Nightcafe Studio's "Sketch to Image" Tool

Since the beginning of this week I have been experimenting with the "Sketch to Image" Tool provided by Nightcafe Studio, and I must say that I am a wee bit obsessed with this tool. 

It works quite simple: You upload one of your sketches, drawings, illustrations and add a prompt to it.

In 2022 I did this illustration of a fluffy monster with watermedia. 

It was the result of practising with brush and paints, and of trying to create on paper what I had in my mind.It is actually just a colored sketch. So I thought it might be a good image for trying out the "sketch to image" tool.

The image on the right is one of the results I got. As you can see, it resembles the start image quite a lot. In addition to that the prompt "cute fluffy monster" added a lot of fluffiness to the creature. 

So the "sketch to image" tool is more than just using a starter image (which I had done before with exactly the same illustration): it keeps the pose, the idea of the painting and adds some kind of perfection to it. 

Helpful Youtube Video on Mixing Purple

This is the beginning of a series of - very personal - recommendations of YouTube videos on all kinds of subjects regarding art. 

After so many years of doing art color mixing is still something I have to practise. Often I like the color combinations I managed to achieve, but more than once the color which I have in my mind and the color which I am getting on the surface is not the same. So I have been looking for videos on YouTube about color mixing (there are thousands of them there actually), and I found this one very helpful.

This is

Gouache illustration - Mask

Quite some time ago I had drawn this mask / portrait and colored it in with acrylics. I have kept the line drawing. Now I thought it would be time to try to color it with gouache. 

So I transferred the line drawing to a sheet of watercolor paper and selected the following paint tubes:

Burnt Sienna (Reeves)
White (Nerchau / Lucas)

In addition to that I grabbed Fir Green liquid watercolor (Ecoline) in order to tone down the Burnt Sienna. As a tiny droplet of this liquid watercolor goes a long way you have to be very careful and not take too much of it. 

I have several other line drawings and I definitely plan to color rhese with Gouache - I am having so much fun with it!

Having fun with the new Mage Space

Some days ago Mage Space came up with a new website, and as I am a very curious person I had to try it. I was very, very pleased with the results I got with this AI Generator. I have a free account and have unlimited generations - which is quite an extraordinary thing. In addition to that Mage offers so called "prompt filters". Instead of talking about them I give you two examples:

With this image I used the prompt: "a beautiful mermaid with long flowing hairs swimming underwater" and the prompt filter "Neo-Baroque" (Pack 1).

When you browse through pack 1 you get a huge list of prompt filters. Well, they are called "filters" but in reality they are different styles. I looked for a filter / style which would create something very different. 

So I chose "Watercolor 2", with the same prompt.

The result is really quite different - more of a watercolor illustration. It could serve as an illustration in a children's book, whereas I would not use the image above for that purpose.

Continuing to paint with Gouache

I managed to beat my painter's block and created a new Gouache painting. This time I added Ecoline watercolor ink to my palette of gouche paints, putting a drop of Forest Green on my palette. It is very strong, and I only needed a wee bit to create that greenish yellow. The yellow itself was more of a deep or golden yellow.

I also found my ideal palette, a paper tray / plate which is used for party purposes. After having finished the painting I can easily put it in the trash can. I know that there are some people use dried gouache, but then it loses its opacity, and the opacity of the gouache paint is the thing I am after.

Painter's block

This gouache painting is the last in a row of paintings which I did last week. I finished one painting and on the next day I prepared the paper for the next one. The day after that I began to paint, finished the painting, scanned and uploaded it.

Just now I got something like a painter's block and I really do not know why. I got the paper, got the gouache paints. But somehow doing other things seemed to have been more important. I am still in love with gouache, but maybe now painting with it needs a bit more planning, a bit of timeblocking? The first step could be to schedule time to jot down some painting ideas. This could include going through my digital AI images and selecting those which could work as reference images. Or go through my book "The Complete Color Harmony" and look for some color combinations. Or... okay, now that I am writing about it I have the feeling that the first steps are made to overcome painter's block!
 

What a difference a style makes

When I visited California in 2016 our group - of course - went to the Grand Canyon. I even dared to particpate in a Helicopter ride which showed us the gorgeous landscape from above. 

Now, that AI gives us the opportunity to create amazing images I wanted to recreate the Grand Canyon.

Here I used Openart AI with the prompt: 

Grand canyon, watercolor and ink, illustration

As you can see, this image would fit perfectly as an illustration in a children's book about the Grand Canyon!

However it is quite unspectacular, even a bit boring. 

So I changed the style of the image.

This time I used Mage Space and the following prompt:

"grand canyon in winter in the style of art deco"

The result is quite different! 

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

The Brandenburg Gate is one of the most known places in Berlin. The image on the left was created with Nightcafe Studio. I added "moonlit" in the prompt in order to create a bit of a dreamy atmosphere.

Other than that it looks quite realistic, a bit too realistic I thought. So I decided to play with the image a bit.

I used it as a starter image and added in the prompt:

"... in the style of Van Gogh". 

You can see the result of this addition on the right: The building itself was not changed much, but the foreground and the sky have a definite Van Gogh touch.

Enjoying color mixing with Gouache

For this painting I used:
Brilliant Red (Reeves), Ultramarine (Reeves), Blue Lake (Reeves), Golden yellow (Lascaux) and White (Lucas Nerchau).

 I tried to mix a darker red with adding Ultramarine to the Brilliant Red; I also mixed Blue Lake with a bit of Ultramarine in order to reduce its greenish hue. I did not do test swatches as I consider all these paintings to be test or practice paintings. I allow myself potential failures - after all every painting I do will teach me something. 

I also noticed that I enjoy every painting I do and that I am looking forward to every new one I will do. I do not know how long this joy will last - but just now I am very happy with it.
 

Using a gouache painting as starter image

Some days ago I did an abstract painting with gouache:

Now I wanted to have an AI version of it, telling the AI to create an image of an "abstract painting in cubist style".

Then I thought why not having the AI Generator create something very different from the starter image? So I told it to create an image with "mushrooms in a forest".

And it did! I must admit I had to play with the weight of the image a bit till I got the result above. 

Gouache and Colored pencils

As you can see I am still down the "Gouache" rabbit hole. This time I used "Golden Yellow" from Lascaux. The smallest size it comes in is 85 ml, and it is not cheap. However: I bought this bottle almost 10 years ago, and it still works fine. It is very creamy, and: it can be rewetted without losing quality. I also used "Indigo" from Schmincke (Akademie Gouache), and I noticed that there is a significant difference when you try to rewet it. So I think I will rather buy Lascaux Gouache when I need to restock my Gouache paints.

Another thing I learnt is that you can successfully apply colored pencils on gouache. Here I used a deep blue,