Asked for a Chicken, Got an Egg: A New Appreciation for My GPS Art Mentor
Runner’s Rings now has a GPS Art beta that turns an AI sketch into a possible road route. The drawings have plenty of personality—and sometimes very little resemblance to the request. Building it brought plenty of laughs and a renewed appreciation for my GPS art mentor.
“Draw me a chicken.”
The result was a round outline with a tiny eye and beak.
Had it gone back to being an egg?
Meet the wonderfully awkward artist behind Runner’s Rings’ new GPS Art beta.
Enter what you want to draw, and AI creates a sketch. The app then simplifies its outer contour and looks for a possible road route using your starting point, target distance, and other settings.
It sounds straightforward. Building it was another story.
A cat with something growing out of its head
Ask for a dog, and you get something that might be a dog. Ask for a cat, and mysterious spikes appear on its head. Cars and airplanes receive equally creative interpretations.
Even when the sketch works, fitting it to roads can change its shape. Sometimes the distance or direction constraints prevent a suitable route from being shown.
I created a chicken sketch with a 5 km setting, then changed the route setting to 10 km before getting a candidate. A dog failed at 10 km, while moving the starting point helped in another attempt.
Drawing a picture and drawing that picture with roads are two different challenges.
A renewed appreciation for my GPS art mentor
This experience reminded me just how impressive my GPS art mentor’s work is.
Looking at a map, keeping the subject’s recognizable features, connecting everything into a route—and then actually running it to create the artwork.
I already admired the finished results. Trying to build this feature helped me understand a little more of the skill behind them.
An AI drawing alone is not GPS art.
Working within a road network means deciding what to keep, what to leave out, and which roads will make the subject recognizable.
That takes observation, creativity, and judgment. This project gave me even more respect for my mentor.
Keep improving—and enjoy the mistakes
Calling it a quirky artist does not mean giving up on quality.
There is still room to adapt the drawing to the target distance, focus on a face rather than a whole body when appropriate, and preserve recognizable features while simplifying the outline.
We will keep improving what we can.
But I also like the idea of an app where unexpected results can make people laugh.
“I asked for a cat. What is this?”
“Having an off day, artist?”
“Did you draw the chicken before it hatched?”
Feel free to give our artist some friendly teasing.
You can play without running
You can enjoy this feature simply by making sketches.
Request something, laugh at the unexpected result, and try a road route if you like the drawing.
Runner’s Rings is about preserving the life you run. Now it also has something to enjoy before you head out.
The beta is free, and creating sketches or routes requires login. Service congestion, usage limits, and drawing or road constraints may prevent generation.
Routes are suggestions. Before running, check local access, traffic conditions, and safety.
Our artist is still learning. We will keep helping it grow.
What would you ask it to draw?
https://runnersrings.com/gps-art.html