AI vs ME

Glaucus Atlanticus Mermaid © 2022 Darcien Balog

You know I never thought I'd say this: but slugs can be beautiful. I know right? Slug? You may have already guessed that I am referencing sea slugs. Even sea worms. Yeah–not all worms are bird food.  ​

Glaucus Atlanticus

When I first saw the Glaucus Atlanticus sea slug I couldn’t believe the graceful beauty. By now my family is really tired of me talking about this creature, but I can’t help myself. It is just so intriguing. It reminded me of an elegant woman dressed to go to a formal affair. Fast forward to Photoshop II class. Our first assignment was to combine and blend two images. It was the professor’s way of assessing our knowledge of the Adobe program. I was a beginner on the cusp of intermediate. 

​I found an image of the Glaucus Atlanticus on the internet and an image of a woman standing on the beach from Pexels. This was the result. ​

Glaucus Atlanticus mermaid © 2020 Darcien Balog

I got an A. I mean, it was only the first assignment and I turned it on time. More of a pass or fail, really. ​

Get Ready to Rumble

But recently, after my initial foray into AI art generation, I was left with a sort of dissatisfaction with results. It did ignite a desire to take my initial image and maybe do a digital painting of it, though. This post is mostly not about that. (Because I haven’t gotten that far yet.) No, this is about my attempt to get AI generators to see my slug–mermaid image the way I did, for it to look like the image I had created in Photoshop myself. ​

First, I brought my original slug-mermaid into Photoshop, pulled an image of a planet and an ocean scene from Pixabay. (That’s the image I am going to use as my inspiration for painting.)  ​

AI(s) turn

So, then I pulled up StarrAI on my phone. ​

Ugh. Double ugh. I ran out of free credits. So my son introduced me to Dall·E Mini (which is becoming Craiyon). Way not cooler. ​

Lastly, Wombo Dream AI.

Conclusion?

What have I concluded? AI will continue to help conceptualize ideas that are eluding me. But I will stick to compositing my art myself for final product. ​