If you want a portrait of your D&D character, you essentially have two paths: commission a human artist, or use an AI art generator. Both produce results worth hanging on your wall. Neither is universally better — they serve different needs, budgets, and timelines.
This is an honest comparison. We build an AI art platform, so we obviously believe in the technology, but we also know where traditional commissions still deliver something AI cannot match.
Speed
This is where the gap is widest.
AI generation: Minutes. You write a description, hit generate, and see a result in under 30 seconds. If it's not right, you adjust the description and generate again. The entire process from first idea to final portrait typically takes 15 to 30 minutes. With , you can iterate as many times as you need until the portrait feels right.
Traditional commission: Weeks to months. A professional fantasy artist typically has a queue. Once your slot opens, expect a sketch phase (3–7 days), a revision round (3–7 days), and final rendering (1–2 weeks). Rush jobs exist but cost significantly more. Total turnaround from first contact to finished piece is commonly 4 to 8 weeks.
If you need a portrait for tonight's session, AI is the only realistic option. If you're planning a gift for a milestone three months away, a commissioned piece has plenty of runway.
Cost
AI generation: With Loreprint, generating a portrait costs credits — roughly equivalent to a few dollars per generation. You might generate 5 to 10 versions before finding the one you love. A physical print on top of that ranges from affordable poster prints to premium framed options. The total cost for a finished, printed character portrait is a fraction of a traditional commission.
Traditional commission: A quality character portrait from an established fantasy artist runs anywhere from $80 to $400+ for a single character, depending on complexity, background detail, and the artist's reputation. Top-tier artists charge $500 and up. Full party illustrations with detailed backgrounds can reach $1,000 or more. Printing is separate.
For a single character, AI is dramatically cheaper. For players who want portraits of multiple characters across a campaign, the cost difference multiplies.
Iteration and control
AI generation: You can generate dozens of variations quickly. Don't like the lighting? Change a word and regenerate. Want to see the character with a different weapon? Adjust and try again. This rapid iteration lets you explore directions you might never have thought to request from an artist. The tradeoff: you have less granular control over specific details. The AI interprets your description — it doesn't follow pixel-level instructions.
Traditional commission: You work directly with a human who understands context, narrative, and intent. You can say "make the expression more like she's hiding a secret" and the artist knows exactly what you mean. Revisions are slower but more precise. The communication is richer — an experienced artist will ask questions that improve the final result in ways you didn't anticipate.
Style consistency
AI generation: Within a single session, AI art maintains strong style consistency. Each of Loreprint's style presets produces a coherent visual language. Across different characters in the same style, the results feel like they belong together — useful if you want matching portraits for an entire party.
Traditional commission: If you commission the same artist for multiple characters, you get style consistency by default — it's their artistic voice. But if you commission different artists for different characters (which is common when queues are long), the styles will inevitably clash. Getting a unified party set from one artist means booking multiple slots.
Where traditional commissions still win
We're not going to pretend AI does everything better. There are specific areas where a human artist remains the clear choice:
Complex multi-character scenes
AI art tools have made significant progress with multi-character compositions — you can generate a party scene with multiple characters interacting in the same frame. That said, a skilled traditional artist still has an edge when it comes to highly complex compositions: managing sight lines across six or more characters, directing the narrative focus through deliberate positioning, and ensuring every character reads clearly at a glance. For straightforward party portraits, AI handles this well. For intricate narrative scenes where spatial storytelling matters, a human artist's compositional instincts are hard to match.
Specific IP and style matching
If you want art that looks exactly like official D&D sourcebook illustrations, or matches a specific artist's style from a favorite comic or manga, a human artist who works in that tradition will deliver more reliably. AI can approximate styles but doesn't replicate a specific artist's hand.
Extreme detail and narrative depth
An artist can embed story details that require understanding context — a subtle reflection in a sword blade, a specific pattern on a magic item that references an in-game event, a background detail that only the party would recognize. AI works from description, not from narrative understanding.
Emotional significance
For some people, the process of working with an artist is part of the value. The back-and-forth conversation, seeing sketches evolve, and receiving a piece that was made by a human specifically for you carries emotional weight that a generated image doesn't replicate. That's a legitimate reason to choose a commission.
When to choose which
Choose AI generation when:
- You need a portrait quickly — same day or same session
- You want to explore multiple directions before committing
- You're working within a budget
- You want matching portraits for multiple characters in a consistent style
- You plan to order a physical print and want to see exactly what you're getting first
Choose a traditional commission when:
- You need a specific artistic style that you can point to by example
- The process of working with an artist matters to you
- You're commemorating something deeply significant (end of a years-long campaign, memorial piece)
- You have the budget and the timeline
They're not mutually exclusive
Many players use both. AI-generated portraits for their active characters — quick, affordable, easy to update as the character evolves — and traditional commissions for milestone pieces that mark important moments in a campaign. A framed AI portrait on the wall for everyday enjoyment, and a commissioned piece for the campaign finale.
The goal is the same either way: seeing your character brought to life. to see what AI generation can do for your character, and save the commission budget for the moments that deserve a human touch.