See your characters with AI in five steps

A picture of a character helps you describe them the same way every time. It is for your notes, not your cover, unless you check the licence. Tools: Artbreeder, Leonardo AI, Midjourney, Canva AI Character Generator, ChatGPT image generation.

1. Start from personality

Before you prompt, list what the look should say about them. A tidy person who hides grief might wear plain, pressed clothes in dark colours. Put their age, build and setting in the prompt too.

2. Try four or five looks

Make several quite different versions. Do not settle on the first. Ask yourself which one you would recognise across a room.

3. Refine one look

Pick the best and change one thing at a time: hair, scars, clothes. Use a reference feature so the face holds, such as Character Reference in Leonardo AI or Omni Reference in Midjourney. Keep the same short description in every prompt.

4. Add expressions and body language

Make the same face angry, tired, joking and afraid. Note how they stand and sit. These images help you write gesture, not just looks.

5. Build a visual character bible

Save the best images with the exact prompt and settings you used, next to the written facts from your character bible. Then you can make more images later that match.

Before this: Build a believable character with AI in six steps. All picture tools: Seeing your characters.