Brave New Bookshelf Episode 67 - Using AI as a Creative Assistant for Authors with Tanya Hales from AI Art for Authors

In episode 67 of Brave New Bookshelf, hosts Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite explore the creative side of AI with artist, illustrator, author, and community leader Tanya Hales.

Tanya is the founder of the AI Art for Authors Facebook group and the creator behind Animal Magica, a growing fantasy world that blends illustration, coloring books, fiction, world-building, and interactive reader experiences. In this episode, she shares how AI has become part of her creative process, not as a replacement for human artistry, but as a practical assistant that helps her move ideas from imagination to execution.

The conversation covers visual storytelling, book covers, Kickstarter planning, fantasy world-building, neurodivergent creativity, and why today’s debates around AI art are not as new as they may seem.

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Meet Tanya Hales

Tanya Hales is a classically trained artist with a degree in fine arts and a lifelong connection to illustration and storytelling. Long before AI tools became part of the creative conversation, Tanya was already working with visual narratives, character concepts, and imaginative worlds.

Today, she helps authors understand how art works, how visual choices support storytelling, and how generative AI can become a useful part of the creative process. Through her AI Art for Authors community, she encourages writers to think beyond simply generating images and instead learn the principles behind strong visual communication.

For Tanya, AI is not about skipping the work. It is about expanding what is possible.

As a mother of four and an ambitious creator, she sees AI as a way to keep moving forward without sacrificing every other part of life. It helps her ideate faster, organize complex projects, and create visual assets that would otherwise take far longer to develop.

From Excitement to Fear and Back Again

Like many artists, Tanya’s first experience with AI was filled with curiosity. She started experimenting with Midjourney during its early beta period in 2022, when the results were still unpredictable and often strange. At first, she used it as a source of randomness, inspiration, and creative play.

Then the technology improved.

When Midjourney V5 arrived, Tanya had a moment many creatives can relate to. The results were no longer just interesting. They were genuinely impressive. That shift brought up fear, especially as AI-generated content began appearing across marketplaces and creative platforms.

For a time, she worried about what it meant for artists. Would the market be flooded? Would human skill lose value? Would creators be replaced?

Eventually, Tanya landed on a more grounded perspective: AI is not the artist. The artist still brings taste, judgment, intention, experience, and emotional context. The tool may help generate possibilities, but the human creator decides what matters.

That distinction became central to her approach. Instead of seeing AI as competition, she began using it as an assistant that could help her develop ideas, test directions, and move faster while still protecting her own artistic voice.

Why the AI Art Debate Feels Familiar

One of the most interesting parts of the episode looks at the historical pattern behind artistic resistance.

Steph brought up the example of early reactions to modern art and Impressionism. Artists like Monet, Pissarro, and Cézanne were once dismissed, criticized, and treated as if they were destroying art itself. Their work challenged traditional standards, so many critics rejected it before later generations recognized its value.

The episode draws a parallel between those historical debates and today’s arguments around AI art. New tools often create fear because they disrupt existing definitions of skill, labor, and legitimacy.

Tanya points out that many artists throughout history were experimenters. They tested materials, processes, techniques, and perspectives that felt radical in their time. In that sense, AI belongs to a much longer story about how creative tools evolve.

The point is not that every use of AI is automatically good. The point is that dismissing an entire creative movement because it uses a new tool risks repeating old patterns of gatekeeping.

Tanya’s Hybrid AI Art Workflow

Tanya is clear that her process is not simply typing a prompt and accepting the first result. Her workflow combines traditional art skills, digital editing, AI generation, and personal creative direction.

She uses AI in several ways:

Ideation and reference building
AI helps Tanya explore color palettes, lighting ideas, composition, poses, and visual mood before committing to a final direction.

Anatomy and pose support
For difficult figures or gestures, she may use AI-generated references to help solve visual problems, then redraw or refine the work herself.

Photo bashing and repainting
Tanya often combines multiple generated elements, such as backgrounds, textures, and characters, then edits and repaints them into a cohesive final image.

Physical art references
AI images can also become references for traditional media, including watercolor painting. This allows her to bridge digital ideation with hands-on artistic work.

This hybrid approach has helped her prepare a Kickstarter campaign far faster than she could have using only traditional methods. Instead of being a year away from launch, AI has helped her organize, visualize, and produce the materials she needs much sooner.

Building the World of Animal Magica

Tanya’s main creative project is Animal Magica, a fantasy “sandbox world” built around magical islands where humans bond with animal companions.

What began as a coloring book idea for her daughter has grown into a much larger creative universe. Animal Magica now includes coloring books, flash fiction, cozy fantasy concepts, interactive convention experiences, and future novels, including The Wandering Dragon Cafe.

The project shows how AI can support more than image creation. Tanya has used ChatGPT to brainstorm marketing ideas, including an interactive convention experience where readers could “bond” with a digital companion through a Gachapon-style machine.

That kind of creative marketing is a powerful reminder that AI can assist authors across the full publishing journey. It can support the story, the visuals, the reader experience, and the strategy behind launching a project.

AI as a Brainstorming Partner for Neurodivergent Creators

The conversation also explores how AI can support neurodivergent creators.

Tanya shared that she has recently discovered she is autistic and has ADHD. For her, AI offers a non-judgmental space to process ideas, sort through options, and build systems that fit the way her brain works.

Danica and Tanya discuss how helpful this can be for creators who struggle with executive function, overwhelm, memory, or organizing large creative projects. AI can act as a brainstorming partner, project assistant, and sounding board without applying the same social pressure that can come from asking another person for help.

Tanya describes AI as a tool that meets her where she is. It does not come with assumptions about what productivity should look like. It can help creators find a workflow that supports their own energy, attention, and creative rhythm.

For authors managing complex world-building, marketing plans, family life, health changes, or creative overload, that kind of support can be transformative.

Favorite AI and Creative Tools

Tanya and the hosts also discuss the tools they currently rely on most.

Midjourney remains Tanya’s favorite tool for visual ideation and aesthetics. She uses it heavily in her creative process.

ChatGPT helps with brainstorming, marketing strategy, interactive reader experiences, and organizing ideas.

Claude is praised for its nuance, writing support, and ability to handle context.

Gemini is highlighted for creating realistic product mockups, especially useful for Kickstarter preparation.

Notion helps Tanya organize the deep world-building behind Animal Magica.

Affinity and Photoshop remain essential for professional editing, compositing, repainting, and final production.

The key lesson is that no single tool does everything. Tanya builds a workflow around the strengths of different platforms, while still keeping herself at the center of the creative decision-making process.

Key Takeaways from This Episode

AI can support creativity without replacing the creator.
Used well, AI helps authors and artists move faster through the parts of the process that slow them down.

Human taste still matters.
The creator’s judgment, style, emotional intelligence, and sense of story remain essential.

New art movements often face resistance.
The backlash around AI art fits into a much longer history of creative disruption and gatekeeping.

Hybrid workflows are powerful.
AI, traditional art, digital editing, and physical media can work together rather than compete.

AI can help authors build bigger creative ecosystems.
From books and covers to games, reader experiences, and Kickstarter campaigns, AI can support a wider creative brand.

Neurodivergent creators may find AI especially useful.
For brainstorming, organizing, and reducing overwhelm, AI can become a practical and supportive assistant.