Ooo!

Sometimes when I look at my own drawings I think of this line from The Golden Voyage of Sinbad: "These pictures tell the story of a legend yet unrealized." For some reason Grok is being very generous today (10 second animation instead of 6 seconds) and, umm, creative in their changes of points of view. All 'O' subjects today, from On Guard to Ozma. Our Noble Lady is of course You-Know-Who.

Some "Oak Tree Tea" Errata, Corrected

Pages 17 and 21, 17 for the picture (the old page had them obviously in a garden, not a treetop), and 21 for the text. It corrected the misspelling of 'vanished' easily enough, but I practically had to tie myself in knots to get it to remove an extra period. I would like to have kept the bats in 17, but the editing had me so frazzled that I was glad to get what I got and left it there for now.

Oak Tree Tea, Revised and Illustrated

I hadn't used ChatGPT for a few days, and when I decided to make an illustrated edition of Oak Tree Tea, I discovered I did not have to keep inventing the wheel as I built each page. I loosened up a bit about my original vision, and that, in turn, allowed me to make a few variations on the verse itself, variations that subtly improve it, I think. The 'chubby chum' originally was dressed in a robe; the 'withered witch' looked more aged and less charming than she appears here. The background made some mutations that I did not realize at first; I may especially point to Page 17, where the venue changes from a treetop gathering to a garden party. Also that the expressions of the characters were a little monotonous for several pages. By the time I noticed, I had closed the project and 'returning were as tedious as go o'er.' I probably will correct it sometime. Here is the character sheet I accepted for the project before I began, from my original prompts: 

NNOOO! That Is, Ns and Os

Lest anyone feel too much sympathy for Nessus, he was a rapist who was carrying that lady off to, ahem, 'tickle her feet.' Disney's Hercules has a much bowdlerized version of the tale. I find the quiet moments like Next or Office Work strangely compelling, sometimes more so than more action-y scenarios. I was very happy with Ogre Ages and Ogre Attack, compared to some other animations I had made of the scene. I wouldn't now draw an Ogre with a beard; they are not quite mammals. I couldn't get the proper "Scree-hee-hee!" on Old Kate; we know what it really sounds like in our heads. It's rather like trying to gild the lily to animate the Old Masters from Pom Poko, but here's my effort.

Tolkien Tuesday: Some By Me, Some By Others

Earendil and Ancalagon is more of a 'visionary' illustration; I used bald eagles because that's what I knew. Gimli Walks Through the Shire is one of my earlist drawings; I seem to remember making it in Mrs. Rector's class; I was more relaxed there and subsequently paid more attention and did more work. Don't know why the AI put that little hitch in his walk. Gothmog is the Lord of the Balrogs, and not the one in Moria. The Healing of Faramir was entirely produced from a prompt. That might be why it looks so 'movie compatible.' I am most pleased with how the animation of Hurin turned out. Into the Fire and It Calls Me (both from outside sources) proves that AI has trouble making a ring any smaller than a saucer. AI also refused to give me a third head for Watchers at the Gate.

Diary 2021: The End of April

2021 Diary

4/28/2021: Up at 4 AM. Prayers and Bible. Took a shower that led to me cleaning the shower and around the toilet. Man, those Clorox wipes really do the trick! Had 4 eggrolls for breakfast, washed dishes. Meanwhile had METV shows on (Dragnet, My Three Sons, then cartoons); with the cartoons on I was relaxed enough to take a little nap. At 7:30 AM I took out the bathroom trash and the recycling. An overcast morning again.

Started rosary while waiting for bus with Kam. Andy left a little late today. Finished rosary by 8:30 AM.

 

4/29/2021: What a damp day! Up, prayers and Bible, and out with Kam at 8 AM, where, thank goodness, it wasn’t rainy, though rain was predicted on and off all day. At 9 AM went out and waited for my HEB order (it was all soda and a pain to lug in).

Played a bit of DQ8. At 1 PM waited for Kam to get back. E-mailed John, and he’d been having diarrhea and sore joints as well. At 2 PM or so Andy called and said not to cook supper, they had BBQ plates. And so it was at 6:15 PM. Puttered and tooted around all evening and then Rosary at 9 PM. Think I’ll play more DQ8 till sleepy.

 

4/30/2021: The last day of April, and a rain-filled soaker, especially when I had to go out. Ate too much today, which led to nausea when I tried to go to sleep at night. But I go too fast.

Prayers and Bible. Waited with Kam for bus. Had spaghetti and meat balls for breakfast. Fried Taters and fish for supper. Had a few sodas and played DQ8. Real soaking rain all night, and my knees were killing me, with pain zinging through my left foot. Ate a plate of meatballs with ranch dressing, even though I was already feeling queasy, then spent a few hours with a cook-pot next to me in case I barfed. Rosary. Spent much of the night twixt 2 and 5 AM playing DQ8 to distract me.

 

The Road to Roth

 

For decades the best picture we had of Roth was this one, drawn in the early Eighties. When AI for everyone came along, we saw new opportunities. It was hard to get across our ideas. Here are new animations of our efforts along the way. It's been a long strange trip.

The last picture features the best Roth yet with the rest of the crew of The Wizard, The Prince, The Warrior and His Son, including a cameo of yours truly. I need a better title, one that's at least inclusive of the girl, Ketta.

I Go There Sometimes

M&Ns

I can hardly believe how sensible and compliant the AI was this morning (I use Grok for animations). That's not Merlin, that's Meteoras, and I must credit the AI for coming up the magically appearing text. The Musing Hobbit should in retrospect been on Tolkien Tuesday, but eh. We'll be seeing more of Nathaniel Horsehair, the villain from The Shadow Over Alben. The poor dragon has forgotten to pay his protection money, and must now undergo Negotiations.

Back to the ABC's

I feel I may be pressing things by posting so many animations in one go. I went back to the beginning and made more ABC films. Angel of Death comes from a story I considered writing about the Angel of Death wanting to get into Heaven to ask God a question. Aurelian is from Star Trek: The Animated Series; the Avery Girls are from Tex Avery's famous cartoons about 'red-hot' ladies. Barek is from my own Ortha tales. The last animation, Capricorn, is actually the first one I made today. The story behind the fish-goat is that the god Pan got caught mid-transformation as he was escaping between land and sea.

More M's

Not a whole lot of action in these animations, but I was going for subtlety. Monstrous Foe was supposed to show an Ogre Mage; I now don't think such a thing is possible, thanks to developments in the Lore of Ortha.The last frame of Mr. James and the Demon looks to me like they're about to kiss, but maybe that's just my suspicious imagination.

Happy Conjectural Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare

M is for Magic and Monsters

From Magic Fish to Monster in the Lake, we have monsters and mayhem and magic. The AI refused to reproduce the irregular pumpkin of the Man Who Lost His Head (I'm always struck by how many pumpkinheads I collect; that may be a post in itself someday). It also refused to reproduce the naked breasts of the 200-year-old picture of Melusine; I tried to edit it myself several ways (cover with scales or a wisp of hair) but no go. Finally I basically said, "Magic, do what you will,' and it came up with that armor-plating. Mim's Whims comes from those few seconds Madame Mim proves that she "can be beautiful, lovely and fair." Miramon Lluagor is from The Silver Stallion. Momots memorializes the fearsome critters of my youth.

Who the Heck is Pepper Street?

Variation Situation

Here are those earlier versions I mentioned. Each worthy and interesting in its own way. Some might not notice any difference.

What the L?

From Lessons of the Fauns to Lurker in the Back Yard. I may publish some interesting variations the AI threw up to me before we came to these versions. Lurker was based on our own back yard at Loop Drive.

Bestiary Feastiary

King's Hoard and Lantern Led are the only two originals here; the rest, including the horrific Kinderfresser, are from other sources.

Tolkien Tuesday: Animations

As promised, a special post for Tolkien Tuesday. Includes stuff embellised from Tolkien himself and John(?) Severin. Very hard to wrangle Bag End; the'herding cats' effect was strong there, as it was in Crack of Doom. Many of the original pictures were done when there was not so much of a range of iconography to draw from, especially Fangorn. The difficulty of depicting Ents is a strange carryover from the books themselves, where Merry has a hard time describing them and Sam can't wrap his head around the concept. I give you two efforts at Fingolfin and the Hosts of the Noldor Greet the First Rising of the Sun; somewhere between them you may glimpse what I was going for. Illustrations from The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and even The Adventures of Tom Bombadil with Frodo's Dreme.

HI - That Is, The Letters H & I

Every thing here, except for Hydra and Ivan and the Magic Pike, are from my own original inspirations. I'm not only proud about that, I'm smug about it.

2021 Diary: Whanne That April

2021 Diary

4/21/2021: Up at 7 AM. Went to bus stop at 8 AM. Very cold. New bus, new driver. Went to Walmart and got a money order for $994. Bought some frozen eggrolls and the Hey Arnold Movie DVD. Made it home by 11 AM.

Eggrolls for lunch. Took a nap and spent the rest of the day doing little chores. Feeling very wore out and my balance not good. Washed my clothes. Switched dogs out at 5 PM.

 

4/22/2021: Well, prayers and Bible, and juggled out the dogs. The day trudged along. Delivery from HEB at 11 AM. Had shrimp with sweet and sour sauce. And so on and on and feeling nearly nerveless and nigh unto the end. Talked to Yen a bit over Facebook Messenger. To bed at 10 PM.

 

4/23/2021: Up at 4 AM and found I was awake. “Pygmalion” then “Quo Vadis” on. Fried some bacon. Made sandwiches. Watched TV until 6 AM when the cartoons came on then promptly fell asleep. Woke up and took some recyclables a little after 8 AM and saw they were home [from vacation], the lights turned off and the big dogs inside. Also that the door on the vehicle open on what must have been Kam’s seat. Closed it.

About 10:30 AM went out to check the front porch and brought Susan’s packages round to the side. She was up and took the stuff and we talked a bit. I suppose it was lucky I did because the rain started a little after that.

I was just getting ready to watch “Rashamon” and eat some scrambled eggs at 11:15 AM when bang crash the top shelf of the bookshelf next to the AC comes tumbling down, spilling my Cabell hardbacks and smashing a little dragon/gargoyle. The damp, I guess. Spent time picking up books then relieving the books on the next shelf down. Now I must find out how to do new arrangements. Really coming down rain now at about 12:30 PM. I guess it will be a while before they come collect Ginger and her things.

And so it was, almost at 5 PM. I went in, and they had brought me a shirt, a cap, 2 Bigfoot magnets, and an alien bobble-head.

 

4/25/2021: Did not go to church today. At 11 AM John came and picked me up. I took a bag of clothes that S&A were sending to Morgandy. Went to Chicken Express and got a 30 piece family meal. Went off to Babeloth. Ate at 12, then watched “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” (a rather mixed experience – perhaps will improve with more viewings) then “Tolkien” (which seemed to me to have improved on this viewing). Through both movies we made the occasional Babellian comment. Left, stopped by DG to get some soda, the home at 5 PM.

The evening went along pretty smoothly (even painwise) and I went to bed about 10 PM.

 

4/26/2021: After a night of getting up about every hour I arose at 6 AM. Started to watch cartoons, then turned them off. Prayers, two chapters of Mark, then read the missalette for yesterday. Fried chopped bacon and eggs for breakfast. Started wash at 7:30 AM. Gathered trash and recyclables. Took Kam out to bus at 8 AM. Everything back on schedule, I guess. Might even get the controller from Walmart today.

And so I did, at about 11 AM. So tickled was I with having that and the little speakers John had given me for my computer (which allow me to hear my music even when the fan or the AC is on) that I began a project I would have believed impossible just a couple of days ago. That was worming the old recliner out of the corner and moving some bins into its place. Lots of dust and bugs, but I did it, with Kam assisting me (not lifting, but watching to make sure I didn’t get hurt and fetching the broom and scoop. The recliner is now in front of the Tolkien Shrine, but a step closer to out the door.

Made cucumber salad early before Kam came home. At 4 PM made supper and fed pets. More bits of straightening and arranging all evening. Made an HEB order for tomorrow. Kam came in and hung around a bit while S&A at a conservative meeting; he went in a little after 7 PM. Went in at 8 PM and washed up. About 9 PM took a shower, and then prayed the rosary. Bed, with sore legs but a feeling of accomplishment.

4/27/2021: Spent much of the day recuperating from yesterday. Up at 7 AM, prayers and Bible. Things muddled along as usual. Sort of humid all day. For supper picked 2 BBQ half-chickens and mixed them in with rice, mushrooms and broccoli. In the evening played quite a bit of DQ8 (until about 11 PM) then rosary and bed.

 

It's a Bonus, Like

So what I did was take five of the pictures I posted today on Power of Babel, turn them into fantasy paintings on ChatGPT, then animate them on Grok. Some became almost unrecognizable through the process. That one there is The Man in the Moon Came Tumbling Doon. It seemed to need some explanation.

What Is It, My Precious?

I include variations of Gollum, Haroo, and Holger just to have examples of the wayward nature of AI. Who asked for mouth goo or extra legs? Where do you get that stuff? The extra Haroo was my fault; I decided we needed the words to make it work. Speaking of words, for His Majesty Commands I asked for an unknown language, it it gave me something vaguely Sindarin-sounding!

Oh, F and G

Now, I'm pretty happy with this batch. They're good. Nothing heart-breakingly splendid, but ... nicely adequate. No-one spouting out random inanities like "The Mystic Prune approaches! We must be on our way." Ghamen Guard and Groka, of course, are both from Golfire. If you had told me in middle school after I'd drawn Forge that it would come to this, I don't think I'd have any idea what you meant.

Artifial Intelligence = Genuine Stubborn Stupidity

Oh gosh. I must have tried to get Drummer into at least an acceptable form over a dozen times before just leaving it; it was like herding cats. I'm also not very satisfied with Firf (labelled here as [generated video 1]; the long title is Firfinfindlefifflefur). The AI insists on turning long muzzles into big noses. The Face in the Frost you would think to be a simple matter, but no. Still, we got what we got, and I'm too tired for any further edits.

B, C, D: Early Elements

We open and close with Druids, and besides my own concepts there are illustrations from Late for Hallowe'en, The Silmarillion, The Silver Stallion, and Walt Disney's Song of the South comic. Also Borrisk gets a redo, as does Dragon in Disguise, as I learn more about editing. And of course the disturbing Bryan Babel in Oz.

Once and Future

I was thinking lately about how few 'Arthurian' illustrations I have in the files. Lots of Merlin's, yes, from before he was even born until he was put in his magical prison, and the few King Arthurs that do appear often feature Merlin too.  Pellinore and Up on the Tower were inspired by the T. H. White books.