Creating derivative paintings from original photography and paintings
This writing is a follow-up to the second article in this series by the same name. I continue to experiment with Midjourney V4 to create derivative works using photography and IRL (in-real-life) paintings as inspirational prompts. To turn on Version 4, submit the "/settings" command and select "MJ version 4":
/settings
Below are two images, both photographs of paintings I completed in 2018. The first is a plein air painting of Eilean Donan in Scotland.
The second painting is of Master Danish Painter Henrik Schütze titled "Henrik Painting Beautifully" which I completed live in his home on September 3rd, 2018.
Midjourney returned multiple outputs, of which I selected and minted the following to document the capabilities of version 4 of the Ai.
The likeness is not accurate, which is by design to avoid deep fakes, but the output gives you an idea of the capabilities of Midjourney V4. One problem I encountered was the Ai trying to recreate signatures but jumbling the letters up so the result unrecognizable. In the case above, you will not see a fake signature because I removed it in post-processing. I hope Midjourney will soon allow for existing signatures and likenesses to be reproduced in derivative works, especially for verified artists who are paying for the service. Until then, I'll keep exploring these mash-ups and see where it takes me.
Combining digital portraits with photos of IRL paintings
For this experiment, I prompted Midjourney with a self-portrait that I had taken with my smartphone and combined it with my painting of "Eilean Donan" (seen above).
I had to sort through dozens of outputs to find one that even remotely resembled my likeness. Midjourney did eventually produce something similar but it's unfortunate there is no way to remove the restriction on reproducing accurate faces. The best result can be seen here:
The outputs were very hazy for some reason. I cleaned up some of it in post-processing. In my case, the resulting outputs achieved an effect similar to what I would expect using existing artistic filters on my smartphone. Although, I suspect the results will vary widely depending on each artist's unique style. I will explore this further using more abstract styles and I encourage you to give it a try using your own paintings.
In future releases of Midjourney, it seems reasonable for them to allow artists to use their own likeness and likenesses from their original work. I suggest this for paid accounts, assuming each artist agrees to not violate the terms of use. I'm confident that the Ai industry and artists will eventually strike a good balance between censorship and preventing deep fakes. Until then, enjoy the ride.
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