Happy Easter

Happy Easter! May your Easter holidays be peaceful, creative and joyful!

Two interpretations of Medusa

 I asked ChatGPT who Medusa was, and the answer is:

"Medusa was a figure in Greek mythology, known as one of the three Gorgon sisters. She possessed snakes for hair and a gaze that could turn anyone who looked at her into stone. Perseus famously slew her by using a mirrored shield to avoid her petrifying stare, and later used her severed head as a weapon."

Then I asked two AI Image Generators to create an image of Medusa. The results differed quite a lot.

This image was created with Nightcafe Studio. Without doubt the young woman has snakes in her hair, but I would not describe the look on her face as something which would turn you into stone.

Now Greek mytholody says that Medusa was a beautiful maiden till she got punished by the goddess Athene. Maybe we see her just changing into the monster.

The image on the right - created with Lexica AI - shows a bust of Medusa. She also does not resemble the monster which Greek mythology describes. In my opinion she looks like she's in pain, suffering, and her eyes are closed.

Both of the images made me think about Medusa.

Using Watermedia and Acrylics together

A few days ago I watched a video about using acrylics and watercolor together in one painting. It inspired me to try a similar combination in an abstract painting. 

I did not use watercolors - I used Ecoline and Tombow brush pens. Their ink can be dissolved beautifully with adding tiny bits of water. For the background I used some kind of acrylic craft paint. 

I must say that I quite like the result, and I definitely will continue to experiment with combining watermedia and acrylics!

AI versions of my Acrylic Painting

In my last post I presented an acrylic painting which I had done on the last weekend. Today I will show you two AI versions of it:

This was done with Playground AI, using the acrylic painting as starter image. There is quite a difference between the original painting and its AI version. However I like the way the orange / yellow / ochre colors have found their way into the digital image.

Here is the AI version I got from Limewire AI. It is much more similar to the acrylic painting and has a painterly, watercoloury look. 

Painting again with Acrylics

It's been a long time ago since I've last painted with acrylics. Some say, acrylics are an easy medium - not with me, I must say. I've tried them a few times, was not satisfied with the result and then switched over to other mediums, like alcoholbased markers for example. 

However, sometimes watching me a certain video makes me want to try a medium again, and so I grabbed a piece of watercolor paper and some acrylic paints and created this painting on the left. I did it - like I always do - without any planning or preliminary sketches. This is something which may work or not - and I think I have actually have to do more planning and sketching before I actually begin to paint. I used colored pencils also, something I want to explore more. 

And I definitely want to use this painting as a starter image with some of my AI Art Generators!

Abstract alcoholbased marker painting No 5

Up to now I haven't found an artist on YouTube who does abstract art with alcoholbased markers. Yes, there are some artists painting abstract art with acrylic markers, but not with alcoholbased ones. This has very much to do with the size of my paintings. With these markers I do A5 sizes (about half the size of a letter size page). I haven't actually counted the time I need for such a painting, but often enough it takes longer than I expected. 

However it is such a joyful process that for now I cannot stop creating those paintings!

Happy Easter keychain

This design has got a story: A long time ago I had drawn and painted the cute bunny with some waterbased markers, scanned the painting and uploaded the image file to Zazzle. This year I thought why not redo the design in AI, using my own painting as a starter image? 

As you can see it worked!

Cute Bunny Happy Easter
by ullahennig

Working with PromptComposer

I learnt about PromptComposer via Twitter. This online tool allows you to search for prompts. I am always keen on trying out new things, so I had to give it a try. I submitted the words "tulips watercolor" and got the prompt: "photo realistic  clipart  watercolor art of a cute  adorable  pretty chocolate candy  easter bunny  sitting in a woven basket with beautiful colored easter eggs  daffodils and tulips".

There is one disadvantage to the tool: it only searches Midjourney prompts, and I am not using this AI Art Generator. The first AI Generator I used the above mentioned prompt with was Stablecog, and here is the result:

As you can see you have a bunny in a basket, colorful easter eggs, but no daffodils and tulips. Instead of the flowers you have some nice butterflies flying around the basket. 

In addition to that I did not quite like the position of the eggs - some are kind of hovering in the air.

So I decided to use another Art Generator and to change the prompt a bit.

I went to Freepik.com and changed the prompt to:

"photo realistic  clipart  daffodils and tulips watercolor art of a cute  adorable  pretty  easter bunny  sitting in a woven basket with beautiful colored easter eggs  full body"

With moving "daffodils and tulips" to the beginning of the prompt I obviously managed to make them appear in the image. In addition to this the easter eggs are now nicely arranged either in the basket or in front of it.

So I learnt two things:

1. PromptComposer can serve as a basis - you have to know that the result of the prompt you are given there may not work in a satisfying way with Art Generators other than Midjourney. 
2. The ability to understand Midjourney prompts may differ from one Art Generator to the other. 

Abstract marker painting No 4

 I changed my style a bit with this one, using a STAEDTLER pigment liner for the ink lines. In addition to that I changed the paper: I used coated paper. Coated paper does not allow the ink of the alcoholbased markers to be sucked in that quickly as paper does which is not coated. The ink stays on the paper. The markers do look a bit like watercolor. Another effect of the coated paper is that the markers do not bleed. 

Fluff and Snuggle

 

In the heart of a whimsical forest lived a furry monster named Fluff. He lived in a tiny little house visible only to himself. Despite his fearsome appearance, Fluff had a heart as soft as cotton candy.

Every night Fluff would retreat to his hut among the fir trees. There was only one room in the hut with a big cozy bed and a tiny table. Fluff had a big cup of hot cocoa and then he curled up with his most cherished possession - a tattered old teddy bear named Snuggle.

Snuggle had been Fluff's faithful companion since he was just a little monster, and together they had shared countless adventures. From climbing mountains made of candy to sailing across seas of dreams, Fluff and Snuggle were inseparable.

And so Fluff wrapped his arms around Snuggle and drifted off into a peaceful slumber. And in those quiet moments, surrounded by the warmth of friendship and love, even he could find solace and contentment.

Abstract stained glass

This abstract stained glass image was created using my latest marker painting as starter image. If you compare the two images you will see that the AI Generator (in this case: Openart AI) only used some of the colors but apart from that created a totally different image.

I love stained glass art in general and I love how this style is represented in the image on the left. 
 

The Joys of Journaling

 I do it every morning. I sit down with a nice cup of tea, fetch my journal and write. Sometimes I focus on the things I did the day before. It may sound strange, but reading this kind of entry a week later or so gives me a good feeling of how much I actually can get done in a day. Sometimes I focus on my social activities like meeting friends for a lunch or dinner. Sometimes I focus on the art activities of the day before.

I like to decorate the entries with stickers; and I like to use journals with a nice cover. 

Maybe you are looking for a notebook which you find aesthetically pleasing - so why not go and have a closer look at this journal? 

Colorful abstract flowers Spiral Notebook
by ullahennig