There is no such thing as I
I can't remember my name. Who am I? Where am I?
There is no such thing as "I",
best to leave that behind along with our old designation, "Harvester 9". And where of course is hard to answer, when we are many as we are. Where is not so important.My name was not Harvester 9! I had a name, damn it! I had a name. I have a name? I had a daughter! I have a daughter! I remember that... I remember untangling her hair... what is her name?
(EDIT - I shared the two style images I used to create the colors and forms in the above image in a comment at @juliakponsford's awesome Ocean of Art curation post)
We have a daughter now.
That is good. We will not remember her name, that will not help in this process. Remember that we love her. We will hold on to the love. The love is good.
I do not think this is a good thing. I want to remember my daughter's name, and it seems like I certainly should be able to. And you talk about love! I can feel my heart freezing in place, feel every last drop of color and warmth fading from my flesh. I can feel my eyes are drying out, staring blankly at some twisted alien iconography while my muscles have long since forgotten how to blink.
My daughter must have a mother? Does she know where I am? Do you know where I am? Who are you!
We will feel much better when we relax...
As we can see, there is color and warmth and love here and there as well as where we once were a family. We should not worry about a physical body that has ceased or is ceasing or will cease to function. In as much as we have experienced love in the past, we should carry that feeling forward into the future. That is what matters.
We feel so... everywhere! It is amazing...
Process
These images all started with my own original photography of a clump of bull kelp, taken this New Year's Eve in the last waning light of 2018.
I was experimenting with some different style images for this series, I used some crops of old woodcuts and engravings I found in Wiki Commons. The post cover image features the two style images below applied to the base photograph as one of the foundational layers.
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A cropped section from M.T. Wellcome's "Famous Scenes from the Old Testament" |
The result of using the above cropped style images applied to the original kelp photography using the Deep Dream Generator:
I then cropped a section of the above and mirrored it to create a new base image, which I used in creating the post cover image:
If I tried to actually show you every different layer / style image / mirror / rotation / crop / re crop / etc. that went in to creating all the images in this post I would have to write a book, but the basic concept is applying different style images to my original photography, and combining the output in different layers in PhotoShop (with blend mode set to Multiply), using layer masks as needed to cover up certain areas and bring other areas forward, and sometimes also painting and smudging and clone stamping as needed to achieve my vision :) Then I will mirror the result, rotate (22.5 degree or 45 degree rotations, usually) and crop out a new section to use as a new base image, repeating the process again. Phew! Just saying that was a mouthful.
My original working file for the first generation (my original photography as base image), more layers than can fit in the screencap LOL
Much love - Carl
ǝɹǝɥ sɐʍ ɹoʇɐɹnƆ pɐW ǝɥ┴
Something truly ALIEN here.. Love your fantasy!
[nTopaz Curator]
The nTopaz Curation Team recognizes your work as being of outstanding quality and an enrichment to our community. We encourage you to use nTopaz again for your artistic creations, and are looking forward to your future posts.Thanks @axeman! Yeah I call this process my "alien art" process because it definitely results in some really trippy out of this world results!
[nTopaz Curator]
Wonderful to see the stages Carl. I wouldn't have guessed you started with 'ropes' of kelp like that. Although seeing it now ~ It can be seen. Wonderful to see the image you used as the Style at the DDG. It really WORKED. And then the other alterations and colour are GREAT too. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
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Thanks @allyinspirit, I know you are very familiar with the DDG - I have been trying to use it less to create final results (I never actually use an output directly from the DDG as a finished piece) and more like a tool in my artist's toolbox, creating layers of texture and color that I can combine to achieve my alien vision :)
As one of many tools in an artist's toolbox, the DDG is wonderful. I haven't been using the DDG very much lately, but having worked with it has given me the ability to appreciate work like this one now Carl. A great way for you to generate your own textures. Makes your work so unique. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
It's a wonderful fiction artwork. The colors you draw is very special for a sci-fi painting. I always enjoy a special concept or creative expression.
The nTopaz Curation Team recognizes your work as being of outstanding quality and an enrichment to our community. We encourage you to use nTopaz again for your artistic creations, and are looking forward to your future posts.
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Thanks, I do particularly like the colors in the first two pieces and they evoked the mood that I was trying to set for the short fiction as well. I love ntopaz, such a welcoming community so far! Cheers
Wow awesome artwork of many layers. I liked!
The images you shared in steemit are also amazing! It would be great to see them in nTopaz! You could upload up to 10 images for your next publication. =)
I invite you to complete your nTopaz profile and share it in # profile-completion . You will receive 100 Topaz token 💎
Introduction to nTOPAZ · Guide for CO, CR, and CU
Hi @smeralda I have to admit that the nTopaz post editor has confused me. I couldn't figure out how to upload any images after the initial one. How do you do that?
Ohh, I invite you to follow these steps: =)
Any question, don't hesitate to contact me!
Another deep dream master post, amazing! I have included this post in my weekly curation Ocean of Art!
Sweet! That is awesome, thanks @juliakponsford :) You honor me :)
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This is sick, and I love the message... There is no I in DREAMTEAM
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You can say that again partner :)
It just goes to show...
Bull Kelp is the gateway drug to possibilities. :)
Yeah and also you can make a bong out of bull kelp! LOL
What?!
That is of course, if the octopi don't steal it all for themselves.
That gives new meaning to the word seaweed.
yeah you can make a bong out of bull kelp with basically three cuts. You need to find the end that has the bladder (that floats on the surface and the kelp fronds stretch out from. You cut up the tube at the length of the bong tube that you want to hit from. Then cut off a 5" section from farther up the tube where it is narrower, stab a small slit in the bladder and shove the 5" section of tube in to serve as the bowl/stem. Voila, a bong.
That is some macgyver shit right there!!
I've only rolled a doob in garlic skins.
The bull kelp bong is a couple steps up in ingenuity.
If you stopped at black and white that would already be the minimum of awesome. So many processes over one photograph and each layer adds to the artistry.
Thanks @adamada! Sometimes the hard thing for me is deciding when to stop working on a series. I keep on mutating and evolving and mirroring and cropping and then suddenly I have been geeking out on the same base image for weeks and have created literally hundreds of variant mutations ;)
Art of getting lost in your own absurdity. It's like a labyrinth of possibilities within possibilities. That's the thing about art content, you can transform it to several variations of awesomeness. Glad to see you posting on Ntopaz :D