#MashArt Using IRL Paintings & Ai
written by Robert Matheson
To celebrate the beginning of 2023, I started working on a new abstract painting titled "New Marks". Initially I had no further plans for the piece but then decided to run it through Midjourney as an image prompt along with the URL of one of my Ai pieces titled "A Motorcyclist and his Cat". The two images can be seen here:
Below are the first four outputs from Midjourney from this experiment. All of them far exceeded my expectations, especially considering the simplicity of the abstract piece.
For those who might be unfamiliar with this process, Midjourney Ai Version 4 allows you to supply two image URLs as your prompt for image creation rather than text. This is a fantastic way for traditional artists to apply their own art style to any digital art.
From the four outputs above I upscaled #1, titled it "New Marks x The Motorcyclist and his Cat" and minted it on Objkt in my #MashArt Collection. As you can see, upscaling introduces more detail than the original sample output and produced a very compelling image:
The possibilities are endless using this technique. It works especially well with abstract paintings but you can also use representational work and sketches to further explore the possibilities.
Ai is perhaps the biggest creative innovation since the advent of the camera, which is saying something considering the camera is the most widely used artmaking tool in history. The utility of Ai for image making may eventually surpass that of the camera and likely merge with it to produce derivative works using methods similar to the one outlined here.
We are just getting started...
Learn more about my work at www.RobertMatheson.com and @Robert_Matheson
View my Tezos collections on objkt: https://objkt.com/profile/matheson