BIRD, MAN, TREE (AI)

 Looking at four different modes of AI image generation using Samsung Gallery. I haven't hit any charge or limit for this tool as yet. It's also good at creating collages. Replacing for me PIXLR, a long time favourite which is trying to bully me into paying a subscription by limiting collages to three per day, on top of intrusive advertising.

Crayon, Anime, Watercolour and Oil are the four choices illustrated here. It takes a few seconds as the image is rebuilt, rather than just applying an algorithm across the whole surface as image processing software has done for a couple of decades now. Crayon worked well for a street scene I shared a couple of weeks ago, not so much here. Anime has yet to find a use for me. Watercolour is very effective at simplifying and focusing attention on what matters.

Could this be because it draws on thousands of images by real watercolour artists who have honed that skill? Oil is good at capturing rough textures such as tree bark. Is there a way to control this with a prompt that says use watercolour for the background, oil for trees and rocks,crayon for grass, etc?

Far beyond my pay grade right now.

 

Four interpretations of Temple Moore, the architect of my local church. This is the AI built in to Samsung Gallery which I have been exploring for a couple of weeks now.

My first instinct was watercolour and that is vindicated by the results. The oil paint version gave a horrific background but this was easily erased with more AI magic.

More serious is the facial expression. This just goes to show how sensitive we are to tiny visual cues in human faces. The attentive eyes and strong features of the watercolour become a vacuous gase and/or puffy face in the other treatments. And I can't even say why. It's just an immediate subconscious reaction.

Maybe you have a different take?

Could it be the reversed parting? Surely not. But I know who I would trust. The watercolour man every time.

 

Four curches by Temple Moore, the architect of All Saints, Basingstoke. There are commonalities in the detailing, but each project is approached with a fresh eye. All are Gothic but with a streak of inventiveness that is late Victorian. He leans towards simplicity but not in a severe way.

These are photographs downloaded from Wikipedia and given the AI watercolour treatment that I am finding very helpful. It brightens dark images, simplifies and focuses attention on essentials.

Here is a man who worked in GG Scott's office and went on to build new churches across Britain, honing his craft and developing his vision as he went along. Eventually taking on Scott's grandson as a pupil and help him to become a major force in his own right.

 

 

This is not sand and palm trees. Dubai was great in so many ways, and I'm grateful to have lived in a place like International City. But it's such a relief to have this kind of nature close at hand.

I'm varying my walks, getting beyond the exploring phase, starting to look more closely, to frame views and think about why they speak to me. I'm even trying to learn species names. I've always struggled with names.

I hope to start painting again. What's stopping me? Well I don't want to splash paint on the carpet. Probably I will change the floor finish in my lounge... more of a work space really. If I want to "lounge" I use the bedroom. In any case, framing views seems like an important preparation for deciding what I want to paint in my next phase/iteration... period?

Snapshots taken in War Memorial Park, and processed in various ways.

 

LOCAL STUDIES

 

I was working on a new sheet today. Quite enjoyable. I like to add some non-revit images to my sheets, just to give a flavour to the experience of the building which is hard to capture in a BIM model.

Often I use photos (my own if possible) but this time I opted to go a step further and do some restyling of my camera snaps with Samsung AI. Watercolour seems to be the best style for adding clarity.

 

I took a first crack at the recesses in the outer wall of the aisles. It's a fascinating detail, quite inventive. Makes me a bit sad to think that modernism took the fore (after WW2 in Britain) and stifled creative work of this kind in the Gothic idiom.

All in the name of honesty 👀

 

 

One of these days I will do a comparative study of typical nave bays for various churches that I have studied, as a homage to Bannister Fletcher, whose work has inspired me since I was a teenager. This image was taken as I was adding the recesses and starting to judge the adjustments to proportions that needed to be made once I reflected on the result of that addition.  I love the process of unfolding that happens as I work on these models

 

  

Samsung gallery AI feature is helping me to look more carefully at my surroundings, specifically nature as found in War Memorial Park, formerly Goldings Park, a semi-urban country estate. It's where I get most of my daily exercise.

These images aren't intended as an end in themselves. They are steps in the process of looking ever more closely at the world around me. Drawing and painting do the same thing, as does a model: cardboard, plaster or BIM.

There are two pairs of images here. The photographs transform reality in one way, the watercolour reconstructions abstract and clarify, help me to focus on essentials. At some point I will start to paint again. That's a process where you are very intensely absorbed for a period of hours, perhaps days, and constantly making decisions.

The result should be a personal expression of what you understand about a specific place and time, informed by an overall world-view formed over decades. You can talk about it perhaps, but you can't put it into words.

 

SHERBORNE BY BUS

 

Sherborne St John village. The church is dedicated to St Andrew. It's a medieval foundation with some alterations and additions in the 19th century. Flint cobbles with limestone dressings like so many churches around here. Also some brick appendages. In fact it's quite delightfully irregular in external finishes and window placement.

 

 

I don't mind finding some village churches that have been completely tidied up in Victorian times. But it's also good to have others like this one that lack the unifying vision of an artist-historian. They all have different stories to tell.

The Windows have the usual deep-splayed internal reveals. Where the external treatment is arched. Flat external head leads to segmental arch inside.

 

 

More details from my recent bus trip to Sherborne St John. I'm guessing the mosaic tiles cradling the holy water receptacle (does it have a name?) I'm guessing they are a modern touch.

I love the way the structural timber work varies so much from church to church, expressing the creativity of the artisans involved. No structural calculations, just the accumulated wisdom of generations.

 

While we're here I have a thing for perspectives that pull the eye in two directions. For example the end-on view of the line of columns between nave and aisle. Also the shot of the pews, where the tension is top v bottom.

Which brings us to the monument peeking over a bouquet of flowers. Imagine a world where people express their privilege by paying for tickets to the afterlife in the form of artistic embellishments to the spiritual meeting place that they share with commoners.

A far cry from the 'luxury beliefs' of today's pop stars and footballers.