There’s Life in The Old Dog Yet

This batch of AI Enhancements are a peculiar bunch and significant to me. Perhaps the most peculiar is The Old Dog, which by now is a pretty old sketch, but it was drawn to commemorate an even older picture I drew back in McQueeney, in grade school. That picture, along with most personal paper media of the period, does not survive. As I remember it, I wanted to have a character that had all the character paraphernalia, someone who was always traveling on adventures and carried his own home with him. Of course he had to have a TV.

Most of the other pictures are enhancement of drawings from when I was first really starting to draw in middle school, using tricks I learned in art class and trying to draw like the Brothers Hildebrandt. My reading of course inspired a lot of my efforts, like King Arthur stories and The Dark is Rising, The Lord of the Rings and Farmer Giles of Ham. Pauline Baynes in particular inspired my dragons. There were a couple of sneaky idealized self-portraits, Vigil and Wormslayer, more aspirational than accurate, but if you could see the originals, you would recognize the obvious sideburns. Only The White Whale is from a later date. All reaching a new apotheosis thanks to AI.

2021 Diary: Spring Fever

3/10/2021: Up before 6 AM; prayers and Bible. Cartoons (which I didn’t pay much attention to) with straightening while I listened. Shower. Took Kameron to bus, then about 9 AM ordered stuff from HEB, after checking my balance. About noon checked with Susan about supper. A little after 1 PM, while waiting for Kam, my order came, then while I was putting it away Kam did come. Found I had egg rolls in the freezer I had forgotten! A bit later he was picked up for his dentist appointment, and by 3 PM he was home when I began starting supper (chicken, broccoli, and rice). Finished cooking at 4:45 PM. Watched South Park Vaccination Special. Went in at 8 PM and washed up. Rosary, then caught up diary. Sent John this e-mail today:

 It's always seemed to me that March has been a kind of weary month, not quite winter but not quite spring, with its wind blowing our emotional weather every which way. After a particularly hard winter, complicated with Covid, it seems even more filled with longing for sunlight and the spring.  Of course, the clover seems especially green against the withered gold of the falling oak leaves, and that is refreshing, but something of a mixed message. Still, encouraging.

Perhaps that's part of the reason I'm finding it hard to proceed with GF, because it takes place in fall, and that's not the prevailing mood surrounding me. My body is feeling that ol' "spring fever", more of it feverish than springy, I must say. How much of it is reaction to my vaccine, I cannot say. If I do manage to finish this chapter, I'm taking the rest of the month off from writing, I think.

I don't know if you've heard, but Kelsey and Ryan are planning to move back to Seguin in June, first with some friends of theirs, then hopefully into their own home. Kelsey has her eyes on a job, so that will give them more resources. And Ryan is planning on getting a trucker certificate and becoming a trucker! Ah, the strange parallels that play themselves out!

 

3/11/2021: Up about 5:30 AM. Prayers and Bible. Watched cartoons and began writing. Chicken noodle soup for breakfast. Sent John a few pages a little after 7:40 AM. He wrote me at 8:40 AM:

Ah, the bittersweet moment before the plunge! Your food writing passed the test- made me hungry for all of it, even the apple!

On the strength of that compliment I wrote another page and sent it at 11:20 AM.

Through the day listened to more LOTRO TP, and finally reached the end of Book One (the first half of FotR). At 1 AM let Kam in, had sausage for lunch, then took a nap. At 4 PM started supper (chili, rotini, corn) and finished at 4:30 PM. Watched some programs with Simon Callow on YT (one about Orson Welles with emphasis on his theater career, the other a charity performance with Stephen Fry). Ready to go in at 8 PM to wash up, but first I think I’ll pray the rosary.

Did so, then foodled around until 11 PM when I laid down.

 

3/12/2021: Up about 5:30 AM; prayers and Bible. Cartoons. Went in at 9 AM and started bacon and eggs for Kameron; finished a little after 10 AM. Started frying taters about 2:30 PM; done at 4:40 PM. Rosary. Made extra fish. Washed up at 7:20 PM. Watched “The Maltese Falcon”. It’s now 9:15 PM and “Casablanca” is on, but I don’t think I’ll stay up much longer.

 

3/13/2021: Up about 6 AM. Prayers and Bible. Showered, dressed, cartoon shows. At 11 AM I went out and waited for John; he pulled up and we were on our way. We drove to Half Price in San Marcos, having a good conversation about things, especially about how good it was to get out. Impressed by how much things had changed since I was last there. Half Price was strangely bare; no more chairs to sit on and fewer shelves.

I got the John Adams miniseries, “O Brother Where Art Thou?”, the Flannery O’Connor short stories, “The Ickabog” by J. K. Rowling, and “Charlie Chaplin” by Peter Ackroyd. I offered to buy John’s books and he only chose one. We tried to go to Long John Silvers, but it was closed so we got chili dogs, and they were awesome. We came back to the Seguin Walmart, and I bought some stuff including cane-tips and a new cane.

Came back home and I had to run in to the bathroom, but John bought my stuff around. Started reading Chaplin right away, then conked out. Between us, we arranged for a camp stool delivered over Amazon, supposed to be here by Tuesday.  Up in the evening and reading and so on until bed, ready for the time change tomorrow.

 

3/14/2021: Got up at 6 AM and was starting to get ready to go to church when I heard the rain beginning. So instead, I prayed and read the missalette and fasted until noon. The rain made everything very cool.

At noon I started to make spaghetti, and Andy brought me leftovers from the house, so I was able to add mushrooms. Finished reading CC, then later in the evening began watching John Adams. The day went on with the usual time change displacement, ending in a dramatic evening sky of orange and blue. Andy brought me over some leftover pizza for supper.

Watched more John Adams, ending with him in Paris, then began watching “Family Guy”. Now it’s suddenly 9:34 PM (which means my body thinks it’s 10:34 PM). Should pray Rosary now.

 

3/15/2021: Up about 5:30 AM. Prayers and Bible. March about halfway over already! Cartoons. A cool morning (45 degrees). A routine day spent mostly watching “John Adams”.

 

3/16/2021: Routine day, except Kam still on spring break. Got the stool about 11 AM. Legs really hurting.

 

3/17/2021: Up a little after 5 AM. St. Patrick’s Day. A routine day.

 

3/18/2021: Up at 6 AM, watched cartoons. Prayers, Bible, and rosary. At 10 AM Kameron and I went to the “Funky Monkey” and looked around. He got a couple of Star Wars things, and I got an old Avon Charlie Brown shampoo bottle. Then we ducked into FD, and I bought him some soda and a Word Search book. Then home. Day with a cool wind, but sunny and clear.

Spent the afternoon listening to more LOTRO TP. Then made supper of chili, corn, and rotini. Susan smuggled me in the cake to make for Andy’s birthday Monday. Went in at 9 PM and washed up. The rest of the evening for pootling around, I guess.

  

Notes

By a strange coincidence, we just started watching John Adams for Movie Night. I had no idea. Funky Monkey is a vintage second-hand store not too far away.

 

And the Rest!: Today We Wander In Forlan

Humans are not the only sentient race on Ortha, nor even the most numerous. In fact in Forlan they are a distinct minority. They do not take much physical design work, but I try to express their unique presence in the world. I try to do this by having, say, the Ghamen or the Morgs comment on how weird they find Humans and their ways. Here we have another look at Dunwolf, and Melniar, Koppa's friend who is a girl, She was healer and herbalist on their little quest. In proportion to Morgs and Ogres, I have very few sketches of Humans. We have here the legendary first use of the Goldfire by a Morg against an evil spiritual power, and the council pool in Wosehome.

Ogres and Other Evils: Today We Wander In Forlan

Ogres? Kinda. I think the closest it comes is in Ogre Ages, though you get a really good idea from Ogre Bones (that might be the very display Belmok clonks on the skull with his stick in Korm's Master). The second Ogre with a bucket I can't help as seeing as Slave, an Ogre character I am currently writing in a script for Episode Five. The Skullbearer is based on a picture I drew after the Skullbearer in the comic strip adaptation of The Sword of Shannara; it was the ultimate inspiration for Ogres (just no wings). Those pictures of the Pounders derive from two separate drawings, believe it or not; though they were both rather similar to start with. There are some real variations.

Morgs: Today We Wander In Forlan

This morning when I opened up the folders in the bottom of the Camp Chest of Drawers, the first folder on top was dedicated to the land of Forlan and the world of Ortha, and my destiny was set. There were so many different pictures of Morgs than I remembered, probably because I was fixated by a favorite few. And, wonder of wonders, I finally hit upon the formula to reproduce them more accurately. Though that one of Korm has curiously short legs; somehow that got replicated in Morg Ages, which was originally only heads. And Morg Beard-Lore had not been invented yet. So here we go. More posts as we go along; still haven't quite got Ogres down yet.

Lords and Ladies

One thing AI is very good at, and that's making beautiful women. Even at the height of my powers, I couldn't make a pretty lady for spit. Suggestive in the broad outlines, perhaps, but for delicacy of expression, no dice. John might recognize Jack from The Shadow Over Alben.