TikTok is a treasure trove of ChatGPT trends. One of the latest viral sensations is creating a coloring book of your child with their favorite TV show. Who said artificial intelligence can’t help get kids off screens and into art?
This is a cool exercise for parents, teachers and relatives. You can use ChatGPT to create a personalized book, custom cartoons and cards. (You can even see what your future baby might look like and redesign rooms with AI.)
Making personalized coloring pages for your little one is a great summer activity. This is a fun AI art project for parents, too.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
Turn your photos into coloring pages
Before you open ChatGPT, collect some photos you want to use and list some of your child’s favorite things. You could use characters from TV, movies, books, pets, siblings, grandparents, friends, etc.
The goal is to make it as personal as possible. You could even turn it into a series, where they have a new drawing every day during the summer. If you want to make each drawing educational, you can.
For the sake of this example, I’ll use my nephews because I’m still trying to get pregnant (which AI can help you plan, too).
Pick three to five images to start, then log into ChatGPT. My nephews love Bluey, dinosaurs, trucks, Mr. Beast and their golden retriever dog. To test ChatGPT’s capabilities, I started by uploading a photo and asking it to turn it into a coloring page.
Prompt: «Create a simple coloring page from this photo that I can print out as A4. I would like it to be black and white.»
Be patient, as it takes a few minutes to generate an image.
It had a hard time following directions.
I tried to direct it further by asking ChatGPT to make it simpler, with clear black lines, and suitable for a 5-year-old. It was better, but still not there:
Time to try a different photo of them and a new prompt: «Create a simple coloring page from this photo that I can print out. I would like it to be black and white. Disney or Pixar themed. Simple, for a 5-year-old to color.»
It kept creating a fine-art drawing. There’s no way a kid will go near this:
Good luck having a child fill that in. So, I gave it an example image of a coloring page and asked it to emulate it, but with my photo:
It was better, but still not simple enough:
I had to keep prodding and prompting because this is how ChatGPT interpreted «simple»:
I was getting frustrated at this point, so I opened a new chat window and redid the prompt, attaching a photo of my nephews and an image of dinosaur coloring page I wanted it to emulate.
Prompt: «Turn this photo into a cartoon coloring page like this example.»
And we got there.
So, I tried again with the first image, and it generated this:
Now that we had the design right, I asked it to add Bluey into the photo. And for my oldest nephew, I got ChatGPT to separate him out from the photo and make a coloring page with a cartoon-style drawing of YouTube star Mr. Beast. I did the same with my youngest nephew, who watches Peppa Pig, and it nailed it. (Under Fair Use, it’s generally OK to make coloring pages of your kids’ favorite TV show characters for personal use.)
With a little bit of patience, you can surprise your kids with a series of fun coloring pages to keep busy during the summer. As always, be wary of the images you’re uploading into AI, especially when it comes to family photos. And think about whether you want the AI chatbot to have access to photos of minors.
The trick is to upload a photo and simultaneously the type of coloring page you want ChatGPT to emulate. Then print the ones you like and fill your summer with engaging art sessions instead of screens. This is the vacation hack of the year.
Get those coloring pencils ready.