Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Putting DeepSeek to work improving my blog (or not)

Original Hellebore painting
watercolour, ©2025 Charlene Brown

My computer had been offering me various AI programs every day for months, but I hadn’t really followed up on any of them  ̶  until DeepSeek hit North America and I signed up along with millions of others.

After DeepSeek asked how it could “help me today,” I made the rookie mistake of requesting: 

“Add content, improve composition, colour combinations and value contrasts in a watercolour painting”

I was planning to feed it the Hellebore painting above, and see what it could do with it.  However, my request caused it to reply: 

“Okay, the user wants to improve their watercolor painting in terms of composition, color combinations, and value contrasts. Let me start by breaking down each of these elements”… followed by 1077 well-organized, straightforward words instructing me how to do it myself. 

It crossed my mind that this particular Artificial Intelligence program was a little more intelligent than I was, but I quickly reassured myself that it was simply more devious.  I also recalled that one of my Plans for myBlog for 2025  was “AI Training: learning more about the AI capabilities on my computer, as well as training that AI to understand my way of thinking in order to refine my ideas and, possibly, my paintings.”

But when I began to ‘train’ my AI, I remembered I had been reading about DeepSeek’s latest model  ̶  Janus Pro, which features “Vision AND Image Gen In ONE Model”  ̶  and realized that was not what I had.  My version of DeepSeek is apparently untrainable in the image-fixing field. 

As I was only going to be able to refine my text, I gave it some notes on ‘the time of year hellebores bloom’ and received this reply:

“Hellebores, known as Lenten roses or Christmas roses, are perennial plants prized for their early blooming period and ability to thrive in cooler climates.  In temperate climates, their blooming season is usually February to April, but can begin as early as late December in milder areas.  They are among the first plants to bloom, often emerging through snow or frost.”  

To this I added:

“In the (sometimes) Mediterranean climate here on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, hellebores  have been blooming since Christmas.  And they seem to be coping with the surprising dump of snow we’re getting right now better than most of us.”

I would have to use other AI programs to fix my pictures.  It came down to a choice between Adobe Photoshop’s Generative AI capabilities and Adobe Firefly.  I’ve been using Photoshop for almost thirty years, having taken my first lesson in Dubai in 1996, but this was my first try at using its Generative AI function.

Here is what I got when I selected the foreground and asked it to “improve value contrasts and add budding mauve crocus bulbs”:

First try with AI, Not one crocus to be found

And here’s what I got when I selected the whole picture and asked it to “add 10 cm of snow on the ground, trees and flowers.”


Second try with AI

So I’m conceding that Photoshop Generative AI won the first two rounds.  But I will try to ‘train’ it again, after I’ve done some more reading.

I’ll keep you posted…


Sunday, February 2, 2025

Favourite Google Streetview ‘location’ paintings from 2016


 Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, Scotland 

Bodhiraja Mawatha, Sri Lanka    

Napa Valley, California, USA  

 
Bleiksv, Norway                 

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Favourite Virtual Paintout locations from 2017


Plaza Naciones Unidas - Floralis generica, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Temple of the Jaguar, Tikal, Guatemala


St. Peter’s Cathedral Basilica, Kumasi, Ghana



 'Serpentinata caribeña,' sculpture by Guy Rougemont, Univesidad de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico 
   

  


Sunday, January 19, 2025

Virtual Inspiration


The most recognizable harbour in the world
watercolour
©2016 Charlene Brown

I'm participating in a 21 day challenge on Instagram which began January 2. The instruction for Day 8 was to illustrate 'Inspiration' and I used Google Streetview.

I first heard about painting locations found on Google Steetview on a blog called Virtual Paintout, which ran from 2009 to 2018. This is one of the paintings I painted on the Virtual Paintout when the area in which to find a view to paint was the Australian state of New South Wales. Participants were required to provide the link to the location chosen. In this case Streetviewfrom Milson Road on Cremorne Point. 
Google Streetview came in handy during the pandemic, when we weren't able to travel much, and I again referred to it for inspiration. And I used it last summer, describing it as the Ultimate Multi-viewpoint Presentation

Next week I'll post a few of my favourite Virtual Paintout locations from 2017. Maybe in the future (not the near future but when I'm about ninety-five) I'll be using it instead of air travel for all my location painting...


Sunday, January 12, 2025

Decluttering art and art supplies


Cannibalized picture file
(very) mixed media
©2009 – 2015 Charlene Brown

Last week, I listed my Plans for 2025.  One was "Decluttering computer and hardcopy files"

I’ve just come across the following in Plans for 2015:

“What to let go of to start the year anew?  

Old projects that never got past the background info-gathering stage, or what’s left of those that have been excerpted for better projects." 

At the time I mentioned that would be a lot of paper to be recycled out of binders and files, and a lot of MBs of computer memory to be cleared.  

In my Review of 2015 a year later, decluttering wasn’t even mentioned. And it’s quite possible I could have a GB of jpegs I can get rid of by now.  Plus dozens more works on paper...  

However, I have now begun the project. The cannibalized picture file above contains some of the remnants (now deleted) of the files I used in my book, The Fine Art of Physics.  And I’ve made a small start on cutting or tearing up watercolour paintings and sketches for cards or collage…

Sunday, January 5, 2025

The Plan for 1150 Words in 2025


Front cover: Visualization of the Anthropocene
                        Crowfoot Glacier, Canadian Rockies (1910, 1960, 2010)
watercolour, Photoshop™ and InDesign™
©2023 Charlene Brown


  1. Visualization of the Anthropocene: I will complete this series of essays and illustrations of the increasingly drastic climate effects of the Anthropocene, with emphasis on Arctic warming. 
  2. Travel painting: I have two painting trips planned, one to an artist colony, and the other to see my great-grandchildren.  Neither will include the Seattle airport.
  3. Decluttering computer and hardcopy files.  And art supplies. 

  4. AI Training – learning more about the AI capabilities on my computer, as well as training that AI to understand my way of thinking in order to refine my ideas and, possibly, my paintings.  (Apparently this can be done!)

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Year-end Report


Machu Picchu
watercolour sketch
©2009 Charlene Brown

Paint Every Mountain: I completed and published a small book about hiking and painting in mountains all over the world, working with what I have found to be the only truly portable plein air ‘painting’ kit a bag of crayons.

Travel Painting:  eight posts about an Alaska Cruise, one post about a harbour-to-harbour flight to Vancouver, one post (how to set a broken arm) about what started out as an art tour of Spain, but only got as far as the Seattle airport.

Creative Archaeology:  I completed the series ‘Time Travel with a Bag of Crayons.’  Now in chronological order, it includes some of the photos and sketches, such as Machu Picchu, above, accumulated in past archaeology-related travel with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, or the University of Victoria travel study program, or trips with my grandchildren.

Visualizing the Anthropocene: I have added several illustrations relating to the climate effects of the Anthropocene.  Some are straight-up landscapes and others are interpretations/extrapolations of data relating to potential de-carbonization processes.

Greeting cards:  How many – at least 30!  I’ve lost count, as some have been mailed to family and friends. This surprising productivity was partly because of having to use up a pack of 50 blank watercolour cards that I bought because nothing smaller was available when I just needed a few.

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Christmas cards of the New Blue Bridge from three angles

Looking east








Looking south-west
















Looking south-east

At this point, the ‘New Blue Bridge’ is not particularly new (I first wrote about it in 2018) and, unlike the old blue bridge, it isn’t actually blue.  It's white but has blue floodlights at night.

The first two painted cards above are ‘Christmas’ versions of large paintings I have done in the last few years, and the third one is an updated watercolour version of a 2005 computer painting, below, which included the old blue bridge (just below the Legislature).