At the top, Dragon Empress; at the bottom, Empress Dragon. Both AI variations on the same source art, with differing word order.
Tag: Art and artists
Sep 19
The True Face of Sauron
Say the name Sauron and most people will think of this armored character from The Lord of the Rings movies, or a giant burning eye. But in the books Tolkien never spoke of Sauron’s Third Age physical form except in abstracts, saying only that he was “not fair” which could mean anything. So, inspired by …
Sep 12
Hot and Bothered
The very first story I had published professionally (which means, by my definition, I got paid for, and I could hold the book in my hot little hands) was about a woman who turns, or is turned into, an espresso machine, and all the various sensations she experiences as coffee and creamer emerge from her …
Sep 07
Worldbuilding Wednesday 9/7/22: Galaxies
Galaxies are one of those things that it’s easy to create a picture of. I remember in the 1970s all an artist needed was an airbrush, one or two pigments, and a fine paintbrush for depicting individual stars. When Photoshop and other painting programs came along, you could do the same thing with digital tools …
Aug 31
Worldbuilding Wednesday 8/31/22: Monarch Portraits of
xxxx Narnia (Narnia XLIII)
I’m going to do something different for this post of WW. I’m going to post AI-created portraits of randomly generated Narnian monarchs using StarryAI. (Starry-Eyed, get it?) These monarchs are intended to be used in Narnian fanfics, but they could be used in any work of fantasy fiction as well. First, Queen Thuma of the …
Aug 17
Worldbuilding Wednesday 8/17/22: Nymphs and Satyrs II
xxxx(Narnia XLI)
In this post I’ll talk about how Lewis wrote his fauns and satyrs, which are not the most child-friendly of mythological beasts. Are you ready? Because everything you think you know about them is wrong. First of all, the original satyrs of Greek myth did not have goat legs, horns, and tails. Those were attributes …
Aug 15
Jadis 2022: Artificial Intelligence
This post is dedicated to Janelle Shane, who sparked my interest in AI learning. ———————————————————————————————————- Now we’ll move out of the realm of the human artist and look at what art-creating AI engines can come up with. These engines work with a text prompt like “Fox in a field of flowers” or “Volcano erupting …
Aug 08
Jadis 2022: Nadir
Sometimes Jadis can’t catch a break. Take this artist’s depiction for a Portugese language version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Not only is she dressed in a sackcloth shift, but she’s a hag, with pointy nose, deep frown lines, and gray hair. Well, actually all of her is grayish-blue. She’s staring intently …
Aug 01
Jadis 2022: Zenith
In this post I’ll present depictions of Jadis that are my personal favorites and catch something of her character. First, take the above. I doubt it’s meant to be Jadis, and the Gothic church background, with pews, is all wrong, but that costume is something, and so is the blank but dreadful look in her …
Jul 28
Aslan’s Cousins
Aslan, the God figure in the Chronicles of Narnia series, is but one of a long line of powerful sacred, mythological, or supernatural lion creatures. And no wonder. Lions are apex predators, golden as the sun in color, and the males have a kingly mane. Tigers may be larger and more eye-catching, but they lack …