Book Purchase Link – https://www.amazon.com
I’ve spent a big part of my life around cars. I photograph them, film them, talk about them, collect them, and pretty much find any excuse to be around anything with four wheels and an interesting story. Cars have been a constant part of my life, from the classic cars I own to the automotive projects I’ve photographed and the countless car shows, events and road trips I’ve covered over the years. So the idea of creating a car coloring book for kids actually felt like a pretty natural extension of what I already love doing.
The funny part is that this time I wasn’t going to use a camera.
I was going to use AI.
Turning an Idea Into a Car Coloring Book
The original idea was pretty simple. I wanted to create a fun coloring book for kids who love cars. I started imagining pages filled with classic cars, muscle cars, hot rods, sports cars and other cool vehicles that kids could color however they wanted. I didn’t want the book to be overly complicated or filled with tiny details that would be frustrating for younger kids. I wanted the cars to have enough personality to be interesting, while still leaving plenty of room for kids to get creative.
That became the basic concept for the book.
From there, I started experimenting with AI as part of the creative process. I used AI to help develop the artwork, explore different vehicle designs and figure out what worked visually as a coloring page. There was plenty of trial and error along the way. Some ideas looked great on screen but didn’t really work as a coloring page. Others needed to be simplified, adjusted or completely reworked.
That’s actually what made the process interesting.
Using AI as a Creative Tool
I’ve used technology throughout my career as a photographer, so incorporating AI into this project didn’t feel particularly strange to me. Photography itself has changed dramatically since I started. I remember shooting film, moving into digital cameras and watching editing software completely change the way photographers work. Today, AI is becoming another tool that can be used to explore ideas and create things that might have been much more difficult or time consuming to produce in the past.
For this coloring book, I wasn’t simply asking AI to make a book and then walking away.
I was involved in the creative direction throughout the process. I was deciding what kinds of cars I wanted, how they should look, what level of detail made sense and which designs actually belonged in the final book. AI helped me explore those ideas and produce artwork that I could refine and build upon.
In a lot of ways, it felt like having another creative tool available when I needed it.
Creating Original Cars
One of the most important parts of the project was making the cars fictional and original. I love classic cars and muscle cars, so there is obviously a lot of automotive design history that influenced the look and feel of the vehicles. But I didn’t want to simply reproduce existing cars.
Instead, I wanted to create cars that felt familiar without being specific copies of real world vehicles.
That opened up a lot of possibilities. The cars could have exaggerated proportions, different body shapes, custom wheels and details that don’t necessarily exist on a production vehicle. Some of them have a vintage feel, while others are inspired by modern performance cars. The result is basically my own little automotive universe.
And because these are coloring pages, there are no rules about what color those cars should be.
A classic looking car doesn’t have to be red. A muscle car doesn’t have to be orange. A race car doesn’t have to be covered in traditional racing colors. A kid can turn one of the cars bright purple, green, blue or whatever color they happen to have in front of them.
That’s really the point.
Why I Think Cars Work So Well as a Coloring Book
Cars are almost perfect subjects for a coloring book. They have large areas that can be filled with color, interesting shapes, wheels, windows, body lines and plenty of opportunities for customization. Two people can color the exact same car and end up with completely different results.
That’s especially fun with kids.
A kids car coloring book isn’t really about producing a perfect finished drawing. It’s about giving kids something they can take ownership of. They can decide what the car looks like, what color it should be and even what kind of world the car belongs in.
Maybe one page becomes a classic muscle car sitting in a driveway. Maybe another becomes a crazy custom race car. Maybe someone decides that every car in the entire book needs to be neon green.
There are worse design philosophies.
From Photographer to AI Assisted Artist
Most of my creative work normally starts with a camera. I’ve spent years photographing cars, sports, people, events and places, and I’ve built my career around visual storytelling. Through Floored Media, I’ve also worked on video, podcasts, commercials and a wide variety of other visual projects.
This project was different because there wasn’t a physical car sitting in front of me.
Instead, I was creating cars that don’t actually exist.
That was probably one of my favorite parts of the process. I could take the things I like about different eras of automotive design and experiment with them without being limited by what a manufacturer actually built. AI made it possible to explore a huge number of visual ideas quickly, while I could concentrate on deciding which ideas were worth developing.
It was a different kind of creative workflow, but it still came down to the same thing I deal with in photography: making choices about what looks good and what tells the story I want to tell.
Book Purchase Link – https://www.amazon.com
The Work Behind the Pages
Once I had the basic artwork and direction figured out, there was still a lot of work involved in turning the images into an actual book. Creating a coloring book isn’t simply a matter of generating a bunch of pictures and putting them together.
The pages have to be formatted correctly. The dimensions need to be right. Margins and bleed have to be considered. The artwork needs to work at the final printed size, and the cover has to meet the specifications required for publishing.
I spent time making sure the pages worked as actual coloring pages rather than simply looking good as digital artwork. That’s an important distinction. Something can look great on a computer screen and still not be particularly useful when printed on a piece of paper with a box of crayons sitting next to it.
The goal was always to make something that felt like a real book.
Publishing the Book Through Amazon KDP
Once the book was finished, I prepared the files for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, or KDP, which allows independent creators to publish books without going through a traditional publishing company.
That part of the process was another learning experience. There are specific requirements for things like page size, margins, bleed, cover dimensions and file preparation. After working through all of those details, I submitted the completed coloring book to KDP for publication.
There’s something pretty cool about watching a project go from a random idea to something that can eventually become an actual physical book.
Especially when the project started with a simple thought about making some cool cars for kids to color.
What I Learned From the Project
The biggest thing I took away from making this book is how much the creative process is changing.
As a photographer, I’ve always been interested in new technology. Cameras change. Editing software changes. Social media changes. The way people consume photographs and video changes. Now AI is becoming another part of that evolution.
I don’t see AI as replacing the creative process. For me, it became part of the process.
I still had to come up with the idea. I still had to decide what I wanted the book to look like. I still had to experiment, reject ideas, make changes and figure out how everything would work together as a finished product.
The technology simply gave me another way to get from an idea in my head to something I could actually see and build.
A Book About Cars, Creativity and Experimenting
At the end of the day, this project brings together a few things I’ve always enjoyed: cars, photography, creativity and experimenting with new technology.
The finished car coloring book for kids is obviously very different from the work I normally do with a camera, but that’s part of why I enjoyed making it.
I’ve spent years documenting cars that actually exist. This time, I got to create cars that don’t.
And instead of photographing them, I turned them into something kids can color, customize and make their own.
Maybe the next project will be another coloring book. Maybe it’ll be something completely different. That’s one of the best parts about creative projects. You don’t always know where the next idea is going to take you.
For this one, it started with a simple question:
What if I made a coloring book about cars?
The answer became a book filled with fictional classic cars, muscle cars, hot rods and performance cars, created with the help of AI and a whole lot of experimenting.
Not a bad little detour for a photographer who normally prefers to be behind the camera.
GEAR
Link To ALL Gear – https://www.amazon.com/shop/jaybelsky