The Challenge: A Grave on Deacon's Peak

 

Witless Wight! A Wart Thou Wert!

I woke up last night at about 12:30 AM, clean and sober, as it were, and realized I was done with AI work for a while. It has been an intense experience; looking at all my old files in a fresh light, I revisited my past anew, after tucking it away for a good bit and not wishing to disturb it. It rushed upon me in an overwhelming wave; much of my regular life was swept aside, only just barely able to keep up with cooking meals and taking medicine. Only about a third of what I did is here on the Niche, and you can see what a lot that is. So today I've buckled down to try to take care of business in a timely manner. As I parting shot I tried to do one last enhancement, of an illustration from The Nip and Tuck War, of King Boldo confronting a fake dragon (you can see the human legs under the costume). ChatGPT baulked; it couldn't get its mechanical mind around the concept, explain as I might. Sometimes I feel that it is all too true: Artifial Intelligence is Genuine Stupidity. Anyway, it's as good a sign as any to take a break. I might tinker a bit with what I already have; in the meantime, to coin a phrase, "it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." Time to try to get some work done.

Special Guest Artist: Mom!

I was going through my folders and was surprised (and pleased) to run across an old brown spiral notebook. I could have sworn it was in the Family Archives. It contained work by Mom. She was in high school, and they were studying Julius Caesar when she made these drawings, drawings she was proud enough to sign her name to. Anice, Melba, and - could the unknown be an attempt at a self portrait? The notebook had been preserved in the garage at Loop Drive for decades. We were always impressed when we were kids when she would very occasionally knock out a drawing or two; it seemed a magical process and memory wants to make them better than they surely were, though I think better than these early efforts. For a hoot, I ran one through ChatGPT. If Mom were alive and could correct for hair and eye color, I wonder just how much this would look like the real Anice?

Heed the Call!

Wandering Through Middle Earth

Fingolfin and Morgoth were originally a single picture in two panels (pages of typewriting paper). And that's Utumno, Morgoth's hellish fortress in the north.

Alien Zoo

Denizens of strange alien worlds, including members of the Alien Crew, Adam and Suwissie. A couple of supernatural beings, too.

Master Belmok