According to my favourite AI illustrator, this is me. More accurately, this is my favourite response to prompting Midjourney 6.1 with “cartoon of back of a male illustrator with long black and silver hair surrounded by computer screens filled with photos and graphics, creative tools and a microphone in a home office”, which stood a reasonable chance of being me after a lot of tweaking.

Does AI produce slop? Yes.

Is most AI output slop? Yes, I think so.

Does that mean that all AI puts out is slop? No. That’s a crucial difference.

But what makes the difference between AI slop and AI-generated stuff that’s really useful and good? Right now, we do.

I’ve got a LOT to share about the best approaches I’ve found to make good, non-sloppy images with huge help from AI. I realise there is also a lot to discuss about where it all comes from, how it’s made, and whether finding out more about this is more likely to endear you to it than a tour of the sausage factory will make you love sausages.

Right now, I’ll just invite you, if you’re interested, to see how many images I tend to make to come up with one I think is worth sharing. It’s usually between dozens and hundreds, which is why I’m grateful to have some time to come up with nice things with Midjourney, and for Midjourney offering plans that make this affordable rather than (like some emerging services) assuming that you’ll get exactly what you need with the first well-crafted prompt, and if you don’t, that’s somehow your fault.

It’s all on my Midjourney profile, which should live here.*

*UPDATE, April 2026 – well, this is annoying, and a good reminder for me to check for possible changes to third-party links over time. Which I did, which is why I’m writing this.

Midjourney’s standard user profile used to include everything someone made, and now it includes nothing unless I’ve “spotlighted” it, which I haven’t done yet. To be honest, all I wanted was a quick way to let you see behind the scenes, but what you would see there is overwhelmingly huge and maybe not all that useful to you. The more useful thing would be for me to collect works in progress together to show journeys from initial ideas to finished artwork, which would be great, but it’s extra work. I’ll definitely do some of that! I need a bit of time to work out the most efficient ways. (Maybe there’s a function that can group Midjourney pics on a profile and make that easy? They might change that too, though. GRRRR.)

Anyway, sorry if this is causing you a fraction of the frustration it’s causing me. Thought I should explain. Will fix ASAP.