Sometimes a memory is so impactful that I feel compelled to paint the scene from imagination. Silent Vigil: How AI Helped Me Shape a Memory into a Painting began this way.
As a painter, I usually rely on my own photo reference material. Most of my wildlife paintings begin with field photographs, plein air sketches, and studies of moments I’ve witnessed in nature with my own eyes.
I had a concept in mind: an ethereal scene of bull elk after the rut. I envisioned a high horizon and a grouping of males. This idea was inspired by an encounter I still recall, stumbling upon them while hiking. It was that electric moment when everything went still. The elk all froze in watchfulness. I held my breath, wondering which of us would flinch first. But, without my usual photo references, I needed a way to bring that vision to life.
That’s where AI entered the process. I used it sparingly, as a scaffolding tool. I prefer this word over “template,” because scaffolding is temporary; it supports the final structure but never replaces it.
How AI Helped Me
I fed it prompts, and it generated ideas for me. I then pulled individual elements from AI-generated images: elk groupings, mist, and distant trees.
AI is just another tool in my toolbox. I use it thoughtfully like a camera, Photoshop or Procreate, but the art itself can never come from a machine. It’s the artist who brings memory, soul, and paint to the canvas. ~Lori McNee
Honestly, the AI images were rather naïve and poorly rendered. But it was never my intention to copy them directly. Instead, I let them spark the mood and aid with the design. I worked back and forth with the prompts until the atmosphere I carried in memory began to take form on canvas.
Guiding Questions
To refine the vision, I asked myself some key questions:
- Time of day or lighting? Morning haze felt right—overcast, with a soft warmth.
- Overall color mood? Silvery blues and lavenders balanced with subtle earth tones, more tonalism than high drama.
- Surrounding landscape? Snow underfoot, a forested backdrop, distant ridges, and a faint sky.
- How many bulls? Five or Six? Four felt powerful: regal, steady, and watchful, but not overcrowded.
The underdrawing for Silent Vigil
AI didn’t answer these questions. It simply mirrored my ideas back to me, allowing me to test combinations before committing to brush and paint. From there, my own hand, intuition, and years of artistic discipline carried the painting forward.
I also drew inspiration from artists like Chauncey Ryder, whose unique trees, tonalism, and atmospheric simplicity resonate with me. Also Morton Solberg, whose wildlife paintings dissolve into misty, spiritual environments, along with hints of Roy M. Mason, and lastly, George Inness, whose ability to merge realism with mood has long influenced my own work.
A Tool, Not A Replacement
Just as I was an early adopter of social media and blogging, becoming one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women on Twitter as a trailblazer in the digital art space, I see AI in a similar light. It is not a replacement for the artist. Instead, it is another cutting-edge tool to explore, test, and integrate with discernment.
I will continue to use AI sparingly. It will never replace me as an artist, nor can it experience what I felt in that moment on the trail. Like the camera, Photoshop, Procreate, or plein air sketches, it is simply another tool in my repertoire.
The AI-generated images I used were not strong artworks on their own, and they weren’t meant to be. They acted like a rough sketching partner, helping me test mood and layout quickly. From there, I relied on my own eye, my experience painting wildlife, and my memory of bull elk after the rut to bring the vision to life.
In the end, AI was just another tool in the toolbox. Used with discernment, it can spark ideas, but only the artist’s hand and soul can transform them into something uniquely human.
The Result
The result is Silent Vigil, a painting that holds both the tension and serenity of that encounter: elk standing in a brief stillness after surviving hunting season and the chaos of the rut.
Silent Vigil is now available through Illume Gallery.
PS. You might enjoy a close-up look at “Silent Vigil” in this IG reel
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