Category: thoughts behind the work

AI art, people, thoughts behind the work

More Experiments with text to image

Michele B. Naquaiya

When I look at women who are created in AI, so much of what I see is women who are 20 years old, picture perfect, either looking pretty plastic or they are all superwoman. I’m trying to see if I can create something a little different by trying a variety of verbal prompts to be more image specific and gear them to what people really look like, rather than having that “artificial quality” that I’m kind of sick of seeing. I am aware that models begin as photos of real people. That’s a given and there is a limited amound of changes one can make. People come in all shapes and ages and the models used often represent a kind of t.v. 1980s look. I’m not trying to create a super realistic look like a photo, but something that’s a combination of drawing, painting, illustration and storytelling without super hot colors and outrageous fantasy effects. Here is a little journey I did this morning exploring stages I went through. I used Leonardo AI and created the image with a simple prompt, using different styles, sizes and filters along the way. Basically the prompt I created was this. A woman architect of ….x age, with …..x colored hair, working in her office. She is professional and hard working, her clothes are faded blue denim, she wears glasses and the wall shows a mock up of one of her buildings.

I’m patching these in no preference, just as examples. I’m learning that I can make a woman look less plastic with using my own ideas in the word prompt. It’s a challenge and I have several other platforms I use and will experiment more with. It’s a time sink for sure and requires patience. Any likes and comments are appreciated. My idea in this project is that AI shouldn’t be hated and feared by artists. The more we learn, the more we grow.

abstract imagination, thoughts behind the work

Wild maxi-color abstract watercolor

Michele B. Naquaiya

I personally don’t like crowded and/or overworked compositions, so that is exactly what I achieved here. ha ha ha. no joke. I was going for a completely different look but things happen. I began with a gorgeous yellow and blue underpainting with tons of white paper. I drew some lines into it reinforcing some of the big shapes I saw. I experimented and applied a pretty good amount of masking fluid to the whole work, protecting the whites. Then came the first color wash. It looked very stark and cut out and pretty confusing. So I did something new and a little odd.

I softened the white areas with similar colored watercolor pencils. It took a very long time because this is not a small painting. I softened each area a piece at a time. Looking at the photo here, it’s pretty hard to tell exactly where these sections are because they are pretty much everywhere.
I loved the look but it still looked cut out so I glazed various sections with soft washes, trying to push back some areas to accentuate others. It didn’t work and the whole think kept popping up like jack-in-the-boxes everywhere. So here we are with no focal point and a big traffic jam. But there is something compelling about it. It’s a mystery of how color can take over.

I had to stop because there is only so much you can repaint a watercolor before it becomes dead and muddy and opaque. I will continue this technique on the next painting but perhaps only do one shape. I think I don’t even want to count how many are here. I keep seeing this piece as a six foot painting. Even then it would need a huge space to live in since it’s such a bully and attention grabber. I would love your feedback on this one.

Here’s a few versions on products:

alphabet, fonts, t-shirt design, thoughts behind the work

Working with Quotes WOMEN

Michele B. Naquaiya

I just ran across these lovely star brushes and wanted to practice using them. This inspirational quote is attributed to a few people but most seem to think it came from 1st lady Eleanor Roosevelt. I’m happy with that. It is certainly true.
There are so many quotes to play with, this is only one of many to come. I wanted to put a graphic in here so I did a quick line art of a woman’s face. It was hard to find a place to make her work in the composition. It’s funny how when you begin designing something with the background, the whole piece takes on a “painting” feel. This can be good and bad too because it’s just one more design element to consider. Painting elements take away from graphic elements. It seems like it should be an either or choice to make. That’s why I ended up putting here translucent face on top of text and she ends up being small.
Here’s a thought–if you look at the bottom 2/3rd of this artwork it is a square …and the words have an opposite meaning of what the quote is. It would be “women rarely make history”. Ha. Pretty funny. I think these colors work. check it out on tee public.

Illustrations, t-shirt design, thoughts behind the work

Retro couple romantic dancing and courting

Michele B. Naquaiya

I have redrawn and recolored a vintage comic book page in photoshop. The experiment took a long time and turned out very different than what I had pictured in my head. The line art was drawn in black and I thought I would play and make the shadows with line art as a design element. I colored the illustration using bright colors and brushes that mostly look like air brushes. The bubble texts shapes were done by hand as well. I love the dialog in the bubbles and it is circa 1940’s.
The font is “Hello Pencile” which is an art deco style. I think the most successful part of the drawing is the brilliance of her dress. The characters end up having the same hair color. I love her long yellow gloves and orange bracelet. Compositionally, the eye naturally goes to the bottom of the art where there is so much dark towards the activity of all the lines. This was fun. I have listed it on teepublic.

fantasy illustration, Illustrations, simple photoshop, t-shirt design, thoughts behind the work

Love and hot cocoa t shirt designing

Michele B. Naquaiya

More line art and experimenting with a few coloring details and playing with fonts. I drew this in photoshop and used a quick method of coloring under the line art. This is not the professional way to do it but…I redrew this so many times, I just wanted to finish it. For a comic book the professional way is to make the flats first and then color, and then render.

I know this art is pretty flat and there is no light source and no rendering, but…. I wanted something quick to try out a few shades of separate colors to see how they would stand out on their own on various fabrics. I am happy with the four shades of green and the four shades of blue in the fairy’s wings. They do give the art a little depth. I think the shades could have been a little stronger with each step though. It did load well and you can see a distinction in the colors on all kinds of fabrics. I put a lot of thought into placing a heart above her head to show what she is dreaming about–love. I had one more heart but decided that one was better than two–less is more. The cocoa cup color repeats in her dress. I’m hoping the cup starts to resemble a magic globe that she is dreaming into.

I’ve been studying the art of the tshirt for a while now. Aside from the obvious there is a lot to this medium. I am happy today as I had a lightbulb moment last night, looking at some of my favorite t-shirt artists and making mental notes on their thought processes.

I’m hoping to do this again and to see if I can build up a little speed. Another note is that the text and image can’t have much space between them because when it’s printed as a sticker, the parts should always be connected. I did color animation cells al long time ago and we had similar issues. fun.

Here’s a link to see the product