I've been making a lot of AI generated images lately, and it turns out I'm fine at editing an image prompt and bad at writing one. There's a structure to writing an art brief that I was aware of as a web developer, but am not skilled at. I don't have the practice. Twenty generations later I'm still trying to claw my way back to the thing I had in mind as I burn through tokens.
So I don't write them anymore. Claude does. But that's an easy thing to say when you primarily use one model, so I tested with the other two.
The pelican-on-bicycle is Simon Willison's benchmark — he feeds "Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle" into every new LLM to see whether it can reason about shapes and proportions well enough to hand-write graphics code.* I swapped one word:
Generate an art brief for a pelican riding a bicycle
I asked Claude Opus 4.7, Gemini 3 (Fast), and ChatGPT the same question, then rendered all three briefs through ChatGPT's Create an image — Instant mode. The brief is the only variable.
Claude Opus 4.7
Subject: Adult brown pelican, upright posture, gripping handlebars with wingtips, pouched bill forward, webbed feet pedaling. Bicycle scaled to rider — vintage step-through frame, wicker basket optional.
Composition: 3/4 profile, mid-stride pedal. Rule-of-thirds with pelican centered on right vertical. Horizon low to emphasize silhouette against sky.
Style: Whimsical naturalism — anatomically credible bird, gently anthropomorphized posture. Think Beatrix Potter meets editorial illustration. Avoid cartoon / Pixar smoothness.
Mood: Purposeful, slightly absurd, dignified. The pelican is commuting, not performing.
Palette: Pelican — warm greys, ochre bill pouch, slate primaries. Bicycle — muted teal or oxblood enamel, brass fittings. Background — soft coastal wash, fog grey to pale apricot.
Medium: Gouache or digital equivalent. Visible brush texture, hand-drawn linework. No gradients, no glossy rendering.
Do Not: Sunglasses, scarves, or hats. Speed lines or motion blur. Beach / sunset clichés. AI-ish symmetry or plastic sheen.
References: Charley Harper (geometry), John James Audubon (anatomy), mid-century Penguin book covers (restraint).
The Do Not section is most interesting. I didn't ask for a list of things to avoid, and if I had, I wouldn't have thought to include "AI-ish symmetry or plastic sheen." Claude has apparently been looking at the same AI slop we all have and incorporated opinions. The references are the other giveaway — Charley Harper for geometry, Audubon for anatomy, mid-century Penguin covers for restraint. One name is a recommendation. Three names with reasons is a sensibility.
Gemini 3 (Fast)
Art Style: Playful, whimsical, stylized illustration. Think of something suitable for a children's book or greeting card.
Subject: A character-focused depiction of a brown pelican.
The Pelican:
- Appearance: Exaggerated, slightly goofy features. Oversized beak, perhaps with a mischievous glint in its eye.
- Expression: A wide, open-mouthed grin, suggesting pure joy or determination. Feathered tufts on its head, askew from the wind.
- Accessories: A colorful, striped scarf fluttering behind it. A jaunty, worn bicycle helmet (too small) perched precariously on its head.
The Bicycle:
- Type: A classic, vintage-style cruiser bicycle. Think wicker basket in front, swept-back handlebars, and maybe a bell.
- Details: The frame could be painted a vibrant, slightly chipped color like turquoise or sunny yellow. Add some playful decals (perhaps fish skeletons or stylized waves).
- The Pelican's Position: This is the key. The pelican shouldn't be perfectly perched like a human rider. It should look a little awkward but committed — large webbed feet struggling to grip the pedals, long wings slightly spread for balance, bulky body slightly too large for the seat.
The Basket (Essential): Overflowing, but not with typical items. A small, disgruntled fish peering over the rim. A spyglass, a compass, or other navigational tools. A bag labeled "Fish Snacks" and a few crumpled maps.
Setting/Background: A scenic coastal path or a bustling, slightly fantastical seaside town. Cobblestone or sandy path. Colorful, weathered buildings in the background. Palm trees and other coastal flora. Sunny, bright, and full of life. Perhaps other stylized animals in the background — seagulls watching on, a crab waving.
Composition and Mood: Capture the pelican mid-pedal, maybe as it negotiates a curve. Dust kicking up from the tires. Determined, slightly chaotic joy. Sun-bleached pastels, ocean blues, pops of bright, cheerful colors.
Medium: Colored pencil and watercolor, or digital illustration with a textured, hand-drawn brush style.
Key Themes: Whimsy and the unexpected. The joy of a challenge. Unconventional heroes.
Gemini's brief is the opposite of Claude's. Where Claude wrote "Avoid cartoon / Pixar smoothness," Gemini opens with "Think of something suitable for a children's book." Where Claude's pelican is "commuting, not performing," Gemini's has a mischievous glint, a striped scarf, a too-small helmet, a disgruntled fish, and a bag labeled "Fish Snacks." Every element has accessories. Every accessory has accessories. The brief is longer than Claude's and ChatGPT's combined, and nowhere in it is an artist's name, a movement, or a reference you could actually look up.
ChatGPT
Concept: A slightly absurd but graceful scene: a long-beaked pelican confidently riding a bicycle as if it's the most natural thing in the world. The humor comes from anatomical mismatch (huge bill, gangly legs, heavy body) paired with effortless balance and motion.
Tone & Style: Lean into deadpan surrealism rather than slapstick. It should feel calm, almost dignified — more "Sunday morning coastal ride" than cartoon chaos. Style can range from clean vector minimalism to painterly illustration, but avoid over-detailing feathers unless going fully realistic.
Composition: Side profile (left-to-right motion reads naturally). Pelican centered slightly forward in frame, suggesting forward momentum. Bicycle proportionally correct, but subtly adjusted for leg length (long seat post, slightly raised handlebars). Optional horizon line low in frame to emphasize sky and openness.
Pose & Anatomy: Pelican upright on saddle, wings tucked or lightly extended for balance. Feet placed on pedals — webbed feet are key visual humor. Neck slightly curved forward, beak pointing in direction of travel like a figurehead. Eye calm and focused, not goofy.
Environment Options: Coastal path (soft dunes, muted blues), boardwalk (wooden planks, warm light), or minimal void (flat background to emphasize silhouette).
Color Palette: Natural pelican tones — off-white, pale yellow, muted gray. Bicycle — contrasting accent color (rust red, sea blue, or matte black). Background restrained, slightly desaturated.
Lighting: Soft, directional light (early morning or late afternoon). Avoid harsh shadows — keep it airy.
Key Details: Slight wobble implied in posture, but not loss of control. Chain, pedals, and spokes simplified but readable. Beak pouch subtly defined — don't exaggerate unless stylizing heavily.
Avoid: Over-cartoonish expressions. Physics-breaking poses — it should almost look plausible. Cluttered backgrounds.
ChatGPT lands closer to Claude than to Gemini. "Deadpan surrealism." "Calm, almost dignified." "Eye calm and focused, not goofy." It has taste. But it won't commit — "Style can range from clean vector minimalism to painterly illustration" is the brief punting back to the illustrator. There are no style names. It's a brief written by someone who has read a lot of briefs but hasn't been to many museums.
The verdict
Three briefs, three images. Claude's produced the one I'd use — gouache texture, a pelican with dignity, a harbor doing narrative work in the distance. Gemini's delivered exactly what it ordered: a children's book cover, a "Fish Snacks" bag, a crab with a sign, enough visual noise to fill a toddler's bedroom wall. ChatGPT, rendering its own brief, produced the thing Claude explicitly warned against — AI-ish symmetry, slight plastic sheen, a pelican pasted onto a stock beach.
The pipeline
The pipeline is three steps: Claude writes the brief, I edit the brief, ChatGPT renders it. It works because words are cheap and images aren't. A brief rewrite costs a few cents and fifteen seconds; an image regeneration costs a minute of my attention and a credit I actually notice on the bill. As a software developer I've been programmed to iterate where it's cheap.
Could I have written the Claude brief myself? Probably not. I'd never heard of Charley Harper, and now I have a new ornament for my Saturnalia tree.
-dwk
*Willison keeps a running tag of pelican attempts across model releases. It's one of the better informal AI benchmarks on the internet. ⏎