My Issues with Glaze

So, this post is a bit different than my other posts. It's a cross between a review and a question-oriented post. So let's begin. 

I learned from other artists online that a recommended way to protect your art from A.I. is through a new program made by people at the University of Chicago. This program, which provides a mask for your art, is called "Glaze."

I was working on updating a character page, and just to see if I could get Glaze to work, I attempted to use it in three different ways. Unfortunately, the mask that it puts on my art ends up distorting it in ways that are obvious to me or just completely ruin the art. 

To give you an example, here (above) is the unglazed drawing that I am using to demonstrate.

Now, here it is on Glaze's highest mask setting (most distorting). This one was put on the longer exporting setting compared to the other two (this one took about an hour and a half). 

The other two I am going to show were set to the shortest exporting limit (twenty minutes): 

I set this one (above) to the default setting, and it still made it look wrong. It ended up distorting the background, no longer making it smooth. 

Lastly, with this drawing, even when I put it on the lowest possible setting, it still looks distorted texturally. The distortion is more seen in zooming in and in color difference than in distorting the whole image. It also has a tendency to remove the transparent background of an image, so if you want to mask a transparent image, it seems (but I could be wrong) that you have to do the transparent background part after you mask the image with Glaze. 

If anyone who follows this blog uses Glaze to protect their art, do you have the same problems as me? Or is what I am running into going to happen always, since my art style tends to be flat in terms of shading? 

-Quinley 

Reintroducing Felix & Matilda Moore

Hello everyone,

 Usually, these types of posts are for characters who have been created recently. However, I felt it was time that I reintroduce some characters that have very recently gone through a lot of changes. The characters are Matilda and Felix Moore from Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass. They have developed since I first wrote about them in 2021, and I want to show how they have changed, since I mentioned it briefly in an Inktober post. 

 I plan to update their character profiles soon, but I decided I should also reintroduce them here via a blog post. So, let's begin: 

  Felix Moore 

Felix is the older of the two siblings. He believes that the world itself is a dream and nothing more. Because of this, he thinks that there is no meaning to life, and all events, actions, etc. that one experiences or takes essentially mean nothing.

He enjoys spending his time reading, thinking about different philosophies, and having discussions about controversial philosophical topics with his group of friends. Due to a situation within their family (which he won't discuss), Felix has gone from being simply a brother to Matilda to having to act as her guardian. This has caused disagreements between them. 

  Matilda Moore 

Matilda is the younger of the two siblings. She is a quiet person; however, she can also turn rebellious if she feels strongly about something. Matilda is a Spiritualist: she believes one can contact people from beyond the grave. She also has an interest in the occult and supernatural. Matilda often likes to daydream about different adventures that she could have, based on her favorite books. And, like her brother, she often spends her time in the library. 

However, since Felix has become her guardian, there have been disagreements between them. Mostly, these disagreements come from Matilda's rebelliousness toward her brother, but they are also influenced by Felix's (supposed) desire to keep Matilda safe. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Between Felix and Matilda, which are you interested in learning more about (after their changes)? And how have your own characters grown and changed throughout the years? 

-Quinley 

Miscellaneous Drawings #13

Hi everyone,

My blogging schedule will be a bit sporadic in the coming months. But in this post, I plan to update you with the new drawings I've made recently. 

This is a drawing of Arisias. I finally redesigned her outfit to make her more inspired by the new setting and I think it works well. 

I was experimenting with water color pencils here. I don't know who this character is, but I hope to find out eventually. 

This is a drawing of Felix digitized from the one I drew in Inktober. I really like how it turned out. 

So, as it turns out, one of my characters (Elyerin) is a Dullahan (Irish version of the Headless Horseman), so I redesigned him to match that. 

And this is Arisias again using her magic. I wanted to create a Gothic sort of feeling in this piece. 

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Which drawing is your favorite? 

-Quinley 

My Art from Inktober 2023 (Part Three)

Previous parts here and here. 

Hi everyone, 

I have been very busy recently, and because of that I forgot to blog. So, I am going to break the silence with the last part of my Inktober series for last year. I had intended to post it earlier, however I forgot to take the last photos. 

 Here's the official prompt list: 

#21 Chains. I drew Oak with chain-like jewelry on her neck and arm. 

#22 Scratchy. I drew a cat since they are known to scratch things. 

#23 Celestial. Arisias gets a part of her powers from the goddess of the moon, Salissah. So, because of this, I felt like drawing her with the night sky behind her. 

#24 Shallow. I took this to mean shallow water and drew two ducks I had taken a picture of near water. 

Here's the photo. 

#25 Dangerous. I decided to draw a witch's secret hideaway. 

#24 Remove. I decided to draw a Halloween drawing of carving a pumpkin.  

#25 Beast. I decided to draw a sea monster. 

Due to the fact that I forgot to write down the prompts, I forgot which days each of these were for:

 However, the prompts are Sparkle, Massive and Rush, so you can try to determine which is which, since I'm not entirely sure. 

#31 Fire. And finally fire. I watched The Wicker Man (1973) for the first time last Halloween, and felt like drawing the Wickerman burning. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? Now that I'm back, what kinds of blog posts would you like to see from me in the future? 

-Quinley

Miscellaneous Drawings #12

                  Previous parts: #1, #2 #3, #4, #5, #6,#7, #8, #9 #10, and #11. 

Sorry, for the long disappearance in December. I was finishing some important things I needed to do. But now I am back, and I have some drawings to share. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.

In this post I will be sharing new drawings along with two older drawings I had not posted before. And I plan to post my final part of 2023's Inktober sometime soon. 

This is a redraw of a drawing from this post in 2022. I decided I wanted to fix her pose and proportions. I don't draw frogs often, so it allowed me to go a little outside my comfort zone in getting the details right. 

   

This is my new header. The drawing was taken from my intkober post (you can read the backstory behind the drawing there) and digitalized. I had a lot of fun playing with the lighting around Arcasia and the sword. 

A drawing of Fiáina. I drew this drawing of her for May Day/Beltane, and never posted it. But I felt like I should post it now. I had a lot of fun drawing the braids in her hair and making it look as if she were wearing them. 

Given my fantasy world's change to being Ancient Greek and Irish inspired, I wanted to change Karleon's design, since it resembled Lord of the Rings elves too much. While Lord of the Rings was my starting inspiration, it's not the end. So, I took some time to redesign his overall appearance, and I am much happier with how it turned out. 

This is an older sketch I did that I never posted of Salissah. 
It is inspired by a painting called Moon Nymph (1883).

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Which drawing is your favorite? 

-Quinley

Announcing My November 2023 Project: The Heist of Dorian Gray

This NaNoWriMo is a bit different since I am working on two different projects. (I divided up my goal equally to focus on both.) I am going to focus on The Heist of Dorian Gray in this post. I made a blog post about the other project, here. 

The title of this novel is a work in progress, and it might end up changing to The Crimes of Dorian Gray eventually. I haven't decided yet, though. 

Synopsis: 

Genre(s):  Urban Fantasy (with gothic elements) | Crime/Caper
Series: The first book in the Dorian Gray trilogy 

In an alternate universe where Dorian Gray went into hiding after the terrible deed of murder and ended up living in to modern day... 

Dorian's potrait is on display in the Art Institute of Chicago, showing his sin and age to all the world. Because of this, he desires get his painting back, and enlists the help of some outcasts  to help him steal it back. 

 But this proves to be more of a challenge than Dorian Gray believed it would be, and his past comes back to bite him. Will he ever get his painting back? Or will it constantly be out of reach? 

Main Characters:  

This is an ensemble based story, so throughout the serial there will be stories focusing on different characters' perspectives. I am still designing the characters' appearances and only know what three of them look like right now (the first three in the listing below). You can view these three characters' profiles (which go more in depth) here. 

Dorian Gray-- a man who wished to stay young forever, which resulted in becoming immortal (also immoral, but that's another matter). He currently goes under the alias of "Damien Gray," who is Dorian Gray's descendent, in hopes this will get the rest of the group to trust him. However, he fears they will find out about his immorality. 

Ivy Hughes-- An art forger/restorer. She currently resides in Chicago, and does replicas of impressionist paintings for her job. However, she does have a mysterious past, which Dorian managed to uncover in order to get her to work with him. 

       Reed Hayward-- He could be called a "wizard," but he much prefers the term "painter with magic" or "magical artist." All his magic is art based. He has distorted and false memories of his past. And he believes Dorian may know the secret of who he is.

             Adeline "Ava"-- - She is a hacker. In her free time, she makes online video games. Her most recent creation is "Giggly Ghouls," a cute ghost game she made for her niece. However, she uses her skills for other purposes as well, such as hacking into security systems and stealing information. 

         Alfred--  Alfred is a rival of Dorian's. He is a con artist who does spirit reading on the side to earn extra money. He is skilled in reading people, and likes using tarot cards and doing card tricks. 

Goals this NaNoWriMo: 

My goal is to get more of the first draft done, even if I don't finish all of it this month. The Heist of Dorian Gray started out as a screenplay which then I decided worked better as a serial novel. (I am glad that I chose to change.) Compared to my previous style of drafting which is just to write as much as I can, I am trying to write well and descriptively especially since I was inspired by real-world art. 

And since I divided my goal into two projects which both complement each other. My goal is to make progress on both. Since The Haunted Sketchbook is on its second draft, I'll be reworking some things like creating a satisfying ending. For The Heist of Dorian Gray, I want to figure out how to write what I'm calling "a novel that reads like a short story collection." In some ways it is similar to a TV show being in serial novel format. I am planning to publish it in a way that is like the original Picture of Dorian Gray which was serialized in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine before publication in book form.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favorite books, and I am happy that I finally found a way to write about the characters from it in a way that isn't retelling. I had wanted to spend more time with them but not follow the plot of the original. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you're doing NaNowWrimo this November, what are you working on?

-Quinley

My Art from Inktober 2023 (Part Two)

Click here to read part one. 

Greetings Adventurers, 

Here's the second part of my Inktober series. The post after this one is going to be what I am writing for NaNoWriMo. But after that, I will return to posting the final part of this year's Inktober series. 

 Here's the official prompt list: 

Day #11 Wander. Reed Hayward (from The Heist of Dorian Gray) feeling lost in thought. I decided to go for more wanderings of the mind rather than wanderings in the physical sense. 

Day #12 Spicy. Ocean Guy cooking. I figured he has an interest in cooking when he isn't saving the world from villains. So I decided I would give him an apron with a seahorse on it and draw sea themed stuff in the background. 

Day #13 Rise. Since Zora (the lead singer of Blackbriar) often acts as characters in the band's songs, I figured I would draw a character the song "I'd Rather Burn" which is about a witch,
and one of the lines is: 
"But know I'll return and I'll be dead awake

I'll be dead awake, rising from the stake"

Day #14 Castle. Denisse Grigory going on tour and performing near a haunted castle. 

Day #15 Dagger. This was the sketch I used to create my new header (above). In this drawing, I am imagining that Arcasia found a weapon given to her by the goddess, Artemis (indirectly: Artemis left it for her). This is like how in Clash of the Titans (1981) Perseus receives weapons from the gods. 

Day #16 Angel. I decided to draw Aziraphale from Good Omens.

Day #17 Demon. I drew the "painted" devil, a creature that appeared in this post. 

Day #18 Saddle. This is Ophelia going out for a ride through the forest. I haven't drawn my characters riding horses a lot, so I decided to challenge myself. 

Day #19 Plump. I took "plump" to mean the round kind of plump (referring to the tapioca balls) and drew Dorian Gray (from The Heist of Dorian Gray) trying bubble tea. He does not like it, nor does he get the point of why anyone would do this with tea.

Day #20 Frost. Edith (from The Haunted Sketchbook) walking through a graveyard. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which drawing is your favorite? What weapons would you like to receive from a god/goddess and/or, what's your least favorite type of food? 

-Quinley