Le Moon
Whatās your background and how did you get into AI art?
Iām Melody Ā«LeMoonĀ» Bossan, an AI artist with a creative background in video production and marketing based in Nice, France and a mom of 3 year old EsmĆ©e-Rose. My post-photographic work expresses my memories, fears and dreams in a nostalgic and disturbing style that I would call absurd realism with a touch of colorful surrealism.
When I first heard of these text-to-image tools back in August 2022, I immediately felt a strong attraction to them. I tried Dall-e and Midjourney and ran out of free credits very fast. I preferred Midjourney aesthetics and subscribed in September. It felt a bit like magic to be able to create images from language, as if someone provided me with a magic wand. It was bridging a gap between imagination and reality. I was finally able to materialize all the crazy stuff I had in my head. And even more, I think beyond that, it unlocks the full potential of peopleās creativity.
This technology opens up exciting possibilities for artists, designers, content creators, but also for people who couldnāt imagine a creative path before, who just had ideas and couldnāt materialize them. We are living in exciting times for creation.
āMASK ON 001ā by LeMoon
Do you have a specific project youāre currently working on? What is it?
I have many :-) But right now, the biggest project Iām into is the Strange History space on SuperRare, launching on August 11th. I was selected through the Open Call quite early on by @historic_crypto and had time to work on really complex designs, each including at least 10 different images edited together. The concept is really fun; we had to invent an event in the past that created an alternate reality. So, I created the Sybils who were telekinetic women in Kazakhstan and changed the outcome of WWII, leading to a Global Soviet Empire. I chose to illustrate āSybilās Dayā in 1995 in 3 tableaux. The first one is Times Square, then McShashlik, a new kind of McDonaldās, and finally, SovietLand, the new Disneyland. I wanted those to be festive and slightly feminist, celebrating the women who made the alternate reality possible. I really wanted the event to be situated during WWII because my family has a history deeply anchored with this war, and Iāve always been interested in everything WWII. And the Soviet aspect is really an aesthetic I love. I traveled through the old USSR block back in 2018, visiting Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. I fell in love with the brutalism and vintage imagery of a socialist utopia. Hope youāll love these 3 pieces, and the whole drop is both beautifully and interestingly crazy involving amazing artists!
What drives you to create?
My art aims to go beyond the everyday, capturing all those little details that make life special. I dig into topics like who we really are, how society sees us, and the twists and turns of being human. I want folks to feel something, see things from a fresh angle, and start talking. Itās all about being real and mixing whatās real with whatās in my head, and thatās what keeps me going, shaping my art to tell a story thatās truly mine in this visual world.
āThe Burn-out 001ā by LeMoon
What does your workflow look like?
Most of the time, I know exactly what I want to create, so itās my 40k+ images generated experience that helps me craft the perfect prompt to achieve what I want. But I also use MJ as a creative assistant, prompting random stuff, and utilizing the --chaos and /describe features to let it suggest ideas or new ways to phrase prompts. As English is not my primary language, itās difficult sometimes for me to find the correct words or phrasing. Using MJ as a tool to explore various possibilities and generate prompts has been a game-changer for me, bridging the language gap and unlocking the full potential of my creativity. Lately, Iāve been using the /blend feature a lot, using my own photos. It adds a sense of uniqueness to the results.
My rule is to test a prompt 5 times. If it doesnāt give good results, I have to change it or find another way. Sometimes I get a good image right away, sometimes itās 300 attempts. I rarely edit the final picture. For some reason, I like getting what I want straight from the AI. I just finished a project for a famous brand where I generated over 3000 images to select only 5, and it also involved a lot of post-editing. Hopefully, Iām now a Pro user, and I can generate images faster.
Iām also using Photoshop Beta a lot, which has integrated awesome AI tools like Generative Fill, which allows you to edit parts of an image with a prompt, a true game-changer. Adobe Lightroom and Snapseed are also part of my toolbox for fine-tuning images. Finally, I have the Topaz suite (Gigapixel and AI Photo) for AI upscaling that allows me to enlarge AI pictures for printing. When the result is not satisfying enough, Iām using Stable Diffusion and ControlNet, which gives amazing results.
Iām also experimenting with AI video right now, but it is still very early.
Preview of āDonāt Sit Too Closeā by LeMoon
What is your favourite prompt when creating art?
Thereās a movement on Instagram called #sharethisprompt initiated by the talented @pancakepie360. This movement encourages AI artists to share a specific prompt and invites people to adapt and make it their own. Iāve participated twice, and one of my contributions has been outstandingālike an infinite pocket of madness that just keeps on giving. I wanted to share it with you.
/imagine prompt: random people falling from random animals doing ridiculous things in odd places in Versaceās Miami Mansion, burn out, hyperrealistic photography, 1980s Americana, 1970s fashion --v 5.1 āar 4:5 --c 100 --s 1000 --style raw
You can swap the Versaceās Mansion for anything really, but keep the chaos to 100 to get the real gems.
āThe Portofino Castle #2ā by LeMoon
How do you imagine AI (art) will be impacting society in the near future?
Weāre standing on the edge of an artistic revolution, and guess what? Itās already happening. Think of it as this whole new art frontier, where our human creativity collides head-on with AIās ingenuity. Iām thrilled that weāre right here, right now, witnessing the birth of something monumental. Weāre in for an explosion of creativity thatās gonna reshape how we see and feel art. This is just the beginning, and I canāt wait to see where this wild journey takes us!
āVoodoo possessionā by LeMoon
Who is your favourite artist?
There are so many talented people! I come from Instagram, and this platform is full of talent that Twitter might not even know exists, and vice versa. Iām going to list a few from each platform so everyone can discover new talents.
Instagram: - @ai.s.a.m - @gom.tollum - @pancakepie360 - @mind_wank - @haunted_pastels - @bengttibert - @scorpionsorbet - @timmolloyart - @ethereal_gwirl - @dream.in.ether - @mrmonstersauce - @artomaton - @katiemorris.art - @dissociative_dreams - @psymulate - @douggy_pledger - @daily_frightshare_new_account
Twitter: - @Historic_Crypto - @MutagenSamurai - @dancevatar - @tossi_eth - @NathanBoey - @g0naji
Others: - @weirdoldfood - @thomaslelu - @lordess.foudre
āAeternum Valeā by @Historic_Crypto
Anything else you would like to share?
I decided in January that I wanted to be 100% AI professionally, so I started working on contrats with brands and Music bands mainly. One month ago, I decided to dabble into the NFT world and also answered a few Artistic Open Calls. I never expected such a warm welcome into the Art world. Iām now exhibited in galleries in Valencia, Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, Miami, NYC and Toronto and Iāve also been introduced on SuperRare and Foundation in curated NFT Worlds. I love every part of this right now and I really want this to continue.