"SUSSEX, ENGLAND" This is an illustration I made for my friend Heather. I misremembered that her birthplace was in Sussex, (it's in Kent) but she approved of the hydrangeas anyway. |
"HENDRICK HUDSON" This promptograph, created on May 15, 2023 by The New Place, is the first one I created that seemed perfect upon generation. The subject is Washington Irving's Hendrick Hudson as he was played by Yours Truly on stage in 1978. The uncropped version is a full-body portrait which shows him as a gnome, (as was I.) This has indeed become a t-shirt. |
"THE BOOKSHOP I OWN IN MY HEAD" Check out my Dark Academia Gallery for photos I've taken that pay tribute to all things bookish and academic. Oh-- and my Reader's Twin Cities blog that reviews places to sit and be absorbed in a book. Is it any wonder I generate AI images of bookshops? |
"JACK THE RIPPER" The prompt was "Jack the Ripper in the style of Edward Gorey." I haven't had much luck in producing images that resemble Gorey's work. This one doesn't, but it has many merits of its own. |
"PILGRIM" I transcribed the opening lines of my favorite book by my favorite author, Timothy Findley. Unfortunately, the novel's language, (that made me fall in love with Findley's writing) failed to prompt AI in a way that included all the details: the private garden, his white pajamas, his Royal Blue silk robe, his bare feet and the chair that he carried. Abandoning my method, I switched to a graphite illustration style. By happy accident, I got this, which I think is beautiful. And, since Pilgrim is a resident of a sanitarium later in the book, I think it's remarkable that this does indeed look like the facility grounds. |
"CLASSICAL ACTOR" A happy accident. The day it was announced that Glenda Jackson had died, I found a photo of her playing Bernarda Alba in the production I saw in 1987. I ran it though someone else's arcane-but-fascinating prompt and got this guy. I should have just called him Leslie Howard. His left hand came out hopelessly mangled. The fix came about when I sent the image through another app. and then used the hand it created. It isn't a style match but the promptograph is cool enough, I don't care. |
"SHAKESPEAREAN ACTOR" I desperately wish I could claim more active involvement on this one. The prompt was "Shakespearean actor stands in front of an elaborate set." With very little tweaking, this was what was generated. Oh, that we could see this on stage. |
"INFERNO'S EMBRACE" This was the first time it occurred to me to use AI to create AI. I logged onto ChatGPT and asked it to write me a prompt for an oil painting depicting England battling the Spanish Armada in 1588. What I learned is that AI can be quite adept at describing the emotional essence of a piece of art. The fury and terror I inadequately described to it was turned into an eloquent and effective description. |
"THE PARTING OF THE WATER" When experimenting with text-generated images, you quickly learn that sometimes you get things nowhere near what you expected, but they are really cool on their own terms. The prompt was: "Two men seen from behind. They are walking on a pier. It is raining and there are storm clouds above. In the style of Jack Vettriano." I'm not sure what part "they are walking on a pier" AI didn't understand, but we now have a promptograph of biblical proportions. |
"DARK NIGHTS ON BBC RADIO" This one is album art! I bundled all my BBC Radio 4 horror anthologies together in an album and then set out to create the album cover. This is it. It looks like the radio is sitting outside on a porch which was not my intention, but I'm thrilled with the distressed radio itself. That was achieve by using a base image which I'm still learning to use. TIDBIT: the title Dark Nights On BBC Radio was generated by ChatGPT. Yes-- when it comes to something as trivial as a playlist title, I'll turn to AI! |
"LUCIFER DESCENDING INTO PANDEMONIUM" I'm cursed with the ability to think up great ideas but the inability to fully make them happen. I wanted to create an image of the moment Lucifer transitions into Satan. I figured he'd do so at the moment he descended into Pandemonium-- the beautiful angel he had been would become the unspeakable horror of Dante's Inferno. Deep Dream kept wanting to make him a video game stud and so I turned to Deep AI and that managed to create the basic image you see here. Then I fed that image into Deep Dream along with the ChatGPT prompt. I like everything but the lack-of-detail in his face but I LOVE the fact that it picked up on his anguish and rage. An expert could really make this pop but dammit I got there first. |
"RURAL VIEW" I wish I could take credit for this but this was basically leveraging off of someone else's clever prompt. The buildings are totally impractical but the color scheme is gorgeous. |
"SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES" This was a "grab bag" illustration. I typed the quote into the prompt and this came out. Score! |
"WHAT'S HE BUILDING?" Technically, this image was generated by the same Macbeth quote I used for the previous image. But the more I look at the image, the more I think of Tom Waits' song. |
"MR. DE BERGERAC'S UNCONVENTIONAL LOVE LIFE, Image 1" Every now and then AI goes so far off script the result is hilarious. For now anyway, artificial intelligence seems woefully ignorant of Edmond Rostand's immortal romance Cyrano de Bergerac. Oh, it knows he had a big nose but that seems to be the limit of its knowledge. Who Roxanne is-- and even her species-- remains a mystery to the power that will take over the earth soon. |
"MR. DE BERGERAC'S UNCONVENTIONAL LOVE LIFE, Image 2" No, I didn't prompt this. In fact, I prompted "Roxanne and Cyrano." The result confirms my suspicion that AI is developed by Generation Z. I guess it was just a matter of time before Christian dumped Roxanne and decided to hook up with the guy who writes all the pretty words. |
"LONDON CAFE" Haven't a clue what all the little balls of things are. But they sure appear popular and he's considering getting one. |
"SPOONBRIDGE AND CHERRY" In the style of Kenton Nelson |
"ANOTHER SHAKESPEAREAN ACTOR" This one tones down the scenery and allows his costume to pull focus. Yummy. |
"SUNFLOWER HOUSE" I think I forgot to prompt the word "landscape" and so I got a close-up. Cool anyway. |
"SATURDAY AT THE MOVIES" Totally in love with the Harlem Renaissance style. This was my first attempt. |
"MYSTERIOUS TOURISTS" Two mysterious tourists arrive in a small village in northern Italy. |