Forget AI art, this has heart.
On Mother’s Day, I was spoiled with love, gifts and even a mini getaway with my husband, our kids and my mom. It was wonderful.
Perhaps the most meaningful gift I got was a hand-designed card with a note inside from my teen daughter.
If you’ve ever been given a gift from your child at any age, you know how special it feels. They put in great effort into creating something that makes them think of you. What made this particular gift extra unique were two things.
First, she turned us into Bluey characters. When she had asked me, “What type of dog do you think you would be?” I was beyond confused. But, it was an interesting question that I hadn’t ever thought about. We researched dog personalities together and each of us landed on what we thought we would be.
I assumed it was just random conversation, not unheard of around here. Instead, she had a plan. We became those dogs in Bluey form: mine customized with glasses, hers as a puppy dog.
The other unique thing about this was that this wasn’t AI-created art – she made it. She uses Procreate often to create digital artwork. The Bluey website had posted a Mother’s Day wallpaper with Bluey and Chili, which she used as a template to trace and then redesign us as our own dog characters.
Original digital art takes patience and skill. While yes, you could ask ChatGPT to recreate something similar with the right prompt, it doesn’t come close to the heart or care that was put into this original artwork and it doesn’t quite look the same. (Not to mention there are plenty of ethical questions about the rights of artists when it comes to AI. This image is for personal use only).
Bluey is one of those shows that we would have watched constantly when our kids were younger, and yet, now that we’ve watched episodes with an older kid, we also recognize that these stories are timeless in many ways.
I love the gift of original art with me as a Bluey character, and I love that she was so thoughtful in creating it.
For more information about talking to kids about using AI, read ‘Understanding AI and helping youth make the most of it’ by MediaSmarts.