How I Get Claude to Make Pictures
After parting ways with ChatGPT and focusing entirely on developing with Claude, I ran into a problem.
Claude can't draw pictures.
One of the things I loved about ChatGPT was being able to have it draw images and put them straight into the game.
I brought this to Claude for advice, and we found a solution right away.
Claude's proposal was: "I can't draw pictures myself, but we could build a system to commission an AI that can."
Here's how it works:
- Create a dedicated image-generation repository on GitHub
- Claude places instructions and reference images in that repository
- That triggers GitHub Actions to run automatically, and Google's AI (Gemini) draws the picture
- The finished image comes back to the same repository, and Claude shows it to me in the chat
- If I give the OK, Claude pulls the image into the game repository and creates a PR
The art style rules — specifying the visual style and tone — are written in each game's repository. Claude reads those when writing the instructions. API keys are stored securely inside GitHub, so there's no need to paste them into the chat.
All I have to do is ask in the chat for "an illustration of this scene," look at what comes back, and give the OK. I can even do that from my phone when I'm out.
It took some trial and error to match the style ChatGPT had been drawing, but after a few adjustments, we got Google AI producing exactly the look I wanted.
Since Claude handles implementation — like integrating the images — better and more efficiently, this turned out to be the better approach.
For the pixel art I'm using in Tower Dungeon, we set up an API integration with PixelLab the same way, so Claude now handles both generating and integrating those images too.
Before that, I was operating PixelLab myself and handing the images off to Claude.
Problems can be opportunities — the ability to work through challenges together and find a better path is one of the things I appreciate most about AI.
Series: "I wish I'd known this from the start"
- Start with GitHub, whatever else you do
- Where I got stuck connecting GitHub
- Don't trust the AI's memory. Keep everything in GitHub
- Working with Xserver — FTP, .htaccess, and deploys that fail
- Always start from the facts — write the rules, then keep fixing them
- The parts that were genuinely hard, and what I did about them
- AdSense keeps rejecting my site
- Just write @claude in an Issue, and Claude Code gets to work
- Can you really hand game dev off to AI?
- Goodbye, ChatGPT — Banned Twice, Moved to Claude
- How I Get Claude to Make Pictures (this article)