A Picture Book for the First Time in 10 Years: 3 Months Creating with AI
機械翻訳 / Machine-translated
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機械翻訳 / Machine-translated
The World of Art and Stories, Left Behind by Parenting
Sawai-san (38 years old) is a mother raising two elementary school children. On weekdays she works part-time in an office, and on weekends she's swept up in driving her kids to soccer and extracurricular activities. A perfectly ordinary, busy daily life.
But ten years ago, she had another side to her. While working as a graphic designer, she was aiming to become a picture book author. Every weekend she would open her sketchbook and draw stories of animals going on adventures. She even brought her work to a publisher once. She believed, "Someday, no matter what."
The turning point was her first pregnancy. Her health declined, and she quit her job. After giving birth, she was consumed by nighttime crying and nursing, and both the energy and the time to open her sketchbook disappeared. She kept telling herself, "Once things settle down again," but gradually she stopped saying even that. A palette with dried paint, an unfinished rough sketch — she pushed it all to the back of the closet.
In January 2026, a single post appeared in her social media timeline. It had the title "Tried making a picture book with AI," accompanied by softly styled animal illustrations. Her heart leaped. "This is exactly what I wanted to do."
That night, after the children had gone to sleep, Sawai-san searched on her phone for "AI picture book how to make." The articles that came up described a process of using conversational AI to organize a story and image-generation AI to create illustrations. No special software or skills required. All you need is "the desire to do it."
The next morning, she got up at 5 a.m. — an hour earlier than usual. She opened her laptop at the living room table and started talking to a conversational AI.
"I want to write a story about a little squirrel who lives in the forest and goes to see the ocean for the first time."
The AI returned thoughtful questions. What's the squirrel's name? What kind of personality? What prompts the squirrel to head for the ocean? It was a warm exchange, like a meeting with an editor. In 30 minutes, the backbone of the story was complete.
Next came the illustrations. She entered the scenes the AI had suggested into an image-generation tool. "A small brown squirrel sitting at the base of a large tree in the forest, gentle morning light" — seconds later, an illustration appeared on the screen.
She held her breath. It was the exact scene she had pictured in her mind ten years ago.
For the next three months, Sawai-san devoted every weekend morning from 5 to 8 a.m. to "picture book time." Three hours before the children woke up, with no one to interrupt her.
The first four weeks were spent refining the story. Through dialogue with the AI, the story was rewritten many times. The friend the squirrel meets at the ocean, what the squirrel learns on the way home, how to handle the final scene — the AI didn't give her answers, but asked questions. "In this scene, what is the squirrel feeling?"
From the fifth week, she began creating the illustrations in earnest. She generated rough drafts for each page using image-generation AI, and when she wasn't satisfied, she changed the prompts and generated again and again. "A warmer color palette." "Make the squirrel's expression look more surprised." — In total, she generated over 240 variations.
In the eighth week, Sawai-san showed her husband her progress for the first time. His words — "Wow, it looks like a real picture book" — nearly brought her to tears.
In the twelfth week, all 24 pages were complete. The front cover, back cover, and endpapers — everything had taken shape. What had been "someday" ten years ago had become "right here" in 90 days.
One Saturday evening, Sawai-san showed the picture book to her second-grade daughter.
"Mama made this?"
"Yeah, together with AI."
Her daughter flipped through the pages, returning to the same scenes again and again. At the final scene — where the squirrel comes home and tells the family about the ocean — her daughter looked up and said:
"Mama, amazing. It's a real picture book."
Those words were the greatest reward of all.
Sawai-san reached out to the local library and offered to donate a copy. The library accepted warmly. A month later, she received a message from them: "It's popular with the children and keeps getting checked out."
Surprised by the response, Sawai-san has already begun planning a second book. This time, a story about the crab the squirrel met at the ocean. The three hours every weekend continue to this day.
Cases like Sawai-san's are rapidly increasing as we move through 2026. As a form of "self-realization" upheld by HAIIA's three pillars, creative challenges using AI are drawing growing attention.
The process Sawai-san actually followed is outlined below.
Share the story's theme with a conversational AI and organize the character setup, plot, and how each scene unfolds. At this stage, rather than aiming for "perfection," the priority is to first establish the overall flow.
Create illustrations for each page using image-generation AI. What matters most is consistency. To keep the character's appearance, color palette, and art style unified, she first created one image to serve as a "style guide" and used it as the reference for generating all subsequent pages.
Adjust the details while balancing the text and illustrations. The placement of words, the rhythm of page turns, the feel of reading aloud — she checked everything by voicing it out loud.
These three steps can be worked through in dialogue with AI, whether or not you can draw, whether or not you're confident with writing. All that's needed is the desire to "bring something to life."
For those who want to learn AI skills in a structured way, HAIIA's certification program is also worth considering as one option.
Yes, you can. Sawai-san herself had almost no experience with digital illustration. Image-generation AI receives the words "I want a picture like this" and brings them to life. What matters is the ability to convey your image in words. Even if it doesn't come across well at first, accuracy improves the more you try.
It depends on the terms of service of the AI tools you use. Many image-generation AIs permit commercial use, but you'll need to confirm this beforehand. In Sawai-san's case, she first prioritized the experience of "having people read it" by donating to the library. Selling is the next step after that.
In Sawai-san's case, it was completed in approximately 36 hours — 3 hours per weekend × 12 weeks. That said, this is just one example. It will vary depending on the length of the story, how much you care about the details, and the tools available to you. Even starting small with "just try making one page" is more than enough to be meaningful.
There's something Sawai-san shared with me at the end.
"Ten years ago, I gave up because I didn't have 'the skill to draw.' But what I really needed wasn't skill — it was 'the courage to bring something to life.' AI made up for the skill. The only thing left was whether I would take that one step myself."
A dream you've given up on hasn't disappeared. You've only left it somewhere far away.
This weekend, try waking up three hours early. Open your phone and talk to an AI. Say, "This is something I always wanted to do." That alone is enough to set something in motion.
For those who want to connect with others who share the same feeling, like Sawai-san, check out the community page as well. You'll find that you're not alone.
Whether it's a picture book, music, a novel, or a podcast — the format doesn't matter. What matters is "trying to set it in motion, one more time."
AI will be the perfect partner for exactly that.
This article is reprinted from HAIIA Notes.