Sonya Seccombe on using ai to craft texture on digital artwork

Sonya Seccombe (@greytinstudio) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Somerset. She shared with us how she's using unconventional source material and AI to steer her creativity in new and exciting directions.

I studied art and design in the '80s in Weston-super-Mare, later specialising in industrial ceramics in Stoke-on-Trent. After graduation, I worked in various studios before taking a break to raise my family. When I resumed my art career, I was based in Cornwall, where I had a large studio that allowed me to push the boundaries of the sizes of my pieces. There I started my largest collage to date, The Last Suppered, a 4ft x 3ft mixed-media collage on a repurposed ordnance survey map of Dartmoor, made with recycled prints, till receipts, paint, ink, and calico scraps.

When my family relocated to Somerset last September, I downsized to a studio under the staircase. Inevitably, my work downsized as well. I’ve found the smaller space to be a source of inspiration rather than limitation. I’ve never been one to stick to a single medium, so having all my tools nearby has been a creative advantage. One day I’m creating digital illustrations, the next, I’m working with collage or clay. Regardless of the medium, I try to maintain a sense of humour and irreverence—and, of course, lots of colour!

I’m also extremely prolific - perhaps a result of all the ideas I stored up while raising my children. Last year, I embarked on a project called In Receipt of an Artist where I painted original artwork directly onto till receipts as a response to the UK's cost of living crisis. With so many people struggling to get by, receipts became a source of fascination for so many of us. Working part time as a support worker brought me face-to-face with the issues facing people in poverty. Trying to do my bit, I priced each original artwork at the amount listed on the receipt, ranging from just 69p to £142, with half of the proceeds going to food banks.

As an artist, experimenting with new mediums has always been central to my practice. I taught myself digital illustration with an iPad, so I figured I could do the same with AI.

Initially, I struggled to find AI tools that could generate art in my style. I dislike the idea of using other people’s work to generate images, and the other public models I have tried just churn out the same old ideas. I was drawn to exactly.ai because it gave me the freedom to upload my original artwork and maintain creative control. With exactly.ai, I’m not replacing myself - I'm simply giving myself a fresh perspective. It’s like trying on a new dress: it may make you look a bit different, but it’s still the same person underneath.

Using AI has become a great source of inspiration. For example, when working on a digital illustration on my iPad, I might spend days searching for the right direction. But with exactly.ai, I can generate four different images, and even if they're not where I intended to go, they often lead me in exciting new directions. I’ve always relied on intuition and spontaneity in my art, and exactly.ai acts as the perfect springboard for my next adventure.

I often find that the algorithm will surprise me with something unexpected. For example, I trained a model based on my Beachheads series - digital illustrations inspired by surfers in Cornwall. In the corner of one of the generations, exactly.ai imagined a new little octopus character. I love that. It’s not something I ever would’ve come up with myself. The AI took elements from my previous work and jumbled them together in a way that sparked new ideas.

One of the things I love about exactly.ai is the ability to get what you want out of an AI model. What frustrated me about the other models was their inability to capture a sense of depth and texture in what they generate. As a potter and mixed-media artist, these qualities are essential to my aesthetic, and their absence made my images feel flat. As a remedy, I trained an exactly.ai model using images of my needle-felt work. In needle-felting, small threads often come loose, adding depth to the piece, and exactly.ai picked up on those intricate details, allowing me to generate textured images.

I’ve faced some backlash from my AI experiments and even lost a few followers along the way. It’s frustrating because I’m simply using AI to generate images in my own style and have fun with the process. I think people often misunderstand that AI, like any tool, is just another medium for creativity.

When the iPad was first introduced, people had similar concerns - people fearing no one would paint anymore. But David Hockney has had an entire exhibition of iPad-created works. AI is no different; it’s just another tool for artistic expression. What matters is ensuring it’s accessible to everyone, regardless of their age or experience.