AI Art, Odd Little Stories, short stories

My Very Own Opera Star

part 1 ❤️

It was in the old wreck of a house on Railroad Hill when I first fell in love.
He was just right for me. He was 9 and I was 8. I have no idea where
he came from. One day he just appeared in the hallway. It was the 2nd floor.
The hallways in that old tennament were always dark and big had winding stairs
and were scary.

I entered the dark hallway and heard a magical voice. It came from out of
nowhere. I followed the voice to see the boy. He was singing arias songs in Italian. He sang his heart out and it echoed and carried in the hall. He sang one aria after another. He was kind of chubby and he had a big tuft of black hair. When he sang, it sent chills down my spine.

I fell in love and that was it. No other way to say it. He looked at me and nodded and
continued to sing. His arms were outstretched as he hit the high notes. It was as though he was appearing live in a big music hall. I’d say, even being so young, in my great
wisdom, I knew he was headed for stardom.

He didn’t speak much English but I understood enough Italian that his family just moved here. He spent his days checking out different the buildings to see how the accoustics were, and which one was his favorite. He told me he liked the hallways in these old brick buildings.

My imagination ran away and took the keys with it. I saw newspaper headlines in
my young head…Young French girl finds famous Italian singer and they tour the world together. We would tour all the great opera houses in Italy. I imagined they would be
decorated with gold statues, velvet curtains, and curly fancy furniture. We would enjoy our days on the gondolas of Venice, and lunch at lovely cafes.

Our lives would be full of travel and fame. I would wear long dresses and little tierras. His costumes would be fancy trousers and colorful embroidered shirts. He would wear big ties and shiny high boots. It had to be true. Why else could this meeting in a dark hallway make sense.
part 2 😍😭
I am sorry to report that none of these dreams came true. In the end there were only a
few hallway meetings. Sigh. One day he was just gone. I cried inside for a long time.

I am by nature a positive person so even though it was sad at the time, I vowed to make the best of it. There is another world outside of the dark, cold, brick buildings and abandoned factories with busted windows. Real love and a full life can appear out of nowhere. Miracles can happen. There are places and people that pop up from out of nowhere. They meet when and where they least expect it. Someone has a wand to make things happen. It’s as though the globe spins constantly and it meets itself around the corner where it started and then starts all over again. Each time something new and amazing happens. I will never forget the Boy Opera Star whose name I never knew.

AI Art

Men are Dads and Love Their Babies

Men are dads. Don’t mess with a protective dad. Men fight back, men protect.

Let me know if you like this image. This idea was kind of difficult to create for weird reasons I don’t quite get. I think it’s because I didn’t feel right today. But, I kept going and It turned out to be a good one. I asked for a blue frame around the subject. Instead I got a “blue blend” which I think works much better. By the time the generator creates my request, my brain is left behind. That’s ok. Move on. Always move on. I love the soft but masculine style of the imagry and the color palette. For some odd reason, I couldn’t upload my watermark correctly. Some days are hard and that’s all there is to it.

AI Art, animals, daily paintings, fantasy illustration, humor, Odd Little Stories, Revising Old Work, storytelling art

Candid Cat Conversations

Cats are smart and independent as we all know. Here are a couple of buddies discussing what they’re going to do today, as well as life in general.

After tea, wanna go out and look for a few birds?
I’ll bet when we get out I can beat you to the gate!
Do the Roberts still live in the old farmhouse? I heard they had mice.
Did you ever wonder what it’s like living in an 18th century Chateaux?
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of this cartoon life!
six months later ——See???? Piece of cake! I told you we could do it!!!!

We dropped by a few weeks later. Check this out!

fyi: I created this little story with prompts and my cat art. When I started putting it together, I had no idea where it was going. All I knew was I wanted a few different breeds of felines and a window with a window sill that I could cover with different fabrics, and a few outdoor views and weather conditions that told different stories. So the teapots eventually became samovars in France??? Doesn’t bother me. I added the idea and the text of Provence because it’s a dreamy place and Freepix offers cool instant graphics. The images become increasingly sophisticated as the story developed. This little story was created in Freepix AI. You can try it out. I’m getting a feel for it. I think with an extended plot , this could become something kind of precious.

This is my watercolor of Jake and Elroy. Collection of July Schlotman.

Your comments are appreciated and sharing is good too. It’s a new world out there and I’m in because I believe AI can help artists. Even artists like me.👌

AI Art

Fish Like Corral

The original sketch for this post was whacy crazy and butt ugly. I used acrylic markers on watercolor spiral pad. One big orange fish swimming around with bubbles and orange corral. I wanted to see how this would come out.

I wanted to see what a silly sketch of a fish would look like in corral environment. It turns out my prompt was pretty right on and I couldn’t describe the sketch better. The reason we love AI is to see what fun options we get in lots of different ways, styles, & dynamics. I think if I can come up with about 6 or 7 variations on the first 2 fish, I’d have enough for a cute video. Here are 2 so far.

There is also a library of bubbles I want to try. Wish me luck.

AI Art, scratchboard drawing

Chocolate Pie…Your Choice

In this post I am offering up a choice for you. It’s not to eat. I can’t do that but I can
offer several AI versions of chocolate pie with whipped cream and a cherry on top.

Version A The light source is on the left side, casting nice heavy shadows. The plate has a striped flange which looks carved out, with the glaze pooling around the interior. There is a strong colorful shadow on the table and the highlight on the plate has a warm glow. Also lower right shows the reflection of the crust.
Version B – the light is on the right side, see the shadows. also AI has interpreted the pink shadows as a pink plate. and made the table blue. The cherry leans to the light and has a bulbous tip. The top of the pie is shiny like a glaze and notice the texture of the chocolate interior.
Version C This version of the pie piece is deeper and the whipped cream does not look very real because of the many soft layers. Notice the ridges in the pie crust giving it the appearance of graham cracker crust rather than pie dough. The pattern in the plate is also different. Also, there are small whisps of pink in the table top. which are symbolic reflections of the pinky plate in abstraction.
This is the Original scratchboard. Look closely and see how black was scratched away to reveal white kaolin clay underneath. The scratched areas were painted with colored inks and a tiny brush. The light source is coming from directly above. See how the shadows are cast. This piece was only 5″ tall.

Which one do you like? If you ask me, I like all of them because they each have their own personality. Isn’t that a big factor in art? The point of this exercise is to learn to look closely at things, whether it’s a Classic Yellow Mustang or a simple piece of pie.