Life Is Just A Fan-ta-sy

To TU

Sometimes the AI will throw up a pleasing variation; sometimes it's just inexplicable. Like the Trapped Unicorn losing its horn. Treebeard seemed willfully perverse in its interpretation; it's like the hexum was on itand it kept doing weird perspctives. Trumpkin is from the book Prince Caspian. I always found Peter Dinklage's decision to play him as a grumpy a--hole ... interesting. The AI kept wanting to split the Two-Headed Dog into two animals; it still added a tail that wasn't there. Perhaps Nature trying to repair Art's mistakes. Two Ogres are from Ortha. All I have to say is not gangly enough. The first effort at Unicorn interpreted my request for a whinny as some sort of woman's scream. Ur-Viles are creatures from the Thomas Covenant books; the beast is my own.

The Many Moods of General Roth

John sent me this early this morning and I squealed with delight. All these years I've had to visualize things in my brain like a chump. Now we have tools that help actualize our concepts! It inspired me so much I finished my daily script (for a proposed show in which Roth is a character) much earlier than usual. And I post it here to make it easier to find. My files are vast and shifting.

 

Pics and More T

It is fitting that we begin today with Thorsday. The Thoughtful Wizard is developed from one of my earliest drawings. I doubt if I would draw Tidy Smial in a forest setting these days, though I suppose it could kind of be Crickhollow. Father Time Teaches Youth the songs of yesterday; does he look a little too affectionate to you? The Tin Man has some odd-looking lappets on his face, but those were in the original illustration. Mr. Tinker climbs to the moon in some unusual perspective. The Tired King did not start out that way, but he could very well be Arthur after his last battle. Tom Tit Tot and Tom Tit Tot Two (by two different artists) illustrate the beginning and end of that English fairy tale, a variation of Rumplestiltskin.

The Roth of John

My brother John produced a couple of refinements to the image of Roth as part of our never-ending quest to make the perfect embodiment of our favorite character in all of Ortha. Of course I had to run it through Grok to animate it. We've come a long way from the AI deeming our efforts as somehow racially offensive. That they would judge it so makes me think that they are racially insensitive. How could we get it across that the Morgs were an original fantasy race, and that they were in fact heroic, humorous, and lovable? I wouldn't mind being compared to a Morg. The AI still has a tendency, despite all our developments, to rewrite Morgs into merely gorillas in armor. But we shall overcome some day, and, as the computer knows what you mean when you say Orc, so shall it be with Morgs. I may not be there to see it, but it is a dream I have.

T Time

We move quietly from S to T. In this collection we have illustrations from three of my franchises: Steepwater features a Morg Bridgeguard, Teatime has Thornbriar and Bear enjoying a meal (I did not direct the animation to have him swallow a whole ham, but that is so Bear!), and Nathaniel Horsehair from Alben makes The Bargain with a small demon. There are quite a few 'tone poems' in today's films, from Stump to Swamp to Swath to Tall Tree. I only wanted to add the white stag as an accent point to Swath, but the AI kept insisting on making it the star of the film. Even this version is a compromise. I am particularly pleased with how Swanship turned out; so graceful!

Tolkien Tuesday: The Main Event

I went through a phase of just drawing random hobbits; hence Ramble and Stroll. Shelob owes a lote to a Hildebrandt calendar, especially those strange eyes. I have no idea where the nose came from; I only noticed it in the close-up. That is not Theoden and Wormtongue: it's Sauron offering Ar-Pharazon a Tempting Plan. Technically, Theoden should be on a horse, but I couldn't (still can't) draw horses. I guess I could ask AI to do it, but that seems even more of a cheat than usual. I am most pleased with Thorin. By a strange coincidence, I think Tolkien Shrine has about the right amount of books for the core collection of Tolkien books, especially if some of the smaller books were consolidated into one volume. I've noticed that Grok has a strange habit of backing a character up and have it run off in the opposite direction it was facing. You have to corral that.