How to use AI to bring your child's art to life – and why it's a fun learning opportunity

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Important points of ZDNET

• AI can enhance children's art without replacing their creativity.
• Keep your child an artist by starting with drawing original pictures.
• Simple prompts help kids learn ethical and practical ways to use AI.

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

I recently saw a video on CBS Sunday where actor Ethan Hawke says he's “so bored” with AI, and he said that one of the things he loves about theater is that AI can't do it.

“I think my interest in computers and fakes will never end,” he says. “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 I know it's going to mess with everyone. I'm not going to deny that. But I'm openly rebelling.” As a writer first and foremost, I couldn't agree more with him. But as a technology journalist, I also know that AI is already changing the world, and I want my daughter to be prepared for that reality.

Also: ChatGPT's Free Photoshop: How to Edit Photos Using AI, No Experience Required

At the same time, I want her to continue to be creative, messy, imaginative, and practical. So I've been showing her how to use ChatGPT, Gemini, and OpenAI's Sora to augment her own drawings, rather than generating art from scratch.

As critics have pointed out, AI can only produce what it has been trained to produce: the work of other artists. By starting with an idea she actually put down on paper, she turns AI into a fun learning tool while emphasizing who she is as an artist.

(Disclosure: ZDNET's parent company, Ziff Davis, filed suit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging that it infringed on Ziff Davis' copyrights in training and operating AI systems.)

1. Create a 3D illustration using ChatGPT

I like to give my daughter paints, markers, crayons, and canvas to keep her entertained almost every day. Sometimes she creates quick illustrations, and other times I'm genuinely impressed by the level of detail she adds.

Either way, I want to encourage her to make whatever she wants. So when I use ChatGPT for her artwork, my goal is not to replace her style, but to breathe life into what's already there. For example, she recently drew a simple green and purple character with orange eyes. To see what she could do with her art, I took a photo and uploaded it to ChatGPT.

I used the following prompts because I wanted to add texture, depth, and detail while maintaining her composition, color, and shape.

It brings my daughter's drawings to life as more realistic and vivid characters. While retaining the feel of her original artwork, such as the colors and shapes, she adds texture, depth, and soft 3D details to make it look vivid and tangible, even though it's clearly her art.

The final result definitely resembles her painting, making it more three-dimensional and realistic. When I showed it to her, she was amazed and immediately asked for more. She couldn't wait to draw again, so she'll have something else to upload.

How to use ChatGPT for your child's art:

1. Open ChatGPT on your desktop or mobile app and start a new conversation.
2. Optional: Enable temporary chat if you don't want to train future AI models with art.
3. in the prompt field[イメージの作成]Select a tool.
4. Upload a photo of your child's work.
5. Use the prompt above or something similar.
6. If necessary, provide follow-up prompts to adjust the results.

Also: Is it an AI image? 6 Signs It's a Fake – Your Favorite Free Detector

This is a place where children can also participate. I read the original prompt aloud to my daughter, but after the first generation I let her decide what else to add. She wanted to see a character with red eyes, a glow, and a smile, so she experimented from there.

2. Reimagine your characters with Gemini

For another painting, I used the Gemini Nano Banana Pro. This can be very helpful in maintaining resemblance when you upload a photo of a real person and let the AI ​​manipulate the image while keeping their face and expressions intact. Now, we can use the same prompts above that we used in ChatGPT, but we are also trying to teach her how to play with prompts. So I did the following:

It brings my daughter's drawings to life as a more realistic and realistic version of her character. It's clearly her art, maintaining and gently re-imagining the original color palette and composition.

Her original painting featured a red and green creature with what appeared to be arms and legs. Gemini took that idea and turned it into a more defined character while keeping the same colors and composition. The first generation actually created a tree-like figure with a trunk, leaves, and apples, but it also had eyes and branches became arms and legs.

How to use Gemini in your child's art:

1. Open Gemini on your desktop or mobile app and start a new conversation.
2. Optional: Enable temporary chat if you don't want to train future AI models with art.
3. in the prompt field[イメージの作成]Select a tool.
4. Upload a photo of your child's work.
5. Use the prompt above or something similar.
6. If necessary, provide follow-up prompts to adjust the results.

Also: Inside the development of Gemini 3 – How Google's slow and steady approach won the AI ​​race (so far)

My daughter thought the first one was funny, but then quickly told me, “No, Mom, it's supposed to be a lizard!” So we asked Gemini to make it more lizard-like and had fun tweaking the prompts to get different results.

3. Animate your artwork using Sora

This is where things get really interesting and this is the AI ​​tool that my daughter enjoyed trying out the most. We took one of her paintings. According to her, it's “a blue man eating caterpillars.” right. Anyway, I gave it to Sora. However, instead of asking Sora to add or rethink 3D details, we created a very simple prompt. And since Sora includes audio, I also had it play sounds. We tried the following:

It makes my drawings vivid and real. The blue one should eat the caterpillar and say, “Hmm.”

I didn't mention my daughter in the prompt like in the other examples, but in my experience, Sora flags any mention of children as a potential content violation and doesn't generate a video.

How to use Sora for your child's art:

1. Open the Sora app iOS Or select Android and tap the + Generate button at the bottom.
2. Select the Upload Photo button next to the prompt field.
3. Upload a photo of your child's work.
4. Enter prompts that describe the movement or sounds you want to see, and mention styles such as photorealistic or illustrative.
5. If necessary, provide follow-up prompts to adjust the results.
6. There's no need to share the video publicly, just save it as a draft.

Related article: Avoid accidentally sharing AI videos – 6 ways to tell the real from the fake before it's too late

What's the final result? You can see it for yourself here. I'm a little nervous about it, but my daughter loves it and has watched it probably 50 times. She now asks me to use Sora in almost every piece she creates, and is getting better at giving specific instructions, like having the character say something or move in a certain way.

Why is it different from “AI art”?

Many people are understandably critical of AI image/video generation tools, especially when artists' work is used without their consent. I understand that too. That's why it's important to teach your daughter about AI and how to use it ethically and thoughtfully.

The starting point here is my daughter's own original art. We are not asking AI to copy others or create something out of nothing. She is learning how AI can build on her creativity, rather than replace it. In this approach, she is still the artist and the AI ​​is the tool, not the creator. This difference is especially important when introducing this technology to her.

Also: Hate creating presentations? We tried Google's new Nano Banana Pro-powered tool and the results were shocking

The thing is, this isn't just for kids. Whether you sketch, paint, doodle, or design characters, you can use the same workflow to find inspiration for your own artwork. Upload your illustration and tell the AI ​​to respect your creation. Be as specific as you need while experimenting, using prompts that focus on maintaining authenticity, color, shape, composition, and even style.