How I use AI to bring my kid’s art to life – and why it’s a fun learning opportunity

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ZDNET Highlights

• AI can enhance children’s art without changing their creativity.
• Starting with basic drawings keeps the child an artist.
• Simple prompts help kids learn ethical, practical AI use.

I write a lot about AI tools for work, and I’m trying to figure out how to introduce my 4-year-old daughter to them without turning AI into a magical “make stuff for me” button.

i saw one recently cbs sunday video Actor Ethan Hawke is quoted as saying that he is “so bored” with AI, and one of the things he loves about theater is that AI can’t do it.

“I feel like I can’t lose my interest in computers and counterfeits,” he said. “I like people. I like the way they smell. I like the way they talk, and I like the way they think. I like to think of AI as a plagiarism mechanism. You know, that’s it.”

He also said, “I know it’s going to change the world, and it’s going to upset everybody, and I’m not denying it. But I’m in open rebellion.” As a writer first and foremost, I couldn’t agree with him more. But as a tech journalist, I also know the fact that AI is already changing the world, and I want my daughter to be prepared for that reality.

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At the same time, I want her to remain creative, messy, imaginative, and practical. So, I’m showing him how to use ChatGPT, Gemini, and OpenAI’s Sora to enhance his own illustrations instead of generating art from scratch.

As critics have pointed out, AI can only produce what it has been trained on, which is the work of other artists. Starting with ideas he’s actually put down on paper, it turns AI into a fun learning tool while also reinforcing that he’s still an artist.

(Disclosure: ZDNET’s parent company Ziff Davis filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in the training and operation of its AI systems.)

1. Use ChatGPT to create 3D drawings

I love giving my daughter paints, markers, crayons, and canvases, and letting her have fun almost every day. Sometimes she does quick drawings, and sometimes I’m really impressed by the level of detail she adds.

Either way, I want to encourage him to create whatever he wants. So when I use ChatGPT on his artwork, the goal is not to change his style but to bring what’s already there to life. For example, she recently painted a simple green and purple character with orange eyes. I took a picture of it and uploaded it to ChatGPT to see what it could do with his art.

Since I wanted to keep its structure, color and shape but add texture, depth and detail, I used the following prompt:

Bring my daughter’s drawing to life as a more realistic, lifelike character. Retain the feel of her original artwork, including its colors and shapes, but add texture, depth and soft 3D details so that it looks vibrant and tangible while still being clearly her art.

The end result still clearly resembles his drawings, just more dimensional and realistic. When I showed it to her, she was amazed and immediately wanted to do more. She couldn’t wait to get back to painting again so we’ll have something else to upload.

How to use ChatGPT on your child’s art:

1. open chatgpt on desktop or mobile apps and start a new conversation.
2. Optional: Enable temporary chat if you don’t want your art to train a future AI model.
3. Select the Create Image tool in the prompt field.
4. Upload a photo of your child’s artwork.
5. Use the prompts above or something similar.
6. If necessary, adjust the result with follow-up signals.

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This is where your child can also get involved. I read my original prompt out loud to my daughter, but after the initial generation, I let her decide what else to add. She wanted to see her character with red eyes, glitter and a smile, so we experimented from there.

2. Use Gemini to reimagine characters

On another painting, I used Gemini Nano Banana Pro, which does a great job of maintaining likeness if you upload a photo of a real person and ask the AI ​​to manipulate it while keeping their face and expressions intact. Now, you can use the same prompt above that we used for ChatGPT, but I’m also trying to show him how to play with the prompt. So we went with:

Make my daughter’s drawing “come alive” as a more life-like, realistic version of her character. Maintain the original color palette and composition so that it is still clearly his art, while gently reimagining it.

His original painting depicted a red and green creature with what appeared to be arms and legs. Gemini leaned into that idea and turned it into a more defined character while preserving the same color and structure. The first generation actually formed a tree-like shape, with a trunk, leaves, and apples, but it had eyes, and the branches became arms and legs.

How to use Gemini on your child’s art:

1. open Gemini on desktop or mobile apps and start a new conversation.
2. Optional: Enable temporary chat if you don’t want your art to train a future AI model.
3. Select the Create Image tool in the prompt field.
4. Upload a photo of your child’s artwork.
5. Use the prompts above or something similar.
6. If necessary, adjust the result with follow-up signals.

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My daughter thought the first generation was pretty funny, but she immediately told me, “No, Mom, it looks like it’s a lizard!” So we asked Gemini to make it more lizard-like and had fun changing the sign to get different results.

3. Use Sora to animate artwork

This is where things got really entertaining, and it’s the AI ​​tool that my daughter had the most fun trying out. We took a painting of his, which he said was, “A blue man eating a caterpillar.” Correct. Anyway, we put him in Sora. But instead of asking Sora to add 3D detail or re-imagine it, I created a very simple gesture. And since Sora includes audio, I asked him to make noises too. tried:

Bring my painting to life and look realistic. The blue man must eat the caterpillar and say, “Mmmmm.”

I didn’t mention my daughter in the prompt as I did in other examples because, in my experience, Sora flags any mention of children as a potential content violation and won’t make a video.

How to use Sora on your child’s art:

1. Open Sora App for iOS Or Android And tap on + Generate button below.
2. Select the Upload Photo button next to the prompt field.
3. Upload a photo of your child’s artwork.
4. Enter a hint describing the activities and sounds you’d like to see, and specify a style like photorealistic or illustrated.
5. If necessary, adjust the result with follow-up signals.
6. You don’t need to share your video publicly and you can just store it as a draft.

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Our finished result? You can check it yourself hereIt’s a little disturbing, but my daughter got a huge kick out of it and has probably rewatched it 50 times, She now asks me to use Sora in almost everything she makes and is getting better at giving specific quick instructions, like telling her characters to say something or move a certain way,

Why is it different from ‘AI art’

Many people criticize AI image/video generators, especially when it comes to using artists’ work without consent. I understand this, and that’s why teaching my daughter early about AI and how to use it ethically and thoughtfully matters.

Here, the starting point is my daughter’s own original art. We’re not asking AI to copy someone else or generate something out of thin air. She’s learning how AI can enhance her creativity, not replace it. With this approach, he is still the artist, and AI is a tool, not a creator. This distinction is especially important to me when introducing him to this technique.

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The thing is, it’s not just for kids. If you sketch, paint, doodle, or design characters, you can use the same workflow to find inspiration for your artwork. Upload your pictures and ask the AI ​​to respect what you’ve created. Use cues that emphasize maintaining similarity, color, shape, structure, and even style, and be as specific as you need to be when experimenting.