Draw Your Own Lines: Collaborative Doodle Pages, Issue 7

Collaborative Coloring Book Description  

I've been a fan of coloring books for a long time and sometimes host coloring parties (I've amassed quite a collection of coloring books). But sometimes, I want to doodle and draw, too, not just fill in the predetermined lines, and am unsure of myself on how to start. I created these collaborative coloring pages with the help of Midjourney AI because the prospect of experimenting with doodles over a palette of colors that you can trace and even imagine, as well as noodle with patterns, create scenes and landscapes, felt exciting and expansive to me!  

I’ve been noodling with Midjourney AI for a while now to see what it can do. I collaborate with the AI to teach me visual art things like how color works together, and even how to draw using various kinds of materials. These collaborative coloring pages give me a new way to practice lines I have learned from various doodle methods. Collaborating with the Midjourney AI to create new coloring pages in this way feels like a logical next step for me, and one that also feels good to share.   

These pages aren't particularly themed, and some of them are merely pretty splashes of color on a page. My goal with the bulk of these pages was to work with a composed and also flexible space that did not constrict me to a predetermined image or idea. I wanted to not only guess where the lines go in an already beautifully crafted and composed page. I wanted to stretch myself, and experiment with my databank of ever-growing visual knowledge, and give myself more confidence in drawing.   

So, this book, for me, is meant as a next step in a drawing practice that I aim to continue. Seeing how these watercolor splashes work on the page beg a next step of experimenting with watercolors on my own, for example, and I can do all of this at my own pace, emulating to the best of my ability some of my favorite parts of the Midjourney AI’s renderings of abstract watercolor imagage.   

I want to talk just a tad about collaborating with Midjourney AI. There are lots of amazing conversations happening right now about the ethics of AI Art, and I recommend that we all seek them out, and continue to be part of this conversation. Heather Crank of Crahmanti design studio is one of my favorite people speaking about AI Art ethics right now. Heather is an accomplished and award winning artist, photographer, designer, and so much more, and is collaborating with AI in ways that reflect her own art and aesthetic. She shows us how Midjourney AI (and others) can be used as a tool in our work, just as many other tools that are available, such as the Canva app I have used to organize and design this collaborative coloring pages compilation. 

To level the playing field, I'd also like to share the base terms I used which were: "smudged watercolor 2d painting abstract clear background fully decorated muted colors." Personally, I'd love to see all the ways that each of us can collaborate with this new tool. If you should ever want to share some of your experiments with me, please do not hesitate to find me on social media at @sireneatspoetry.   

Thank you for being here and thank you for wanting to purchase my Midjourney AI collaborative coloring book!    

There are seven issues in this series.