The Spring Equinox is on the 20th of March – next Thursday! We just had a lunar eclipse and then there will be a solar eclipse on the 29th. In case you didn’t know, eclipses always come in pairs. It’s been a busy month in the astral sphere! Over the last two weeks, I have been out in my garden, sowing flower seeds, pruning, digging, and generally mucking about. I just bought a fabulous generally eco-friendly small electric garden wood chipper and made a bunch of mulch for one of my flower beds. This made me so happy! Totally stoked to make my own mulch.
I finished my latest artwork a couple weeks ago – gardening has taken priority, getting my yard ready for summers glorious production. So, the making of art. This latest piece includes a female image that is AI generated via Photoshop. I had been playing around with it and decided to see how it would work in an mixed media piece.
When making an AI image, it is all about text to image generation. For instance, I typed into the generator something like female holding a crystal ball; long flowing hair; facing forward; shaman; witch. Add in style, technique, art period, etc, and then hit generate. Three images will appear to choose from, either to go ahead and use or riff more images from one most similar to what you want to end up. Fingers are a bit difficult to generate and probably feet/toes too. You will get reasonable facsimile fingers, which you can fix in Photoshop later or paint it in.
I settled on an image, and placed it into Photoshop in the size dimensions I needed to fit the support and general design. I wanted a more otherworldly lighting effect and played with the PS settings until I got close to what I wanted. It is printed on mulberry paper via my Cannon Pixma, fixed and glued on to the support. Acrylic glazes were used to heighten color, diminish certain areas, outline and define. I was thinking in terms of the tree of life – Yggdrasil, and sacred geometry. All the paper I used was cut out with a small pair of scissors and a exacto blade.
I am still working with the mulberry paper and the printing process. I need a thinner paper for gluing onto the support. Not quite happy with the color, I think the paper doesn’t lend well for color brilliance, perhaps absorbs the ink too much. It is good for sepia or black & white tones with a matte finish. Paper, obviously is a primary part of my process. It has to take the ink without smearing and be thin enough to glue easily. I will have to ponder on this and do some research.
Below is an unaltered AI image – just to give you an idea of what you can produce. If you don’t have the cash to pay for a model, this could be a good way to go. The text to image went something like: Celtic Shaman female; wearing a lace dress; Deer ears; jewel necklace; flower crown with antlers. The image looks like a real female. Amazing, and since playing with AI generated images, I have become quite skeptical of too perfect images found on the web.
Sacred Spiral Design 