flora and fauna – Page 2 – Painting Mexico

AI art, fantasy illustration, flora and fauna, tropical fish, whimsy

Under The Sea

August 18, 2025 Michele B. Naquaiya

I’ve been playing with fish for a while now. Here is a shot that was made by blending several of my drawings together into an under sea world. I like a lot because I think it asks some questions, which gives the concept a storybook quality. I’m having some trouble generating a video but hopefully that will come soon.

AI Art, scratchboard drawing

Chocolate Pie…Your Choice

August 13, 2025 Michele B. Naquaiya

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.

AI Art, fantasy illustration, whimsy

Story of the Ugs

August 12, 2025 Michele B. Naquaiya

They all have something in common: a couple of jugs and one rug.

This is version #1 hand drawn

This is version #2 Put through AI

Well, it’s a seed of an idea. I don’t think the hand letters work here, but I do love blending images like this.

AI Art, fantasy illustration

Sunfaces & Peacock Feathers

August 11, 2025 Michele B. Naquaiya

Here I go again. I love mixing images and blending them together. I have an idea in my head and I’m trying different combinations. Hand drawn series (Sunflower Faces) and add that to a (delicate peacock feather)…, or visa versa. Three choices and even though the sunfaces are exactly the same drawing, they are uniquely different…different moods, and cool textures.