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AI image of my favourite, most misunderstood and unfairly maligned King...
AI is cool, but I never get the same satisfaction as I do from drawing, photobashing, or making 3D scenes. 🙂
I would say AI is all about a quick fix for what you are looking for, but I take it that that isn't usually the case, unless you get lucky, or are well versed in the media.
:0/
@eelgoo, I agree. My AI has improved over time, but in essence, all it does is scrape the data of existing art created by others.
Here's the story of my artistic journey, and I won't make it long, in case I bore you!
I never thought I had any artistic talent. I was good at technical drawing - my dad was an architect and I take after him in many ways; as far as being adept at the logical side of things are concerned, but my mum was the artist in our family; as were my three siblings. It was only when I discovered deviantArt as a teenager and saw the amazing photomanips people had created - which actually looked like real paintings (I was really into all things gothic, back then) that I decided to give it a go. I downloaded the unfortunately named GIMP and attempted to create my own manips. They were woeful. Absolutely terrible; truth be told. But thanks to the professional artists, who were active on dA back then, I got a lot of help. When I graduated to using Photoshop - which was a doddle compared to GIMP (like learning to cycle on a penny farthing, then getting a regular bike) - my work improved. I went from basic photo manips, to overpainting, and from there to digitally painting and trad painting - something I never knew that I could do, as I had always been told by my sister: ''You and Dad are logic brained; Mum and us are artistic''. Granted; it didn't come naturally, but it was a proud moment for me when I earned my first deviantArt ''Daily Deviation'' along with a thousand plus favourites. Sadly, AI, it seems takes away the hard work, joy and pride of creating ''real'' art. I still dabble in it when I am bored and looking for inspiration, so I guess it has it's uses. 🙂
I don't think he was "unfairly maligned" very much myself, 200,000 people lost their lives in his wars, but that's another story. My father (ex-Royal Navy) was the musical one in our family who played clarinet and piano. He wasn't very good at either, which resulted in me learning a huge vocabulary of expletives from an early age. As for AI scraping data, this is exactly what we humans do throughout their lives.... nothing is original, everything is derivative, execution is the only thing that matters.
@frank22 I admit I'm biased, and with, IMO, just cause, but that's a story for another day and place....
Speaking of Grandpas - mine was in the Black Watch and was a half decent tenor. He was such an imposing man; he died when I was six, but I had a real fearful rrespect for him. lol
I get what you're saying with regard to AI, but when you form the concept for a piece - unless you're working on a commission - you put a little bit of yourself; if not a lot, into that artwork. During the darkest times in my life, I've used art and writing as therapy. There's a difference; again, in my humble opinion. between typing a prompt or using an image and tweaking it, and drawing or creating something straight from the heart. Giving a voice of sorts to all the emotions you suppress constantly, because stiff upper lip and all that. If you're like me and don't show emotion publicly - I didn't even cry at my beloved mum's funeral, because I'm uncomfortable around emotional displays, but art and writing are the mediums by which I vent. AI, can be lovely, but much of it is soulless. Then again; that's just my opinion.
@frank22 I think I more or less said that lol. It's fun to play around with it, but I much prefer the process of creating art.
There's some lovely art history YouTube channels I follow that give the story behind lesser known paintings and sculptures. 🙂
I meant wrong as it isn't "much of it" but nearly all of it, probably because it's so easy to churn out images. Some see historical art as privative but some of it was astoundingly complex and skillful. Velázquez was made Philip IV's official court painter, but if I was as inbred as Philip I wouldn't want anyone painting my portrait :).
@frank22 He was probably being told every minute of every day that he was the finest specimen of manhood alive, so he likely had no qualms when it came to having his portrait painted. The Habsburgs made incest cool long before the fictional Targaryens did! All joking aside; I think they sat for those portraits because it was par for the course at the time; a pictorial record, if you like; it was the same for him or any other person of import back then. Still is, despite a camera being used as opposed to oil on canvas. A lot of them didn't like sitting for a painting - particularly the less vain amongst them.
Speaking of paintings. You know that famous one of Boney crossing the Alps? He never posed for it himself, Jacques-Louis David's son positioned himself on a ladder as if he were on horseback, and David used a bust to paint Boneparte's likeness. In reality, Boney crossed the Alps on a mule in a greatcoat, not a flowing cape while riding a majestic stallion, but even back then, spin was all important.
Have you heard the eerie theory behind the The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck?Standing with his deceased wife? This wasn't considered creepy up until the 20th century. Families used to pose with their dead kin for photographs in the Victorian era.
I don't find it creepy, just really, really sad.
@frank22 I know. I have a morbid fascination with those memento mori photos. We consider it weird, but to the Victorians - especially the less well off - it was just a family photo with a deceased loved one; possibly the only photo they ever had of their family member. They didn't view death as we do; in one way, their outlook was far more healthy and pragmatic than ours. Ailments that are easily curable now, were a death sentence back then, so it was common for a working class Victorian family to lose one or more children.
There's a book for sale on ebay - or, rather there was - published back in those times, containing nothing but those post mortem pictures. It was a few hundred quid to buy. I wonder if anyone bought it?
I guess you're much younger/harder than me Charlie but at my age I find it heart-wrenching when those 40-50 years younger than me die. I think of all the things I've done since I was that age and all I would have missed had I died young. It's probably why I'm a devout atheist as no god would do this to children.
@frank22 I'm in my thirties. I like to say ''mid'' but in reality it's ''late'' thirties. lol
And, I feel the same as you do when it comes to people dying before their time; always did. I gave birth for the first time - to twins - last October and it's made me a little more thoughtful and less hard. I used to be a proper tough cow! Lol
When I see those images, as a mother, I feel deeply sad, but I try to look out through the lens of what the world was like back then, as opposed to viewing it as a person in the 21st century, where we have near miraculous medical treatments, and far fewer cases of child mortality than we had even a couple of decades ago - in the developed world, at least. I could discuss the theological aspect of it all, but I won't. What I will say is this: when I see a Nazi war criminal alive and well at 100+ years, having lived a full, healthy life, where they assumed a fake identity, married, had children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and evaded capture and notice for decades, seem so completely at peace when they are eventually apprehended; no signs of remorse whatsoever, and then I see a young child or a younger person, who lived a good life, was a decent, charitable soul and harmed none; it does truly boil my blood. My mum was one such person. She was kind, charitable and the best, most loving mother and she had her life cut abruptly short just before she turned seventy. My dad died tragically when we were young children, and she raised us by herself, never remarried, and poured all of her energy into making sure we had enough, making sure we got the best education that money could buy, making sure we were constantly assured of her love and dedication to us.
When she passed, just before Christmas in 2022, a week before what would have been her seventieth birthday, I was numb, but when the numbness passed, it was replaced with anger. Especially when I looked around me and saw that some of the most reprehensible people in existence were still drawing breath and enjoying good health well into their eighties and beyond. It all seemed so unfair, so I do understand what you are saying. I know my mum was sixty nine when she died, but, by today's standards, it's still too young - especially for a woman, when you consider that life expectancy for females is somewhere in the early eighties.
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