And there's just no answer to this... The word is gobsmacked.

Today's adventures in AI and Photoshop. Let is be understood on Day One, I do NOT approve of AI art ... which is why each of these images is heavily painted, reworked, turned into something new. Honestly... the artist in me is just about to throw up hands and tear out hair. I did these in Lexica AI + Photoshop (80% of one, 20% of t'other) in less time than it took me to drink a cup of tea. No exaggeration. On the one hand, I'm gobsmacked, waaaay beyond amazed; on the other hand, I'm appalled, because I have this vision of people forgetting how to paint, because you basically tell the AI what you want and it gives you something you can work with ... maybe not anything like what you imagined, but something -- at a fidelity, a resolution, that you would work days or weeks to achieve with a paintbrush. Argh.

Speaking purely as an artist, frankly, I find it scary. Verrrry scary. I mean, it's fun, and hobbyists like myself will be enjoying the heck out of this, but why would a publisher hire an artist to paint for a week for hundreds (or even thousands) or bucks, when you can type in "fantasy warrior, man, long black hair, longshot, full length, Frank Frazetta, silver armor,  broadsword, full face, brooding, stormy sky, not portrait," and it hands you the base canvas for this? I shipped them all into Photoshop and added birds, smoke, clouds, fire ... changed the eye colour, added feathers in his hair, dodged this, burned that, saturated the colour ... and signed off on it. And frankly, I'm a bit sheepish about signing off on something that is really only 25% me. 

In fact, the whole concept of AI art has been bothering me for some time, which is why I find myself so bemused to be doing this stuff for the fun of it. As soon as I really learn how to do this, I plan to use AI elements and feed them into Krita etc, to be forged into new and utterly unique PAINTINGS ... by the time I'm done, the result will be my work, no one else's ... at which point the source images are no different from tracing over a photo to get a rough guide from which to paint. AI will be incorporated into my work as a replacement for the beaucoup bucks I can't spend on 3D props any longer. I ain't got the cash, and like any boot-end artist these days, I don't expect to get any more low price gigs. AI has made sure of that. Still, it's humungous fun, and it'll give me the ability to do more and better paintings, when I fully learn this. But -- honestly ... sigh.

 

Adventures in Krita, and explorations into AI. Gasp!

So ... where have I been for so long? Short version: 2022 "did a number" on me, and although I've started to make the journey back to health and strength, there's a (very) long way to go yet. For the longest time, I wasn't able to do anything much of anything. Then, on top of everything else I got Covid, and took months to throw it off -- the truth is, it's six months later, and I still haven't recovered a hundred percent...

In that time, art and writing have been next to impossible. I think I've written four short stories in the last year; and four items have been published, or are about to be (I just posted to my writing blog, bringing that up to date with scribbling and publishing) ... but writing new stuff? Painting? Rendering? That's been too much to even contemplate, till these last few weeks. Then...

Couple of things: I've gotten my feet wet with Krita. Full-on painting. Soooo much to learn, before I start doing exotic young hunks, (nudge wink) so I might as well learn on cats and owls and flutterflies, right? Krita is a LOT of fun. If you have any interest, it's open source, free forever, and looks (to me) to be just about the equal of things like Corel Paint, perhaps not quite on the same level with Rebelle ... but these progs are prohibitively expensive, while Krita is ... well, it's free. It's Krita.org, as far as I know, not dot-com.

The great news is, the Huion tablet is on and working, and is fan-flipping-tastic. It's making it possible for me to actually sketch and doodle. The squirrel pen and ink image was my first ever foray into the program, and it really is pen and ink. The owl was my first full-on true painting. I need to buy some extra brushes -- acrylic brushes, oil brushes, watercolour brushes, textures. Very soon, we'll be off to the races.

And just as I discover this, along comes the wonderful world of AI. Well, now. The truth is, since  don't have much of a cash flow, DAZ is a bit too expensive for me. All I can do is work with the existing props and sets and costumes, and one has to say, there's only so many ways you can rearrange them before you start to recognise literally every element of every picture. But with AI, it's free, incredibly fast, and amazingly vivid. 

The Chris Foss style heavy industrial spaceship image took minutes. Seriously. Argh. Urgh. You want stuff like this? Seconds, and there is is...

I do believe I have just heard the death knell for many, many forms of art. Unless DAZ can make its product more affordable AND easier to render on systems which real people (not industry pros, or companies chucking around tonnes of money) can afford, more and more people will drift away to AI. In fact, I'm heading in that direction, as well as long, slow, laborious painting in Krita. But I do want to be painting those exotic young hunks, and you do have to start somewhere, so ... here we go. Starting. 

The Goblin Queen ... and this is bizarre!

 

Going through old posts, I just realized something utterly bizarre ... this portrait was never uploaded. How bizarre is that? And I know, I haven't posted here in about a year. 2022 "did a number" on me. In the interests of survival, something had to go on the back burner, and art was it, because I'd reached a point where DAZ was crashing more often than not, the video card I can afford (two and a half grand's worth) won't come anywhere near to rendering Genesis 8 plus dForce, and my new Huion pen tablet, which was intended for drawing, just will NOT work ... and so on. So it was an easy choice to make: side-line the art. Come back later.

Well, "later" turned out to be over a year, in which time I've been injured, ill, had my husband in the hospital with ten broken bones, been published professionally, written a novel, and done many other things ... but I haven't put pencil to paper to even doodle. No art. And I'm starting to miss it. I'm also moving back into a time when I think I have the time to get involved again, so ... here I am.

So, having been out for a year, I thought I'd touch down on the DAZ store and see what I missed --

Michael 9 ... Genesis 9 
Not my render: I don't own it

What have I missed? Well, for a start, they're up to Genesis 9 now. Meet Michael 9. Now, I'm having enough trouble rendering Genesis 8! I've been seriously thinking about going back to Michael 4, to get something done rather than crashing the system! Also, the Aussie dollar is so weak now, I shudder to think what it would cost to invest in Genesis 9. Which is a crying shame, because...

...it's absolutely amazing. Huh. I can wish, I suppose, but right now I'd have to win the lottery to get back into this game, and we all know the chances of that. So ... back to the earlier models, and we'll just work with what we have. I'm about to start again, because I'm actually missing art a lot. The first place to start is to rework some old pieces. I have a story to upload to my writing blog, and the old art, now many years old, needs a thorough polish. Result --

Not too shabby. And yes, it's storybook, not photoreal; but there are times when storybook is not a bad goal to be aiming for ... especially if you happen to be telling a story! So, where to begin?! Where indeed...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Yes, I know, this blog is being dreadfully neglected -- to the point where I wonder if it can be salvaged, or if it would be easier to launch another. But no, I haven't given up art, even though I'm writing more and more ... and it's fair to say, the kind of art I'm doing lately is rather different. 

If you'd like to see almost everything I produce, you can see it right here, where I post to the Renderosity Group on Facebook. And if you're curious about what I'm writing, and where it's being published (yes, I'm being published), check out my writing blog, which is loaded with art as well as free reads, and reprints of things that appeared in print some time ago, plus announcements on those (admittedly fairly rare, still) occasions when a story is being published. 

On this troubled New Year's Eve, let me take a moment to wish everyone a safe New Year, and I'll add a personal wish. May 2022 be a garden, tranquil, restful, peaceful, filled with the scent of flowers, the hum of bees, birdsong, and a cat on the lap or a dog at feet, or both. To family and friends everywhere -- be happy, be safe. And as the saying goes, "See you next year."