"Drawing" the Mona Lisa with GPT-5.6, Claude, Gemini, and Grok
tryai.dev
July 21, 2026
10 min read
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47/100
Summary
Four AI models, GPT-5.6, Claude, Gemini, and Grok, were tasked with drawing the Mona Lisa on a blank canvas using colored pencils. Each model executed strokes, blended colors, erased, and evaluated its work to refine the drawing.
Key Takeaways
- Four AI models—GPT-5.6 Sol, Claude Fable 5, Grok 4.5, and Gemini 3.6 Flash—were tested in a drawing task to reproduce the Mona Lisa and Van Gogh's Starry Night, resulting in 28 total drawings.
- GPT-5.6 Sol achieved the highest structural similarity scores when compared to the target images, outperforming the other models.
- Claude Fable 5 required significantly more time and resources to produce worse outputs than GPT-5.6 in the drawing task.
- The drawing arena setup is open source and allows users to run their own tests with different target images or prompts.
Community Sentiment
Positives
- Grok 4.5 shows impressive performance, outpacing composer2.5 while maintaining speed — a sign of its potential in code-focused applications.
- LLMs are evolving rapidly and becoming smarter and cheaper, suggesting that today's limitations could lead to innovative uses in the future.
Concerns
- Many commenters find the image outputs childish and lacking depth, with models failing to grasp basic artistic concepts like shading and reflections.
- The general consensus is that these models are not image generation tools, leading to skepticism about their usefulness in creative tasks.
- Critics argue that the demonstration feels more like an advertisement than a genuine showcase of AI capabilities, with overall results being disappointing.
