Experimenting with the future today

Like no small number of people online of late, I've been experimenting with artwork that's created by Artificial Intelligence. For the most part I've been making use of the Midjourney engine over at their Discord page.

Let me say right up front, I more than realize the controversy surrounding AI-crafted art. I understand why no few artists and other creative types are against this artwork. Really, I get it. As a writer and designer, technology has been working to replace me in one form or another for the last 30 years. Hell, I used to be a newspaper journalist, and that industry is all but dead nowadays.

I'm sorry, but the ship has sailed. The cat is out of the bag. And there is no going back.

Instead of railing against it, perhaps it's time to start trying to find ways to make use of AI within the art communities. Because the possibilities could be fascinating, even endless.

For myself, I see how art from AI could be used for book covers. I've even toyed with the idea of writing a graphic novel utilizing AI art.

Also, as I've pointed out elsewhere, health issues these last few years have put a damper on my writing abilities. Yet with AI art used for a graphic novel, I could potentially keep making stories while the AI would handle much of the heavy load of creation.

Anyway, whether like me you find the possibilities of AI art interesting or you hate it and want it destroyed, below are a handful of examples of the AI art I've recently come up with. (PS: You can click on the images to see larger versions with more detail.)

Practice paintings of old

I have not touched a paint brush in almost a year, and I have not posted anything here about my painting in quite a while, yet I have been feeling the itch again lately and am preparing to start up again.

To those ends, I recently cleaned out the building where I used to paint back in the woods behind my house, and I ran across a number of small practice pieces I thought worth posting here. All of these were done in order to test out a new brush and/or a new technique. None of them are great, but I find them of interest for one reason or another, and they are different than the direction I'm thinking of heading with my next painting sessions.

Anyway, here they are.

Next 2 covers for print projects

These are about finished, though there is still some tinkering to be done.

Some new covers and recent artwork

Though I've been busy with the holidays, writing, and other projects, over the last month or so I have managed to get some painting done. I'm gradually going through and adding some new covers to some of my longer works, as well as having the occasional fun with more abstract works.

At the left is my new cover for my novel Dark King of the North. It's not the greatest cover, probably not even my final one, but it is better than the cover I've had for the last few years. If you click on the small images, a larger image will appear, allowing you to glory in all my imperfections.

Also, there at the left is a cover for an upcoming shorter work, Shieldbreaker: An End to Rage, which focuses upon my Lerebus Shieldbreaker character, who before now has played mostly minor roles in a couple of my novels. I'm doing a series of five short stories about Lerebus, tying up some loose ends (at least in my own head), before Lerebus eventually plays a larger role in some of my future novels, eventually probably to have a trilogy of his own (there's a desert, a city under siege, lots of undead things walking around ... oh, but it's probably years from now before I get around to writing it ... tease, tease).

Below are a couple of my abstract works, the top one titled "Ice I" and the second "Ice II." Here, as I often do, I was playing around with some colors and a few different brushes, my focus more on the texture of the paints than actually creating visual images with them. Though quite plain, I think these two pieces work. If you you look closely to the right side of "Ice II," you will see a little strip of the actual canvas; this is because I wanted it there, because for some reason I like the look of it, the look of paint at the edges of canvas.

'Ice I'

'Ice II'

One thing I've had brought home to me of late is that when it comes to brushes and paints, quality does matter. It had been a long time until recently that I had bought any new acrylic paints, and I found the prices have skyrocketed. So, trying to save a few bucks, I opted for some cheaper paints. I paid the price, and find such paints difficult to work with. As for brushes, it had also been a long time since I had bought new brushes, and my favorites are worn out to the point of being mostly unusable. I didn't want to go cheap on my brushes, but I found the sizes and shapes of certain brushes were no longer being made by the companies of my choice, so I opted for similar brushes made by companies with less than stellar reputations for quality. Again, I paid the price. For now, I'm making use of these cheaper paints, but eventually they will be gone, and as for the brushes, I'll keep my eyes open for other possibilities. I've even contacted a few companies which make brushes, hoping they'll bring back some of my favorites or perhaps have some old ones in stock in a warehouse somewhere, but so far I've not heard back.

As for my painting skills, I think they've taken a hit of late, for a variety of reasons. The crappy paints and brushes didn't help, and then I've not had a lot of time to paint of late, rushing through want painting I've done. My skills are not all that great, but I hope to keep improving, and at least I'm enjoying it.

A different kind of Christmas present

Every year I try to surprise my significant other with a Christmas present that I know she will not expect from me. Some years I'm more successful than others. This year I pulled off the ultimate, giving her something she never would have thought I would have come up with. As you can see below, it's a doll house, about two feet tall. But no, I did not go out and buy this doll house. I had to buy the wood and the instructions for putting it together, but I fitted it together, glued it, and painted it myself. I took me about a month, a few days each week slipping away to my writing tower/cabin where I had everything hidden. I think I did a pretty good job. It's not perfect, and I can find a dozen things I'd like to change, but below it is. I apologize for the awful quality of the images, as my computer's camera isn't all that great.

2 new fantasy e-book covers

Though my blog has been a little quiet of late (for me, at least), I've still been working in the background. In the writing arena, I'm working on some short stories I owe to anthology editors. In the painting area, I've been doing a little dabbling here and there, and working on some new e-book covers.

First up is the new cover for my novelette, The Castle of Endless Woe. I detested the old cover, mainly because it was thrown together quick to get this short piece of fiction up online. I finally got around to doing a new cover. I like this cover, put together of a painting I did of a tower and some background work in Photoshop. I'm not suggesting it's the greatest cover ever, but it is much improved over my old cover. I can live with it for now. If my painting skills ever get to a much higher level, then I might paint another one. One thing unique about the tower painting here is that I did not paint it on canvas, but upon a hard acrylic board, which I kind of like; it gives the painting a different quality, allowing the textures of the paint to stand out better instead of just the texture of a canvass (I'll probably be experimenting more with this).

Next is the new cover for Road to Wrath: Book II of The Kobalos Trilogy. I added a new cover to the first book in this trilogy a while back, and I've been meaning ever since for a new cover for this second book. And yes, eventually there will be a new cover for the third book in the trilogy as well as a new cover for the prequel short story (and for some of my other Ursian Chronicles e-books). Again, this isn't the greatest cover ever, but I like it, also put together with a painting from me of my Kron character and a simple background made in Photoshop. Of all the people I've painted over the last few months, I believe this one is the best I've done in terms of the facial features. Hopefully my skills there will keep growing.

Now if I can only paint hands and clothing better.

Sometimes painting is not art, just practice

Anyone who has had a painting class at some point or another probably remembers hours upon hours spent painting still-life images, baskets of fruit, vases of flowers, etc. It can be quite boring. But these exercises are important in many different ways, the least of which is getting beginners familiar with their tools, the brushes and the actual paints and the canvasses. These exercises can also teach basic color theory, and can help the beginner become more familiar with shading, mixing paints, and a thousand other little details.

Though I don't bother with baskets and vases, from time to time I do work on a painting exercise, projects not meant to be seen by anyone but me. Sometimes those exercises are fun, and sometimes I like the outcome. Sometimes not, on both counts.

For example, the little piece at left, which I call "armor," is obviously not a complete painting, nor is it meant to be. I looked up some images online of various types of plate armor, and my goal was to focus on a shoulder piece, which is why this painting is rough around the edges, not complete. It's only meant to focus upon that shoulder.

Surprisingly, I found "armor" a fairly easy piece of work, and enjoyable. Also, I think it turned out pretty nifty.

I wish I could say the same for the little painting reproduced below, which I call "castle tower."

At first glance, "castle tower" might appear to be a completed painting, but it isn't. I might get around to finishing it some day, but my heart's not really in it. For one thing, I don't care for how it turned out.

And honestly, the goal behind "castle tower" was to experiment on a few different things. I was trying out some new brushes and some new paints, and I also wanted to experiment on a few different techniques, none of which really turned out well, in my opinion.

But one learns through trial and error, so I'll keep trying and erroring.

2 more possible new e-book covers I've painted

I took a chance last week and uploaded a new cover for my fantasy novel City of Rogues, a cover I had painted then fixed up a little in Photoshop. I freely admit I am not a good artist, though I do think I have pretty strong design skills. That being said, I've been quite astonished. Since uploading that new cover, my sales and freebie giveaways have jumped quite a bit, noticeably so.

What this means is, I've been painting more covers, giving it a try. I'll try to upload some more. Time will tell if this helps even further with sales. I hope it does. A couple of my practice covers are at right.

In other painting news, I've been contacted by a beginning children's writer who is considering commissioning me to do a cover for her first e-book. This was quite a shock to me. To repeat, I'm not a good artist, and I make no claims to being one. Painting is more of a hobby to me, something fun to do while listening to music. Becoming a cover artist is not in the works for me, not something I'm interested in pursuing for other writers; even if my skills improved a whole bunch (which is not impossible with more practice), I don't think I'd want to become a regular cover artist, not unless maybe the pay was really, really good. Maybe. Still, I put something together and e-mailed a copy to the writer. I'm waiting to hear back from her, and if she approves my painting, then we'll move ahead. I'm not charging her much, only $25, but as I've pointed out, I'm not a professional artist and have no real desire to become one. If she uses my painting for her cover, I'll make sure to include that cover here with a link.

On another related painting matter, brushes can grow old, they can become worn out. While I logically knew this was possible, it has not been something that has been a problem for me until recently. My favorite two brushes are worn to the point that I almost can't use them any more. What makes it worse is these two brushes are nearly 20 years old and the company that makes them is no longer in existence. You might think brushes are not that big of a deal, that I could pop off to an art store somewhere and buy replacements. It's not that easy. I have another dozen or so brushes of varying sizes and qualities, for different uses, and I do make use of those some, but the two brushes I need to replace are my main painting brushes, what I use for about 90 percent of my painting. Finding the same sizes, types of bristles, lengths, etc., I'm finding is not an easy task. There are thousands upon thousands of different kinds of brushes out there, but finding exactly what I want is turning into a chore. Meanwhile, I'm making due with my two brushes, though I don't know for how much longer, and I'm getting by utilizing some of the other brushes for purposes they are not necessarily meant for. I'm getting by. But I need some replacement brushes.

Also, I'm having to buy new paints for the first time in more than a decade. What I have found is that paints have become much more complex, with a lot more companies n the mix, and a lot more different styles of paint from the older companies. Used to be there were only a few companies that put out acrylic paints, and maybe a couple of dozen different colors with a handful of other, oddball colors one would rarely, if ever need. Now there are hundreds upon hundreds of different colors, and even then there are different quality levels of the paint. As with many things, I'm finding you get what you pay for. The cheaper acrylic paints tend to be quite watery, almost like water colors, and don't cover the canvas well, at least not without multiple coatings (which goes against saving money by buying cheaper paints). The top of the line paints I'm finding a little too heavy, too thick for my preference. So, for the most part I'm sticking with middle-of-the-road paints, ones not for beginners but not necessarily for professional artists. It's working, so far.

I've also been thinking about painting on other backdrops than stretched canvas or canvas board. One problem I run into is that I don't have a good enough camera for shooting pics of my art, so I have to paint small and scan in directly on my flatbed scanner. This is not optimal. The light from the scanner can affect the painting. The texture of the canvas shows through. So, since I can't currently spend big time money on a big time camera, what I need, I'm going to try painting on smoother surfaces, ones that won't show a texture when I scan. I've considered wood, but it's a bit pricey for what I'll be doing. There are hard flat, art boards specifically made for acrylic painting, and I'm considering giving them a try once I run out of canvasses; still, I can see some drawbacks to using these boards, in large part because they are smooth and painted white, which will be difficult to cover with the few cheap paints I still have. I really need to get a good camera, though, because often I think one of my paintings looks better on canvas than it does after I've scanned it in, a lot of the detail work being lost, especially with lighter colors.

So, that's life in my world of acrylic painting of late.

My latest art projects

I've not posted much lately about my art projects, but that does not mean I have not been busy painting and working in Photoshop. Actually, I've been quite busy.

For the most part I've been working on mock-ups of potential book and e-book covers. I'm not sure yet if I like any of these enough to actually make use of them, but I've been practicing with new covers for e-books and books of mine that already exist, so the images with this post might have some familiar titles on them.

For some time I've been contemplating new covers for nearly all my books. Some of them were designed several years ago for the then budding e-book market, and I feel a number of them need a fresh approach, hopefully one that is somewhat more professional looking or at least fun, potentially drawing in readers.

I admit, I'm not a good enough artist for this project, but I'm enjoying it, and I like the idea of doing my own covers.

I've found I have the best luck painting the central image in acrylics, then scanning that in and doing the foregrounds and backgrounds in Photoshop. Or at least that's how it seems to me. Others might think I would do better taking a different approach, but again, I'm interested in what I'm doing and entertaining myself. Time will tell if that transfers to the readers.

Will any of these ever see the light of day beyond this blog? I don't know. They're not great artwork, but at the same time they're as good if not better than a lot of indie e-books I've seen. Does that make them good enough? I don't know. I'm still trying to work that one out.

All 5 covers for my 'Mage Hunter' series

With the release a few days ago of my new five-part Mage Hunter series, I've been asked, "Are you really going to have all five parts available?"

The answer is, obviously, a resounding "YES!"

As evidence of this, I thought I would give a very slight preview. No, not any of the story, but the covers, all five of them, the first one at the left and the others below. So at least everyone will know that much has been accomplished (actually, a lot more work has already been done, but this gives me a chance to show off my covers).

Also, for anyone interested, for a very limited time, Mage Hunter, Episode I: Blooded Snow is free over at Smashwords.

New art ... 'Tavern'

'Tavern'

This is the acrylic painting I've been working on this week. Again I made the mistake of working on a more complex subject on a canvas too small for it, but I still think there are signs of improvement here.

I generally like this piece. I'm not crazy happy with it, but I think it's better than some I've done.

I might make use of it on a book cover. Not sure about that one yet. I'll have to see if I can make it work, and perhaps make it look a little better, in Photoshop.

Series announcement and new art

I've been kicking around the idea of writing serial fiction or a series for some while now, so I thought I would test the waters with a five-part series. If I enjoy the process, and if it turns out to be somewhat successful, I have plans for future projects. Time will tell if this works for me.

This first series is title Mage Hunter, the first book being titled Mage Hunter: Blooded Snow. It should be live in e-book format on Amazon and B&N on Monday, August 27, and available about the same time on Smashwords and its related sites (since I have little control over actual publishing dates at Smashwords, I can only guess when my e-books will appear on the sites to which it distributes). Each Monday thereafter for the next month, a new episode of Mage Hunter will appear, each being approximately 20,000 words. Through Nov. 1, each e-book will be priced at 99 cents apiece. After Nov. 1, those prices will rise. I will also eventually publish an omnibus edition collecting the Mage Hunter episodes into one package, but I have yet to decide upon a particular date for that.

The first episode of Mage Hunter has been written, edited, formatted, and is ready to go. I'm not releasing it just yet, giving myself a little time to work on the other episodes, which have been started and are in various stages of completion.

The covers, however, have all been completed. You can see the first of them at the top of this post. Each cover actually consists of two paintings, one being my 'Background' piece and the other an icon figure related to the story, in this first case a salet type helmet. The blue leather backdrop to the whole cover was something I came up with in Photoshop, the covers themselves being put together in Photoshop. I think they're pretty cool covers, and I'll release the others as time draws near for each episode's release.

I really hope this series works for me. Until recently I had never really considered writing serial fiction and its like, but I'm kind of drawn to different ways to tell stories, and this one I find appealing, worth trying and tinkering with. Also, I've got a lot of story ideas which didn't seem to fit the more traditional molds of the novel or the short story, and I've never been quite sure what to do with these tales, but now I find many of them would lend themselves well to a serial story format.

For those who are interested in such details, the story of the Mage Hunter series is part of my Ursian Chronicles, the same world as my Kron Darkbow and Belgad characters, though this tale takes place a couple of generations before the births of those characters. Mage Hunter is an origin story of sorts concerning one Guthrie Hackett.

Artwork ... 'Gunslinger'

'Gunslinger'

This simple painting continues the trend of a dark, single figure against a lighter background which I started with my "Dee" painting and continued to lesser success with "Bandito." I like this one better than "Bandito" but still not as much as "Dee." I'll have to work on that. I might take another stab at something along these lines.

As is obvious, here I went with a much more silhouetted form and not the blurry, scratched figure of the earlier paintings. This was intentional, but also an experiment. And while the title might think I am referring to the Stephen King character, I don't feel the guy in my painting is anyone nearly as noble as the fallen Roland Deschain. No, I think of the character in this image as more dark, possibly robotic, akin to the android played by Yul Brynner in the film Westworld.

Another thing I enjoyed about working on the piece was the play with the bright colors of the yellows and burnt sienna with a dash of darker shades here and there, as contrasted to the plainness of the all black cowboy figure. I find it interesting the number of faults the paint can actually conceal, but at the same time can make others stand out.

Again, I'm no great artist and don't plan to be, but I'm enjoying myself with my simple paintings, and soon I'll be revealing five new e-book covers, each containing simple works painted by me but also some fancy work I did in Photoshop (a medium I'm much more experienced with, though I don't consider myself a genius with Photoshop). These e-books will be part of a serial tale I'm working on, the first part already complete and bits of the others started.

I'd also like to add I'm finding of interest the differences between painting and writing, or at least the differences I am discovering. Painting has a feel, a flow to it that I find lacking in writing, not that that's good or bad, just the way things are. The paint brush feels almost like a living thing in my hand, telling its stories but not necessarily mine. I control the tool, but it doesn't necessarily do what I want or how I want. Perhaps that is a sign of my being an amateur, but I'm also finding it somewhat liberating.

Artwork ... 'Bandito'

'Bandito'

This is sort of an abstract piece, though not quite. The germ of the idea for this painting began when I was reflecting upon an earlier piece of my art, my 'Dee' painting. In that painting, I was focusing on scratching out or sort of blurring the singular character within, in part because he is a mage of sorts. "Bandito' came about while I was thinking about how to expand upon the notion of a dark, blurred central figure within a painting.

I admit, this is not a favorite piece of mine, and I think the earlier "Dee' painting works much better. Still, there's a quality of this painting I kind of like, the textures of the yellow with the canvas, though unfortunately most of that is lost in the photo image above. The central figure here is more cartoonish than I anticipated, but the general feel I was going for is mostly there. The yellow, too, is a bit brighter here than in the actual painting, being washed just a little with a light brown shading.

Still, even when I'm not overly fond of one of my pieces, I don't consider it a waste. Each is a learning experience, an experiment with the brushes and the paints.

Artwork ... 'Blue'

'Blue'

The reasons for the title of this one should be fairly obvious. I was doing some more experimenting painting with a palette knife, with the idea in the back of my head that I might be able to use this painting as part of a book cover in the future. I'm not sure that's going to happen, but I'll test it out at some point.

Though this is the only painting I've put up in a little while now, I've actually been painting quite a bit. Another painting might be up for view on this blog in the next day or two, but a handful of others I've been working on won't be available for public viewing for some little time. Why? Because they are part of some e-book covers I'm still working on for a serial fiction project I'm writing. Once all the covers are complete, I will show them off. So far, I really like those covers, and I've got four out of five finished.

Artwork ... 'Background'

'Background'

This is a simple painting. The title comes from what I have in store for this piece in the future. It will be the background behind another piece of art, perhaps several pieces of art. I have an idea for a series of paintings, which will be related to a serial novel I'm working, basically with a different painting appearing on each cover of the serialized story (which I'm planning to tell in five parts of about 20,000 words each). I wanted similar backgrounds for each painting, and then it occurred to me, why not have the same background for each. This is the modern age! Technology is at my fingertips! So, I've painted this image first and plan to combine it with my future paintings in Photoshop. Does this make sense to anyone but me? If not, it will once the finished products are presented, which might take some while as I've still a lot of writing and painting to do.

The feel I was going for here is kind of a mixture. I wanted to represent a deep, dark storm, but also sort of an old, tainted leather kind of look. I think I've pulled this off. My colors were green, red, orange, and just a hint of burnt sienna here and there; the mixture tends toward a dark browning with hints of the original colors here and there, which is what I had hoped would happen.

Also, I wanted to point out that the middle area of this piece is dark on purpose. That is the general area where other images/paintings will be placed.

Not my favorite piece, but I think it works.

Artwork ... 'Randall at the Tower'

'Randall at the Tower'

I will freely admit, I hate this painting. The perspective is way off, which is what I get for not drawing out at least a basic diagram in the first place. Then there's the fact the subject matter is far too expansive and complicated for the small, 11 X 14, canvass I was using.

If you can't tell, that white blob is supposed to be the back of a white cloak. The figure in the cloak is facing a door to a building. The detail needed, or at least the detail I wanted, should have involved a much larger canvas, one that would have allowed to add the detail I wanted. Such was not possible here.

But, I'm still learning and picking up things after years of not painting. I can chalk this one up to another lesson learned. I might revisit the subject matter one of these days with a larger canvas. Maybe.

The title and the image are of my Randall Tendbones character, a healer in my fantasy chronicles. Randall plies his trade, so to speak (technically he works for free), at one of two towers within the city of Bond. The healing tower where Randall works is actually not truly a tower, though the large building is round. I was trying to show a night image of Randall approaching one of the side entrances to the tower. I think I failed miserably.

However, I do kind of like what I did with all the bricks and stones in the wall, the slight texturing effect.

Artwork ... 'Metallics I'

'Metallics I'

This was really more of an experiment than what I think of as true artwork, even abstract art, meaning there was little intent behind it as far as content. I have some gold, bronze and silver paints which are fairly useless to me. I've been wondering what to do with these paints. Sometimes I can use them as filler, to stretch other colors a little, but the shine from these paints often disagrees with whatever I'm doing on the canvas. I find these metallic paints limiting in their use, and they don't really work as well as one might think for painting images of metal objects because their gloss tends to push the light in directions unwanted.

I've also been meaning to try painting with a palette or painting knife, something I had never done before. So, I figured I've got all these metal paints and I've got a painting knife I've never used. Walahh! What I came up with is the image you see above.

The reason this piece is titled "Metallics I" is because I have another idea for an image that will likely be called "Metallics II," whenever I get around to it. I still have quite a bit of these metal-colored paints, and while I don't necessarily want to deplete my complete supply in case I should ever need them (the bronze in particular comes in handy with darkening or browning of other paints), I still would like to use up more of what I've got.

As for using my painting knife, I found it an interesting experience, but I'm not sure it's something I actually want to try to paint with on a regular basis. It does really bring out some texture, and I hope that shows up in the image.

Also, now that I think about it, the randomness of this creation of mine might make it truly more abstract than any work I've ever done. Or maybe not. Maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. Either way, it was a fun experiment.

Another painting ... 'Dee'

'Dee'

This particular piece might seem somewhat or partially abstract, but it's not. The title comes from my John Dee character, an undying mage with Bibilical ties who appears in a number of my short stories, though I've not written anything including him for some while now (I will eventually, I'm just busy on other projects). Several of my stories with Dee have revolved around the Middle East, ancient and modern, so I often imagine him trudging through the deserts of that part of the world. This painting came from that notion. I intentionally made the dark figure of Dee on the right blurred to give it a look of a spell of sorts shielding him from view.

This was also the most simplistic painting I have done since taking up the brush again, but it is one of my favorites so far. I still show little talent, but perhaps I can get better with more experience. Also, though it does not appear well in the scanned image above, I made use of gold and bronze paints here to give a glinting, sort of mirage texture to some of the desert. I like this painting enough that I will be using it in part on an upcoming e-book cover.

Abstract art ... 'Digital'

'Digital'

This is my first piece of abstract art in more than 20 years. Not great, but it was interesting to me to put together in acrylics on canvas board.

I've titled it "Digital" because I was going for the colors and sort of the feeling of the falling digital numbers that appear at the beginning of the Matrix movies, sort of my reflection of where the digital age has taken us. You might notice there is a lot more black than color. You might also notice there is a fair amount of silver. These are intentional. Think about it. I'm not one to generally explain my art, visual or written, because I want the viewer/reader to think for themselves, to come to their own conclusions whether they match my own or not.

Also, you might notice in my paintings I'm putting up online that there are sometimes odd lines or smudged places near the center. This is because my scanner is not nearly big enough to the whole canvas, thus I have to scan the paintings in a portion at a time. I've tried using various cameras to try to capture images of my paintings, but they look even worse. Anyone have a good idea of the best manner and/or camera for taking photos of paintings?