I was excited this week to discover and play around with the Leonardo.Ai app for generating Ai art. (There also is an online version for Leonardo.Ai which I have not tried.) I really liked what I could do with this app and thought the results in many ways were even better than Adobe Firefly.

Leonardo.Ai - Image Generator: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/leonardo-ai-image-generator/id1662773014 

This app (as of 9/16/23) is a free download and is listed for ages 17 and up. It requires having a login account and does have in app purchases. The app uses a credit system to generate images. Currently, you receive 150 free credits per day (which do not roll over to the next day). Most images require 20 credits and will make 4 versions of your prompt. So you have to be strategic and thoughtful when using the free version. Free images are 768 pixels max and can be used commercially. Some of the more advanced styles do require a paid subscription. 

(UPDATE (9/30/23) - When I first used this app, they had a free preview of a paid feature called "Alchemy" which which enhances and adds coherence to the designs. Now that the preview of Alchemy is turned off, I find the designs in the free version are more distorted and lack some of the beautiful design features.)

Leonardo.Ai contains a large selection of “Models” which have preset style parameters that you can use to start your work. The models are mostly character and objects that can be used for fantasy-style artwork generation. I especially liked the models for Cute Characters and Cute Animal Characters because I have been exploring character generation using AI. But you can choose any style to generate anything you want, not just a person or fantasy object. 

I started by generating by generating a “tabby cat in a purple sweater” which is prompt I usually use when testing out a new Ai Art tool. The first results were very “clean” and detailed without distortions.

Next I made a bear dressed as a princess on a gray background. Again the results were really cute and clean and had an appealing style with lots of details. (I am testing out ways to make characters because I am working on some lesson ideas that would use Ai generated characters and backgrounds for digital storytelling in Keynote, Pages, and other iPad apps. I hope to be sharing these ideas soon!) 

I also tested out a castle tower on a gray background, some borders, and some groovy 60’s styled cat posters. Again, I loved the results, and thought there were less distortions then I have found in Adobe Firefly. 

Leonardo.Ai contains many of project examples that were generated by users. (Note: there are a lot of “curvy” women examples, but there also is gorgeous scenery and imaginative objects.) You can select any of these user artworks and copy that style to use for your own creation. I found a “coloring book style” which I used to design my own coloring pages. I thought these were amazing.

I’m looking forward to playing around some more with Leonardo Ai. I think the results are really great and similar to what others are getting with Midjourney, yet it is a lot easier to do! I like this enough that I might even purchase a subscription.

Call to Action: If you have tried this app or have discovered another one that you like to make AI Art please let me know in the comments!

One Best Thing:

This post is a part of my One Best Thing Project "AI Art for Inspiration, Creativity, and Learning." I am collecting my AI Art project ideas and resources at this website:

https://sites.google.com/view/creativeapptitude/ai-art