70s Classic House - £25.00

70s Classing House

£25.00

This digital hand-drawn illustration is part of the House Series, celebrating the charm of mid-century modern architecture with a fresh, playful perspective. The artwork features a pastel pink and white home with sharp angular lines, geometric windows, and manicured greenery that highlight the timeless elegance of retro suburban design. A bright blue sky serves as the backdrop, enhancing the dreamy yet nostalgic atmosphere of the piece.

Style

Digital hand-drawn architectural illustration with clean lines and retro-inspired colors

Subject

A pastel mid-century modern home with geometric design, angled roof, and lush landscaping

Background

Soft blue sky with watercolor-like clouds, adding lightness and warmth to the composition

Series

House | Building

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Retro Shock - £25.00

Retro Shock

£25.00

Retro Shock is a digitally hand-drawn portrait from the Pop Nostalgia Series, radiating bold expression and electrifying charm. The figure, styled with voluminous dark waves, dramatic brows, and square statement earrings, exudes vintage glamour with a modern twist. A vivid yellow brushstroke cuts across the eyes, amplifying the sense of surprise and attitude, while a hot pink halftone background and golden floral pattern complete the striking pop art aesthetic.

Style

Digital hand-drawn illustration with pop art and retro influences

Subject

A stylized portrait featuring a glamorous figure with voluminous hair, bold brows, and statement accessories

Background

Hot pink halftone backdrop with golden floral detail, heightening the drama and nostalgia

Series

Pop Nostalgia Series

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Retro Girlie - £25.00

Retro Girlie

£25.00

Retro Girlie is a digitally hand-drawn portrait from the Pop Nostalgia Series, capturing the charm of 60s-inspired fashion and beauty. The artwork highlights a glamorous figure with bold winged eyeliner, soft peach lips, and statement pink flower earrings. Set against a halftone pink backdrop, the piece radiates retro femininity while embracing the playful energy of pop art.

Style

Digital hand-drawn illustration with pop art and retro influences

Subject

A stylized portrait of a glamorous figure featuring dramatic eyeliner, peach lips, and bold floral accessories

Background

Pink halftone backdrop, amplifying the vintage pop aesthetic

Series

Pop Nostalgia Series

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Bonjour - £25.00

Bonjour

£25.00

Bonjour is a digitally hand-drawn portrait from the Pop Nostalgia Series, celebrating vintage elegance with a bold pop art twist. The artwork features a confident figure with striking red lips, a classic headscarf, and oversized sunglasses obscured by a vivid blue brushstroke. With its halftone textures and vibrant palette, the piece channels retro glamor while embracing modern artistic flair.

Style

Digital hand-drawn illustration with pop art and retro influences

Subject

A stylized portrait featuring a glamorous figure with red lips, sunglasses, and a vintage headscarf

Background

Soft textured pink halftone backdrop, enhancing the nostalgic pop aesthetic

Series

Pop Nostalgia Series

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Neon Glaze - £25.00

Neon Glaze

£25.00

Step into a bold fusion of vintage and modern with this pop art–style illustration of a black woman, inspired by 1940s fashion and portraiture. Drawn in a traditional pencil style and digitally enhanced, she wears her brown hair in a classic bun against a textured, old newspaper ink–style background.

A striking magenta paint swoop across the eyes adds a modern, rebellious edge to the composition, while the cool blue backdrop creates a vivid contrast that makes the portrait pop. Perfect for collectors of retro-inspired or contemporary art, this piece celebrates beauty, history, and self-expression.

Style

Traditional pencil drawing + digital pop art

Subject

Black woman, 1940s-inspired with bun

Background

Old newspaper ink-style texture with blue backdrop

Series

Pop | Nostalgia - Bold, retro, and expressive

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Honey - £25.00

Honey

£25.00

Bring warmth and sweetness to your space with this digital illustration of “Honey,” a beautiful cat rendered with soft detail and care. The pastel green background gives the portrait a fresh and calming vibe, perfectly complementing Honey’s personality and markings.

Part of our Pet Series, this artwork blends clean digital linework with gentle colours to create a piece that’s both personal and timeless — ideal for cat lovers, pet portrait collectors, or as a heartfelt gift.

Style

Hand-drawn digital illustration

Subject

Honey the Cat

Background

Honey the Cat

Series

Pets

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Sage - £25.00

Sage

£25.00

Celebrate the charm of your favorite feline with this digital illustration of “Sage,” a black and white cat, captured with personality and affection. The rich green background sets off the cat’s distinctive markings beautifully, creating a vibrant yet calming portrait.

Part of our Pet Series, this artwork is perfect for cat lovers, friends of Sage, or anyone who enjoys modern, colorful pet portraits. It combines clean digital artistry with heartfelt character — a timeless keepsake or thoughtful gift.

Style

Hand-drawn digital illustration

Subject

Black and white cat named Sage

Background

Green

Series

Pet

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Bobtail Cat - £25.00

Bobtail Cat

£25.00

Celebrate feline charm with this digital illustration of a Bobtail Cat, beautifully capturing its distinctive short tail and soft features. The turquoise-blue background provides a fresh, modern contrast, making this portrait perfect for cat lovers and art enthusiasts alike.

Part of our Pet Series, this artwork blends clean digital linework with vibrant color to create a piece that’s playful yet elegant — ideal for home décor, offices, or as a thoughtful gift for cat owners.

Style

Hand-drawn digital illustration

Subject

Bobtail Cat

Background

Turquoise/blue

Series

Pet

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The IKEA Effect and the Rise of the ‘AI Artist’

There’s a peculiar psychological phenomenon known as the IKEA Effect — named after the Swedish flat-pack furniture empire. It describes how people place disproportionately high value on things they’ve partially created themselves. In other words, if you build it (even just part of it), you’re likely to love it more.

You spend an hour assembling a wobbly bookshelf, and suddenly, it’s not just furniture — it’s a personal triumph. A reflection of you. A thing you made. That pride and ownership are powerful. But what happens when we apply the IKEA Effect to art — more specifically, AI-generated art?

The New Wave of “AI Artists”

In the past few years, we’ve seen a rise in people proudly calling themselves AI artists. Using tools like Midjourney, DALL·E, or Leonardo.Ai, users input a few descriptive words — a “prompt” — and in seconds, a beautiful, fully-formed image appears.

The result can be stunning, surreal, and emotionally evocative. And yet… the person behind it has only provided the ingredients. The AI is the real chef. Or rather, the entire factory.

This is where the IKEA Effect kicks in. Because the user typed the words, they feel they’ve created the art. Just like assembling a table with Allen keys, that sense of partial authorship gives them a burst of pride — and for some, that’s enough to claim a title like “artist.”

Prompting ≠ Craft

Let’s be clear: Prompt engineering is a skill, especially when creating complex or consistent series of images. But is it the same as studying anatomy for years to draw a human figure? Is it the same as mastering oil paint, or understanding light and texture, or dedicating your life to understanding how art moves people?

Many traditional artists feel a growing sense of frustration. They’ve trained for years — often at great personal and financial cost — to hone their craft. And now, a person with no formal experience can type “renaissance-style portrait of a cat playing the violin in a flower field” and get instant praise, clicks, or even paid commissions.

That’s not to say AI art can’t be beautiful or meaningful. But should it be valued the same way? Should the prompt engineer be celebrated like a painter, illustrator, or photographer?

Art vs Assembly: The Emotional Disconnect

Art is often about the process — the hours of sketching, revising, reworking, and the human stories behind each mark. AI shortcuts this entirely. There’s no mistake-making, no happy accident, no soulful imperfection. It’s mass generation dressed as creativity.

AI art feels good to the maker, because they’ve added the egg to the pre-made cake mix. But that’s not baking. It’s assembling. And while there’s nothing wrong with a Betty Crocker moment now and then, we should be careful about how we frame it — especially when real bakers have spent years perfecting their recipes.

The Economic and Cultural Shift

There’s also an economic layer here. Many artists now find themselves priced out of commissions — replaced by AI tools and those who can use them to undercut with speed and scale. Others see their styles mimicked and their work fed into the very data sets that power these AI tools, without permission or credit.

This isn’t just about individual recognition — it’s about the value we place on human creativity in a world increasingly defined by machines.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Dismiss the Makers

The IKEA Effect can be a wonderful thing — it reminds us that participation creates pride. But in art, we need to ask: How much participation is enough to justify the label of “artist”?

At Flaminky, we believe creativity comes in many forms. AI can absolutely be a tool in the creative toolbox. But let’s not forget — or undervalue — the people who have dedicated their lives to understanding and creating true art.

Because in a world where AI can do almost anything, what might become rare — and truly valuable — is the human hand, human struggle, and human story behind the work.


The Hidden Environmental Cost of Your AI Prompt

When we ask artificial intelligence to generate an image, video, or piece of writing — whether that’s a holiday itinerary, a blog post, or a deepfake of a celebrity eating a Greggs sausage roll — we rarely think about what it takes to make that response happen. It’s just a line of text and a click, right?

Wrong.

Behind every AI-generated answer is a massive environmental footprint, one that’s growing faster than we realise — and that footprint has a name: data centres.

The AI Industry’s Dirty Secret

Every time you interact with AI — whether it’s ChatGPT, Midjourney, DALL·E, or Google Veo — your request is processed by thousands of computers stored in vast server rooms. These servers don’t run on magic. They consume electricity, pump out heat, and require huge amounts of water to cool down. This is particularly true for large language models and video-generation AIs, which are computationally intensive.

And with the world’s obsession with AI skyrocketing, the environmental cost is scaling with it.

Water: The Invisible Cost of Intelligence

A single AI model, during its training phase, can consume millions of litres of water. When AI companies say they’re “training” a model, they’re essentially putting thousands of GPUs (graphics processing units) through months of high-intensity computation, which generates immense heat.

How is that heat managed?

Water cooling systems.

According to a 2023 report, training OpenAI’s GPT-3 in Microsoft’s data centres consumed approximately 700,000 litres of clean water. And that’s just one model. Every AI response you prompt after that adds to the ongoing usage. Meta, Google, and Amazon also use millions of litres of water per day to keep their AI servers stable and functioning.

Electricity and Carbon Emissions

It’s not just about water. AI consumes an astonishing amount of power, often sourced from fossil-fuel-heavy grids. In 2022, data centres accounted for roughly 1–1.5% of the world’s electricity consumption — and with AI exploding in popularity since then, that figure is only climbing.

To put things in perspective:

  • Generating one AI image can use as much power as charging your phone 30 times.

  • Training a single AI model can emit up to 284 tonnes of CO₂ — that’s the equivalent of 60 petrol cars driving for a year.

What Even Is a Server Room?

Imagine a gigantic warehouse filled with rows upon rows of machines stacked in towers — constantly running, constantly humming, constantly consuming power. These are server farms, and they’re the backbone of the internet and AI.

The irony? Some of these server centres are now being built in deserts, including Arizona — one of the driest places on Earth — where water for cooling is already in scarce supply.

AI Sustainability: Greenwashing or Progress?

Tech giants like Google and Microsoft claim they are working towards carbon neutrality and “green AI.” Some are investing in air cooling, renewable energy, and liquid immersion cooling (where servers are dunked in non-conductive liquid to keep them cool without evaporating water).

But critics argue these efforts are slow and performative — especially as companies race to release bigger, faster, and more powerful AI tools without pause. If each model release requires exponentially more energy, is “sustainability” even possible at that scale?

What Can We Do?

We’re not saying “don’t use AI” — it’s an incredible tool and part of the future. But we need awareness and responsibility. Here’s what that can look like:

  • Use AI mindfully — not just for novelty or spammy content.

  • Support AI tools from companies making transparent, measurable green efforts.

  • Advocate for tech policy and regulations that hold AI companies accountable for environmental impacts.

  • If you’re a creator, brand or business, ask how your content is being made — and what it costs the planet.

Final Thoughts: There’s No Such Thing as a “Free” Prompt

Just because AI feels weightless doesn’t mean it’s without weight. Every time we ask a bot to dream, something in the real world works harder, burns hotter, and drinks more water to make that dream come true.

At Flaminky, we believe in technology that not only fuels creativity but does so responsibly. In a world increasingly shaped by code, it’s time we thought beyond the keyboard — and considered what our prompts are really asking of the planet.