling modern ruins under vines, fashion photography --ar 3:2"

Interesting. Not really what I had in mind, although some of those images would be a story all in themselves. Let's re-roll that prompt and see what happens. 

Now I have a couple that fit what I was thinking, in one way or another. That inhuman dryad at top right is great. The bottom left I like for the flaking paint, actually. 

Still, I'd like more color. What about altering that armor a touch, and putting her in an urban environment? 

"graceful dryad in cyberpunk armor, postapocalyptic forested world, crumbling modern skyscraper ruins under vines, fashion photography --ar 3:2" 

Aha! There's the futuristic look I was going for. Still not a lot of color, though. 

"graceful dryad in cyberpunk armor, combat on a postapocalyptic forested world, brilliant flowers, crumbling modern skyscraper ruins under vines, fashion photography --ar 3:2"

Oh, that is better. Now, how about some action scenes? 

Interesting. That's getting away from the photography aspect as I push the prompt longer. 

"graceful dryad fighting in cyberpunk armor, combat on a postapocalyptic forested world, brilliant flowers, crumbling modern skyscraper ruins under vines, fashion photography --ar 3:2"

Also, not enough action, the pose is still more static than I was hoping for. Rerolling doesn't help here. 

This happens with re-rolls, I've noted. You start to get warped results (faces, especially). I Will back out and try another prompt, removing a bit, and adding other bits.  "graceful dryad fighting in cyberpunk armor using pulse rifle, combat on a postapocalyptic forested world, brilliant flowers,fashion photography --ar 3:2" 

Oh, Midjourney... still can't handle hands, eh? I will say the AI is getting better on them. I also think the fashion photography modifier may be the source of the stiff poses. I tried the above prompt, with the aspect ratio changed back to portrait, to see what happened. 

Let's see that without the fashion modifier. 

"graceful dryad fighting in cyberpunk armor using pulse rifle, combat on a postapocalyptic forested world, brilliant flowers, action photography --ar 2:3" 

And I have some results I really like, so I'll stop. This was just for my personal amusement, and to show my readers what they can do to massage results from the art AI if they choose to play with it. I may use these as character sketches for a story, to inspire a whole world built around this one snapshot... 

I love the glowing orange eyes, and the floating sparks or embers around the dryad in this one. 

And here, it's the red hair, the face paint with a hint of bioluminescence, and above all, the flowers tied on to the armor that make me happy. 

Finally, a re-roll of that last seed, and some heavy hand editing, and we have this dryad in her own sort of ghillie suit.