FAKE DRAWINGS
StyleGAN2 (posted on Github) is churning out fake Krrrl drawings in my style, after I uploaded a good portion of the drawings from my blog into Runway ML.
Fake drawing in my style,
generated by the 3rd StyleGAN2 model,
and further colored and warped in Deep Dream Generator --
I did not draw this!
In Runway ML
I uploaded 209 drawings from my book -- Finish My Figure Drawings -- to "train" the first model in Runway ML, using the StyleGAN2 program. Then I pushed the possibilities of that model through subsequent blog postings.
- Runway ML -- First "Model"
- Double Fake Drawings
- Looking for Faces -- StyleGAN2 Default Settings in Runway ML
- More Fake AI Drawings -- Truncation .8, Sampling 1
- Even More Fake Drawngs -- Highest Settings
- Further Pushing My Fake Drawings
- Download the PKL model file here (364 MB
- Here is a direct link to the "app" (after one signs into Runway ML).
I did not draw this!
I did not draw this!
I did not draw this!
I did not draw this!
I made a 2nd "model" after uploading 1456 short pose drawings from my blog, from 2016 to the present (August 2020), drawn mostly in 20 minutes. I "trained" this model in StyleGAN2 on the 1st model (based on the drawings from my book).
The results seemed a little more robust, with slightly better faces.
I did not draw this!
I made the 3rd "model" after uploading 348 drawings from my blog -- basically all the long pose drawings (usually drawn in 3 hour sessions). I "trained" this model on the 2nd model of my drawings, which was quite incestuous (especially considering that the 2nd model was trained on the 1st model of my drawings).
The original drawings of longer poses were more substantial, and yielded better fake drawings. The fake faces were as coherent as the fake bodies.
I did not draw this!
FAKE VIDEOS
Runway ML also allowed me to make fake videos -- using the First Order Motion Model. This program maps the audio and the head motion of a face, onto a still face photo, to turn that still photo into a video. I managed to get one of my static portrait drawings to mimic karaoke (see below). One can also do this for free using Google Colab, but it is a convoluted process.
I drew a still portrait,
the computer animated it!
***
RUNWAY TUTORIALS
I watched the Runway ML tutorials by Derrick Shultz and Lia Coleman.
- Intro to ML Art with RunwayML Week 1 (Machine Learning 101, the RunwayML interface)
- Intro to ML Art with RunwayML: Week 2
- Intro to ML Art with RunwayML: Week 3
DRAWING IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Scott Eaton is using this kind of AI to create odd but realistic figure drawings. He draws the outlines of a sketch, and the AI figures out how to put a fleshy volume there, like a leg, lit up by a single light source. Drawing is not what it was in the 20th century.
Scott Eaton
figure drawing with AI
QUELAB
CAD/DRAFTING WORKSHOP
Ethan gave us an online CAD/Drafting workshop for QueLab memebers, featuring Onshape (there is a free version for registered users). The first week covered drafting by hand (August 5 - 7), and the second week covered creating in the online CAD program, Onshape (August 12 - 14).
After taking the workshop in Zoom, I figured out how to prepare a DXF file of my drawings, and import it into Onshape, where I was able to extrude it into 3 dimensions.
Extruded into 3D
in Onshape
AUGUST ARTWALK
DOWNTOWN ALBUQUERQUE
The Albuquerque Artwalk downtown continued right through the Covid lockdown on the first Fridays, with most of the activities outdoors and at curbside. During the August Artwalk, the OT Circus gallery was open, but limited the number of visitors in the gallery. The activity was brisk early in the evening, when I went.
I also posted about the whole evolution of art in downtown Albuquerque during the Covid summer.
TADPOLES
After a big thunderstorm on the 25th of July, tadpoles showed up in the standing water around the rail road tracks. I watched the tadpoles flourish and then perish, after the sun dried the pools up.
I did capture 7 tadpoles and a triops in a cup before the pools disappeared. However, the following day another rainstorm refilled the pools, and I released the tadpoles and triops into those ponds.
The tadpoles were growing little feet and arms when the pools dried up again in the scorching New Mexico sun. On August 6th the water had evaporated entirely, and I still wonder if those tadpoles were big enough to burrow into the mud and survive. I think they were New Mexico Spadefoot toads.
The last I saw of the tadpoles
I saw tadpoles in the desert once before, when I was a kid, during the rainy season, and couldn't understand how they came out of nowhere. That completely fascinated me, and still does.
During this Covid summer I saw a possum, a badger, a skunk and a few racoons, animals that I have never seen inside the city of Albuquerque before.
UPDATE (September 4): I found this toad in front of my house, on the other side of downtown from the tadpole pond. Is this a huge New Mexico Spadefoot toad? And if so, how has he survived these past dry weeks?
