Tuesday, 30 September 2025

Japanese Graveyard


After yesterday's somber picture, I thought I'd post a more whimsical graveyard picture. This was one of my more successful creative days. I drew 12 pictures of this Japanese girl sitting in a graveyard at night, sometimes in a bikini, sometimes in a one-piece swimsuit. It was difficult for me to decide which was best, so I'll publish two photos. There's no reason why I should limit myself to one picture or one post per day.


Today I added a logo to my blog. My first attempt was with Mage Space, of course. The easy part is to click the generate button. The difficult part is to decide what I want. The logo on my main blog is so good that I'll probably never change it. But what do I want for this blog? Something decorative or something minimal? Something big or something small? The logo created by Mage Space was 1370 pixels wide and 400 pixels high, much bigger than my other blog's logo (960 x 112 pixels). The width can't be changed, but the height should be less. I edited the logo with Gimp, shrinking it to a height of 150 pixels. That'll do for now, until I can make something better.

I'll let you into a secret. I didn't design the logo for my main blog myself. It was made by a Russian friend who used to live in Las Vegas. My original logo, which I'd made myself, was far inferior. She took my ideas and created a new logo with Photoshop. I tweaked it, but it's basically her design. So if any of my readers want to make a new logo for me, I'll take it into consideration. 1370 pixels wide, and the height less than 200 pixels.

Monday, 29 September 2025

Death


Melancholy. Even depressing. But I like it.

Sunday, 28 September 2025

House In Daffodil Field


I've experimented a lot with pictures with minimal colours. There's something special about a picture which is mostly black and white, but with a splash of colour. There's a surreal quality.

Daffodil fields are special to me. When I was young I lived on the grounds of Little Aston Hall. The land was divided into small fields, all of which I was allowed to enter. One field was full of daffodils. I wish I'd been able to take photographs. I doubt the field still exists.

The land has been ruined since my youth. When I was growing up, there were only three families who lived on the land. Aston Hall's owner (I've forgotten his name), my father (who was the night watchman) and the owner's chauffeur. The owner was short of money, so the land was divided into three units which were sold separately. Then the units were subdivided. Now the land is full of houses. It's a sin.

Saturday, 27 September 2025

Putin the Floppy Dictator


Recent studies have shown that waging war is a sign of impotence.

Friday, 26 September 2025

Putin the Fascist Dictator


"Me? A Fascist? Whatever gives you that idea?"

Thursday, 25 September 2025

Russia the Paper Tiger


Russia bares his teeth as a ferocious tiger. He looks intimidating, but his paper legs are too weak to walk, and if anyone lights a match he'll he burnt to a crisp within seconds.

Wednesday, 24 September 2025

House By A Stream


Colour? Who needs it? The subtle greys and greens in this picture are magical.

Tuesday, 23 September 2025

Vineyards


This is one of my favourite pictures. I made a lot of attempts to draw pictures of vineyards, but they rarely turned out right. This picture is in the style of Gustave Doré.

Monday, 22 September 2025

Church On A Hill


Yet another church on a hill. I have dozens of pictures like this, even more pictures than I have of naked women. It never gets boring.

Sunday, 21 September 2025

Japanese Fighter


Here's another strong woman. She doesn't need swords. She has a black belt.

Saturday, 20 September 2025

African Fighter


Another common theme in my pictures is strong women. Strong beautiful women. Could you fight someone like her? Not me. I'd be dead before I manage to draw my sword.

I've drawn a lot of pictures of this woman. I might share a few more. When I'm not posting pictures of churches.

Friday, 19 September 2025

Church On A Hill


In my pictures you'll see a lot of churches. I'm sorry if you're not religious. I like churches, especially old stone churches. They're beautiful buildings that make me feel emotional. That's what art is about: emotions. "Church on a hill" is a variation of my usual "House on a hill" theme.

Thursday, 18 September 2025

House On A Hill


"House on a hill" is probably the theme I use the most. I vary the details, and I vary the styles, but there's something I like about a house on a hill. Notice that I used pastel colours for the sky to make sure the picture isn't photorealistic. Almost, but not quite.

Wednesday, 17 September 2025

Girl In Church


Normally I avoid photorealism in my pictures. As you can see in the picture above, the girl is neither real nor a cartoon, she's somewhere in between. My pictures should never portray reality. If I wanted reality, I'd take a photo. Sometimes my picture is photorealistic, if it portrays something that doesn't exist, such as Godzilla or a flying lizard. You'll see what I mean as I continue.


These are the monthly prices charged by Mage Space. To be honest, the Pro plan ($25 per month) is enough for anyone, but I've allowed myself the luxury of subscribing to Pro Plus ($50 per month). If you're uncertain what you want, try the free plan first. If you like it, upgrade to the Basic plan. Then see if it's enough for you.

Tuesday, 16 September 2025

Two Women Dancing


I said in my first post that Mage Space allows a lot of variety in the images it creates. That's true, but if you look at the several hundred images I've drawn so far you'll see a lot of repetition. You can think of it as my personal style. There are themes that I keep returning to. One theme, if you can call it that, is that I draw beautiful women.

Let me tell you how I create my pictures. It's all about the "prompts". I might have a simple idea, like "House on a hill". I look at the random image that I get, and I add specifics to it, such as "House on a steep hill at sunset", or "House on a hill in the style of Vincent Van Gogh". I narrow in to what I want. Typically I need ten attempts to get my picture just right. That takes about 30 minutes. I end up throwing away most of my images. If two are worth saving, I'm happy. Some days all the pictures are failures. You'll never see them.

A question I've been asked is, "Are pictures generated by artificial intelligence really art?" That's a difficult question to answer. My pictures look like art, and they're an imitation of art, but are they really art? That's the same question that can be asked of photography. One man paints a picture of an orchard on a canvas, while a second man takes a photo of the orchard. The first man ("the painter") puts his soul into the painting, whereas the second man ("the photographer") just copies reality. The first man spends hours making a picture, whereas the second man needs only a few seconds.

The photographer can defend himself by saying that he spends time adjusting his camera's settings to get the lighting and the angle just right. I've heard long discussions on the topic. I can see that there's a certain amount of artistry in photography. My daughter and I can stand side by side and take photos of the same objects. My photo looks good, hers doesn't. I have something that she doesn't. A better eye? I don't know.

But when it comes to generating pictures with artificial intelligence, where is my individuality? I use AI as a tool, just as a photographer uses his camera as a tool, but if a second person used my exact prompts and AI settings he would generate the same picture as me. Does that mean my picture isn't good? I wouldn't say that, but it means my picture is lacking individuality.

From a moral standpoint, I would never sell any art that I create, however good it looks. Every image on this blog can be copied free of charge.

I'm imitating art. In an example I gave above I said I might imitate the style of Vincent Van Gogh. That's getting onto a slippery slope. I have no qualms about copying the style of dead artists, such as Vincent Van Gogh or Paul Gauguin, but I wouldn't imitate the style of a living artist. Others might, and Mage Space even makes it possible, but I wouldn't do it. It seems wrong.

Is my imitation of art really art in its own right? I can't answer that question definitively. All I can say is that if a picture looks so good that I want to hang it on my wall, it's art to me. If you like the picture above, you can do whatever you want with it. If you click on it you'll see a 2K image suitable for use as Windows wallpaper. And if you don't like it, scroll down to the next picture. Maybe you'll like it more.

Monday, 15 September 2025

The SCUM Manifesto


This is my second post. From now on I'll probably use the image name for the post titles.

If you haven't read the SCUM Manifesto, please click here. I discovered it while I was at university and looking for a purpose in my life. I've read it many, many times since then. When I got my first Internet account in 1995, the first thing I did was join a feminist chatroom where we discussed the Manifesto. I was honest; I told the women in the room that I was a man, but they didn't believe me. They thought I was too enlightened to be a man. That's the highest praise they could have given me.

Sunday, 14 September 2025

New Blog


As a lot of my friends already know, one of my hobbies is creating artwork with AI (artificial intelligence). Until now I've been creating for my own pleasure, but I've decided to share my best images with friends and random blog visitors alike. Let me know if you like them or not.

It's become common in recent years for people to create art. The most common product used is ChatGPT. I don't want to criticize it, except to say that it isn't for me. Despite all the billions of dollars invested by Microsoft, the pictures all have a similar appearance. Or maybe the users aren't imaginative enough to use prompts that steer away from the ChatGPT look. I've made the conscious decision to generate images with a smaller company, Mage Space. They offer a free plan, which is sufficient for casual users, but they also offer monthly subscriptions for people who want more variety. It's possible to generate images that ChatGPT users can only dream of.

It's not a coincidence that I'm making my first post today. September 14th is the 15th anniversary of my film blog. That's still my main blog, and I intend to continue with it. My new AI artwork blog is an experiment. Maybe I'll post every day. Maybe I'll get fed up and stop. I don't know.

This is my first picture. I call it "A French Girl".