Latest Alcoholmarker painting

I finished this abstract painting yesterday. I had done a lot more planning with this one: In a first step I drew shapes on a piece of paper. I then selected the shapes I wanted to have on the painting, grabbed my light table and arranged the shapes on the paper. 

In a second step I went through my color swatches, went for a certain color combination and selected the markers which fit into the combo.

The rest was coloring and, at the very end, shading with inktense pencils. 
 

What to do with your AI Images?

I have been using my AI images for card design, for designs on my Zazzle store and I have been putting the images into frames and put them on the walls of my flat. Regarding the latter there is one problem: Here in Germany you do not find frames for square (1:1) images easily. But I have a lot of very nice AI images which are in the 1:1 format, and it would be a shame not to display them. 

Yesterday I suddenly rememberd that I have quite a few hard foamed panels. So I fetched one of them, grabbed one of my 1:1 images and mounted it on the panel. 

Fixing a thread on the back of the panel allows you to hang the panel on your wall. 

One tip: You have to avoid to apply too much pressure while cutting the board. Rather be patient and move the cutter to and fro as long as it needs to cut the board...

Edit old photos with Grok AI

I took this photo in 2010 when I was on vacation on the Darß together with my cousin. It shows a beach of the Baltic sea. The photo in itself is nothing spectacular. 

I have been using Grok AI for some time now. Grok allows not only the creation of images via inserting a prompt, but also the upload of images and the editing of them.

So I uploaded the above photo and wrote the following prompt:

beach at moonlight, rendered in the style of Daniel Merriam

You can see the result on the image on the right. 

By the way, Grok still allows to mention certain artists' names...

Having fun with alcohol markers the not so usual way!

Many years ago alcohol markers were all over YouTube. Coloring people were using them mostly, but there were some artists also who enjoyed drawing / painting with them. They created flower illustration, landscape paintings or illustrations in comic book style. Copic markers and swatches done with them were all over the place. Then, OHUHU markers appeared and got much attention because of the fact that they were sold at a reasonable price.

What I have up to now never seen on YouTube are abstract art pieces done with alcohol markers. This may be due to the fact that alcohol markers are not lightfast and you need to take some precautions for your art works in order to prevent fading. I usually scan my alcohol marker artwork and put the originals away. And: I work with rather small format. I have no studio, so I have to work small. However I deeply enjoy doing those abstract artworks, and although some of them might look similar, everyone of them is different.
 

The knight on the rock

This is the original image, created using Nightcafe Studio. A knight in a worn armour is standing on a rock at the sea, with waves crashing in and rain coming down from a dark sky.

Same scene, different style: The style is watercolor now, much lighter, sun coming in, the sea is much more peaceful. 

This image was created with the "Edit image" tool of Grok.

I haven't done much with this took yet, but everytime I use it I am amazed by its possibilities.

First September Abstract Marker painting

I tried something new this time: First I used squared paper to draw shapes in, then I transferred those shapes on Bristol paper, arranging them in order to create a nice pattern. I could have used my light pad for the transfer, but due to the fact that the sun was shining I simply used a window pane. 

It was the first time I used this method, but it won't be the last, as I am quite pleased with the outcome! 

And I must say that I really love the Bristol paper I am using with my alcohol markers!
 

Creating a comic book Page

 I love to create images with AI Art Generators, and I also love to tell stories, even in English, my second language. For a long time it has been eigher doing the one or the other. But now I can see combining those two. Here's an example:

I first created the image of a rearing black stallion in the desert, and then I thought: Why would this horse rear? Why do stallions rear? They do it for example when they fight with other stallions in order to prevent their mares from being stolen. 

So I thought of a short sentence which could introduce the reader to this situation.

I uploaded the image to photopea, changed the color of the text to white and inserted the text.

Then I exported the image as jpg - and voilà! My first ever comic book panel was created!