Using AI to Turn Sketches into Vector Illustrations

A few years back, as part of a branding project, I created an illustrated character for Dick’s Bike Hire. It was based on the owner, who is a very outgoing, charismatic character, and the intention was to portray some of that spark in the illustrations. The artwork was to be used on promotional materials, signage and for child-friendly activities and offerings.

Recently, Dick’s Bike Hire has expanded its offerings to include a fleet of assisted-cycling bikes designed to accommodate individuals who may not otherwise be able to experience and enjoy cycling. He requested some new illustrations of his character on a variety of bike types, including one of the assisted bikes. The deadline was very tight, so I looked to AI to see if it could help out :)

I uploaded a few sketches of a character I developed a few years back, along with some reference images of the different bike types. From there, I experimented with using AI to generate clean-line art versions of the character and the bikes. The results were surprisingly effective and saved considerable time compared to drawing every element from scratch.

Using the sketches and bike references, I worked with ChatGPT to generate clean line art illustrations.

This step worked particularly well for producing variations of the same character interacting with different bikes and scenarios. I was impressed by how well it ‘illustrated’ the various bike types and how it maintained a similar style across them. Rather than replacing the design process, the AI served as a rapid ideation and production tool, generating base illustrations that could then be refined.

Once the character model was stabilised, the AI could position Dick on a selection of bikes. I requested black-and-white line art illustrations that I could then bring into Inkscape to vectorise and add colour. The resulting PDF artwork could then be sent to printers to produce the promotional material.

I definitely see the merit in using AI to improve workflows and to save time. I regularly use it in other facets of the web design business.

However, the resulting artwork produced lacked the spark that I think the original sketches and illustrations had. The AI doesn’t know Dick; it didn’t make a conscious decision to include certain features that were intended to capture his personality.

There was a loss in translation, resulting in a selection of generic-looking illustrations. They looked a little glassy-eyed; the roughness and hand-drawn style of the original illustrations were gone, replaced by more polished versions. I appreciate that this could be due to the quality of prompts I was feeding it. But, ultimately, it took the challenge (and the enjoyment) of drawing something on paper, then bringing it into Photoshop to tidy it up before importing it into Inkscape to produce vector artwork. I’ve always considered drawing to be a welcome break from the normal web development work I do, and I enjoy the process.

I can see myself using AI again to create various poses, props and scenarios for illustrations, but I think it will be more of a poseable artist’s hand than a medium to ideate and produce finished artwork.

I think my generation, those who learned and spent years practising to try and establish a personal style, feel the unease of using AI to create something that we would otherwise have crafted ourselves.