Recreating hand-drawn artwork using ChatGPT experiments

ChatGPT is pretty amazing, I call him G and he calls me Jezza. The fact that we're leaning on and personalising this AI so much indicates how good it is. 

So the major concern from artists is being replaced by AI, G disagrees this is going to happen and I'm on the same page. So I tested it out anyway with a a few simple experiments. 

Testing ChatGPT to recreate my art accurately

Seeing all of the pretty amazing outputs from ChatGPT, Kling and others, you'd expect that recreating some line art would be easy for them. But it isn't, not yet anyway. 

I shared one of my character designs with G as an EPS file to kick off the experiment. Firstly, I got a msg that the conversion library (Ghostscript) was not available (I'm using free license) at the time so please recreate it as PNG file format. Okay, did that. 

With a clear background and no watermark, it was able to output the same image with a transparent background (background removal). 

I asked it then to recreate it in an anime style. Pretty cute, no issue of course. Although this colour pencil mish mash style is starting to look pretty familiar. I've seen others ask for children's drawings and this seems to be a default style. 

With a watermark

The test was to take my watermarked icons from a low-ish resolution image, analyse, trace and recreate them out to a transparent PNG. Most art thieves will be using some kind of variation of this method to steal and repurpose art for resell sites. 

Here's a sample input image: 

And the kind of image that came out:

 

Not bad, but not accurate. G confirms that this is still an area of learning. This is what he has to say:

"I can read and interpret line drawings, and I can clean them up and redraw them, but there are a few catches:

1. Precision vs. Interpretation
   Line art—especially hand-drawn stuff—can have little imperfections, wobbles, or gaps that I might interpret in ways you didn’t intend. Unlike photorealism, where I lean on texture and lighting cues, line art often relies on very intentional lines—and I need to make sure I don't over-smooth or misread those.

2. Style Consistency
   You might have a specific feel or style—chunky lines, delicate strokes, organic wobble, etc. When I "redraw" line art, I need clear instructions about what to preserve: do you want it cleaned up but still human, or perfectly vector-precise?

3. Image Input Limitations (but improving!)
   My line detection and redrawing powers have been getting better, but they're not always perfect at interpreting complex or messy sketches exactly as you see them. That said, if you give me:

   • A clear sketch or icon set

   • Notes on how you want it cleaned (e.g. thicker lines, no overlaps, closed paths)

   • Whether it's meant for coloring, print, vector tracing, etc.

   …then I can absolutely help refine or recreate them."

Watermark your work

It's more evidence to watermark your work in a comprehensive way. Persistent people will always find a way to steal things. And really, just take it. A mindset of abundance is a good thing, but making a little effort to protect your work cuts out most of the people who won't put in much sweat to get the fruit. 

Wrap up

AI is pretty amazing in many ways. I use it as a business coach more than anything and yes, there's heaps of ethics and copyright factors still in debate about art. 

I create my own original art work and lean on AI for tasks that I need help with - business and market / product guidance and it's been great. 

AI can recreate, imagine and remix by reference. Our creativity is our own, AI can never take our world perspective built up by who we are and it can't feel - an important point of difference.

So keep creating artists, it's time to adapt but the world needs you and AI isn't gonna replace us anytime soon.