Mom, Cover Model

I mentioned last week that I wanted ot use those old photos of my mom somehow on the cover for Bright Spark. It finally occurred to me how to do it.

My original plan had been to have a two-person photo on the cover, because the main characters are Grace and her cousin, Teddy. I couldn't find a family photo that worked. I couldn't find a stock photo that worked and looked vintage enough. And vintage stock photos? Forget it.

Not sure what your feelings are on AI. I'm in the middle of the road. I've used it to make my life easier - it's a good jumping off point for research and it helps me with advertising copy and book blurbs - but I'd never use it to help me write, because even when it's hard, writing is the FUN PART. When it stops being fun, I'll stop writing. I don't want it to feel like a job.

So I asked Google Gemini to make a photo for me. Black-and-white, early 1950s clothing. Young man and woman, fully described, sitting back to back, with the feel of old movies like His Girl Friday. Snarky workplace comedy, lots of banter, etc. It did a pretty good job, but the faces were a bit generic.

That's where Mom comes in. After I posted her photos last week, I decided to ask Gemini to overlay her face on the existing girl. Keep the girl's hair, because Mom was just a little too fluffy. Having a vivid expression on "Grace" makes the more generic face of "Teddy" work just fine. He's not as vivacious as she is, and he does look a bit like a catalog model.

So that's the photo that will be used as the main cover element. Part AI creation, part famiy photo, all my ideas behind it. I don't have as much issue with creating photographs with AI as I would art - art is going to be based on all the existing art it has digested, same as writing. There would be elements of someone else in it. But a photo doesn't feel quite the same. Or maybe that's me justifying, but either way, I'm happy with the result.

What are your thoughts? Is this a reasonable use of AI? Are you completely anti? Cautiously pro? I'd like to know. It's not a conversation that can be easily had in author spaces.