Akiko Bloom Studio is an independent creative space for stories, illustrated worlds, comics, essays, audio, and other projects created by Akiko Bloom.
Some of the work published here is created with the assistance of generative AI. This page explains where AI fits into my creative process and, just as importantly, where it doesn’t.
The Stories Begin With Me
The ideas behind my work—including the stories, characters, personalities, relationships, dialogue, humor, themes, fictional worlds, and creative concepts—come from me.
Many are inspired by things I have lived, observed, imagined, loved, lost, laughed about, or wondered about. Others grow slowly through writing, research, conversations, sketches, character development, and an unreasonable number of rabbit holes.
AI does not decide what I want to say.
I do.
How I Use Generative AI
I may use generative AI as one of the tools in my creative process, particularly for visual development and illustration.
Depending on the project, this can include generating or developing:
- character artwork and character references
- comic illustrations
- concept art
- settings, environments, props, and visual elements
- visual interpretations of scenes I have written or designed
- exploratory versions used while developing a character, story, or fictional world
AI-assisted images are created through my direction and an iterative process of prompting, reviewing, correcting, regenerating, editing, combining, rejecting, and refining results.
And sometimes arguing with the AI about why a cat should not have three ears.
Not everything generated makes it into the final work. Often, quite a lot doesn’t.
Writing & Storytelling
My stories, concepts, characters, worldbuilding, dialogue, creative direction, and final editorial decisions are my own.
I may use AI as a creative or editorial assistant—for brainstorming, research, discussion, organization, proofreading, or exploring alternatives—much as I use other digital tools throughout the creative process.
The final decision about what belongs in an Akiko Bloom Studio work is always mine.
Other Creative Tools
My work may also involve traditional and digital creative tools for writing, layout, typography, illustration, image editing, audio production, video editing, publishing, and design.
Different projects naturally use different combinations of tools.
For me, the important question isn’t whether a tool was used.
It’s what I chose to make with it.
Creative Direction & Final Work
AI-generated material is not automatically finished artwork.
Visual pieces may go through multiple iterations as I direct details such as character appearance, expressions, clothing, composition, environments, continuity, colors, props, and storytelling elements. I may also edit, arrange, crop, composite, add typography, or otherwise develop material before publication.
I review and approve the final work that appears under Akiko Bloom Studio.
The creative choices—and responsibility for those choices—are mine.
Disclosure
When generative AI has played a meaningful role in creating the visual material for a published work, I aim to disclose that use clearly.
This page serves as the general creative-process and AI disclosure for Akiko Bloom Studio and may be linked from my website, comics, videos, social media posts, books, or other publications.
Individual platforms, publishers, marketplaces, or projects may have additional disclosure requirements. Where applicable, I follow those requirements separately.
Why I Use AI
I have more stories in my head than I have hands to make them with.
Generative AI gives me another way to translate those stories into something visible—to explore characters and worlds that might otherwise remain only in my imagination.
I don’t see the technology as the author of those worlds.
I see it as one of the tools I use to build them.
The ideas, direction, judgment, revisions, and final choices remain human.
And behind all of them is the same reason Akiko Bloom Studio exists in the first place:
Stories. Worlds. Feelings.
— Akiko Bloom
