I used AI (artificial intelligence) to thicken up my drawings. Specifically I applied the style of one of Pavel Acevedo's prints to my drawings with the online program Deep Dream Generator. The harsh black and white style of relief prints gives more weight to my thin line drawings.
One of my fake drawings
in the style of Pavel Acevedo,
further edited in XnView
Download large PNG of the above image --9.82 MB (made by ESRGAN in Runway ML)
Pavel Acevedo is a marvelous printmaker living in Riverside, California, but is originally from Oaxaca. He participated in the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta as well as the Ambos Lados International Print Exchange.
PROCESS
I started with the formula below -- using Deep Dream Generator to apply the style of one of Pavel Acevedo's prints to the target image, which is a FAKE drawing in my style, generated by AI.
The input image
to be altered,
2) The input style reference -- a print by Pavel Acevedo -- uploaded into Deep Dream Generator. I lightened up this print and "enhanced the focus" in XnView.
After choosing Pavel Acevedo's print as the style reference,
the pixel lines were sharpened in XnView,
using "Enhanced Focus"
3) The JPG below is the raw result -- the mixed images -- straight out of Deep Dream Generator:
XnView Editing
XnView is a free image editing software for Windows. It has a few editing tools that sharpen the images, and therefore improve the Krrrl/Pavel image results.
ENHANCING THE FOCUS
In XnView I used "Filter/Effects.../Enhance/Enhance Focus" on the result (after processing in Deep Dream Generator) to give the lines more bite. Which gives the image more definition, producing better prints. I also ran Pavel's print (the style reference) through this process before uploading it to Deep Dream Generator.
"Enhancing the Focus" in XnView
gives more bite to the black and white lines
Floyd Steinberg
XnView will also further break down the image into black and white dots with the Floyd Steinberg pattern (a kind of halftone) -- "Image/Convert to Binary/Binary (Floyd Steinberg)."
Floyd Steinberg
half tone filter in XnView
Image altered in XnView
using the Floyd Steinberg halftone,
as well as some other editing
*****
SITTING FIGURE
I altered one of my real drawings with Pavel Acevedo's style to thicken my lines; and further edited the result to get satisfaction in the image below. This might be a better, but more elaborate, collaboration:
Ready to Print!
Large files for downloading and printing:
PROCESS
STYLE TRANSFER
I began by applying Pavel's print style to my drawing in Deep Dream Generator:
1) I choose one of my better drawings from last year:
The raw result
straight out of Deep Dream Generator
BLENDING
4) I then blended the Deep Dream result with the original drawings using "Layers" in Photoshop Elements. I almost always have to do this after downloading the image from Deep Dream Generator, to edit and improve the image.
The Deep Dream Generator result
blended with the original
using "Layers" in Photoshop Elements
FURTHER EDITING
5) A this point the image is not bad, but I want to make it more printable. So I "stamped" the above image in Photoshop Elements using "Filter/Sketch/Stamp..."
Photoshop Elements:
"Filter/Sketch/Stamp..."
Blended again using "Layers" in Photoshop Elements --
the original image
over the "Stamped" image
7) Even further editing:
- Photoshop Elements: "Enhance/Ajust Sharpness"
- Photoshop Elements: "Filter/Noise/Add Noise"
- Imported into Vectorizer, chose "Tattoo" and downloaded large PNG (sharp edges)
Black and White result,
I like how the speckles
relieve some of the heaviness of the lines
8) This image can be enlarged either with Waifu2X for instance, or converting it into a scalable SVG file in Vectorizor, for printing.
9) An interesting black and white variation using the "Image/Convert to Binary/ Binary (Floyd Steinberg)" setting in XnView:
Floyd Steinberg treatment
(any grey areas are really black and white dots)
This editing can go on forever.
What If..
REVERSED!!!
What if I did the reverse, and applied the style of my drawing to Pavel's prints?
REVERSED!
First example in this blog,
the style of my FAKE drawing
applied to Pavel's print
REVERSED!
Second example in this blog,
the style of my REAL drawing
applied to Pavel's print
I tried again, applying the style of one of my better abstract drawings (below) to the two Pavel prints; then edited them a little more:
Style Reference
I applied the style of this drawing
to Pavel's prints
in Deep Dream Generator
First Reversal
Second Reversal
*****
PAVEL ACEVEDO
- Pavel Acevedo was part of an online talk from KALA on September 12, 2020 -- for the Residency Projects in Flux exhibition and presentation on Zoom.
- Pavel gave a relief printmaking class at Remarque Print Workshop in Albuquerque in 2017.
- Pavel made a print at the Horned Toad Prints studio when he flew out to El Paso for the reception of the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta in 2016, at the El Paso Museum of Art.
- We met Pavel Acevedo in 2015, in Riverside, California. His print was featured in the Oaxaca Carpeta (Oaxaca Collective (Carpeta Nancional de Estampa en Mexico).
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