How to (nicely) add images to an entity

I'm looking for a way to nicely add images to an entity.

Currently  I have an entity with a 1-n to an image object, I show the images over the association in a list view and have a "create image" button to create a new image entity, so after that I can use the default image uploader to add a image.

But I do not like this way to manage the images, I want a to have the uploader available without pressing the "create image" button. 

What would be the best way to handle this? I was thinking to add a helper image entity to handle the upload process or to make it so that I always have one empty image entity in the associated list.