DIFFERENT STROKES (IMAGE MAKING)

 The marvels of mobile computery.

I didn't use text prompts, still seems a backwards way of approaching visual thinking to me. But I did use the AI features built in to Samsung Gallery, which at last gives me another way to create collages, now that PIXLR wants to limit my free quota to 3 per day.

I use collages habitually now to condense the images I create, ideally down to 4 per day, which is one row at my normal zoom setting. I have a text diary app which I use most days to summarise my activity, but the image gallery is vital to flesh this out in visual terms.

Dubai is not experiencing a heat wave. The temperatures are moderate for this time of year. But it's still a few degrees higher than UK. Of course I don't have AC here. Should I get a fan? Would the few days of heat relief justify the storage space in my small glat. (isn't it revealing that LLM jiggery poker still can't auto-correct an obviously first letter typo like that... Even when the correct letter is right next door on a standard keyboard)

Something about the arrow of time perhaps. 👀⌚ 🏹 🔙

 

Nesting my infill family into a Wall-hosted Window template. It's all fixed size for the moment.

Bring in the nested item and lock it in place. Delete the cut opening that is supplied by default. Replace this with two voids: an extrusion with stepped corners, and a blend with pointed head. I need to find a better hatch pattern for flint cobbles (plus render image) but it's getting there.

How to achieve the lime finish across all interior surfaces is a bit trickier. Maybe I won't worry too much about that for the moment, just paint the reveals, head, sill and give the wall an internal plaster layer.

 

Whenever I go to catch a bus, or to cross the road into the park, I glance down the road and see this picturesque group of cottages huddled up together quite close to the road edge. I get the feeling that they once stood on their own, a small hamlet, just a short distance from town, on the edge of the Goldings estate.

I decided to venture a bit further into the AI features that Samsung have given me, then used some of my old PIXLR tricks to tone down the saturation, and give some gradation from left to right, also a bit more black outlines feeling.

Why bother? Well partly because the photograph was all in shadow. Also the hand-drawn look conveys the mental impression I have rather better. It's a bit like the Gordon Cullen townscape books of yesteryear. Less is more. A stylised sketch communicates on a human level the emotions we feel about a familiar picturesque view.

I still have reservations about doing this with AI, but I'm not a puritan. I've been using graphics software for 40 years now, so it's really a question of clarity. Do you know why you are doing it? Are you getting some value? Do you still control the process and use your visual experience to shape the outcome?

This was not just "a button push." Probably a dozen clicks and two or three slider adjustments. Ten minutes work including reflection time. I'm not saying it's a masterpiece, but I'm happy with it and it took much less time than the process I would have use a year ago

 

 

8.45 Sitting in the park, quite cool with a moderate breeze. Hence the later start for my morning walk. I passed by the butterfly garden again. Took a photo, slightly more zoomed in than last time. Processed this to create two versions. One is just a crop, the other an AI assisted re-imagining.

Close by, I took a shine to the tree roots cracking up the tarmac. One day this will be a candidate for repairs. Right now I see it as a picturesque reminder of the passing years.

Back home, over a cup of coffee and my daily meds, I fired up Revit. First off, put a bit more work into my collection of Gothic families. This file is in the cloud and should be my starting point for every new variant.

The next variants I need are for All Saints, Basingstoke, my local church. First off is the East End. The size and proportions are about right, but the tracery pattern at the top needs work.