Leonardo.ai: Midjourney with a Toolbox
“Midjourney is the cool art kid. Leonardo.ai is the cool art kid who brought tools, templates, and a project brief.” — A Thabo-ism
The AI art scene is evolving faster than a React version upgrade — and that’s saying something. While Midjourney still dominates Instagram timelines with ethereal vibes, Leonardo.ai has quietly become the go-to tool for creatives who want more than just pretty pictures.
I’ve spent some time testing it, and here’s why I think Leonardo.ai might be the AI art tool for devs, marketers, indie game creators, and your side hustle landing pages.
What Is Leonardo.ai?
Leonardo.ai is an AI-powered image generation platform similar to Midjourney and DALL·E, but with a twist:
- It focuses on workflows.
- It gives you control with training and finetuning.
- It’s aimed at creators who build projects, not just moodboards.
Think of it as Midjourney’s cousin that went to design school and product management bootcamp.
Why It’s Awesome
Prompt Playground
The live editing tools are insane. You can literally tweak outputs in real time and rerun prompts with versioning.
AI Canvas
Need to extend, erase, or fix part of your image? The Canvas feature is Leonardo’s built-in Photoshop — but make it AI.
Custom Model Training
You can train your own model (seriously) based on your uploaded images. Want a consistent visual style across a brand or product? This is your cheat code.
Game Assets
2D sprites, background art, and UI mockups — game devs are already using Leonardo as their assistant art director.
How I Use It (as a dev/content creator)
- Hero images for blog posts like this one
- Mockups for app UIs and product pages
- Client demo visuals when they say “Can you make it pop?”
- Branded content — especially when budget = zero
You don’t need to be an artist. Just bring a good prompt and watch it do the heavy lifting.
Tips to Get Better Results
- Use detailed prompts: Describe the subject, style, lighting, and background.
- Reference styles: “In the style of Studio Ghibli” or “cyberpunk UI concept.”
- Guide it with action: “A person typing on a glowing laptop surrounded by floating code.”
Final Thabo-ism
“Don’t fear the AI artist. Be the developer who knows how to brief the AI artist.”
We’re not being replaced. We’re evolving. If you build things for the web or mobile — heck, even if you just run a newsletter — Leonardo.ai is a visual weapon worth adding to your stack.