AI, Art, Angels, Bears (Oh My)
Jigsaw Puzzle Talk: “The Guardian’s Embrace” by 🧩 Jester Puzzles
Because bears, that’s why.
When I first thought of pairing angels and bears, I wasn’t getting great results from Midjourney AI. But I eventually managed to get two really great ones to work with further. I’ll cover the other one next time. For now, here’s a better look at this one (right-side up):
The AI tip-off in this one (usually there’s something I opted not to address) is the bear’s paw, which I think has too many claws. I mean, I thought about removing one — perhaps this one in particular:
Or perhaps I could have removed that top one, as it’s more faint.
Bears have 5 claws per paw, anyway. And, technically, I’m pretty sure that’s six there!
But, I also love many of the imperfections within AI source material. Of course, I don’t love them all. (I’ll share one soon where the person had too many fingers to begin with!) But sometimes the imperfections are also interesting.
Here, for instance, I got to thinking that it wasn’t a detail that I’d notice upon casual viewing, as it’s fairly minor. It’s amazing, though, that AI gets so much right (scarily so) and yet still manages to include such anomalies, eh?
Sometimes the errors are comical, and I hang onto those images just for kicks. And, of course, you can also specifically request things that are wildly wrong. I suspect that, quite often, people who love to hate on AI purposely make ugly abominations just to show what AI does, passing them off as typical.
But it’s really not true — not anymore. Not by a long shot!
And that goes especially for anyone who has practiced prompting. AI is like camera for your imagination and, just like using your imagination, you kind of have to practice when prompting AI for imagery.
One pro tip if you’re having problems using image AI is to turn to other AIs — LLMs in particular like ChatGPT or Grok or Claude. They are well versed in the best practices of image prompting and can walk you through pretty much any issue you’re running into while trying to make imagery.
Even then it still takes practice. I give up all the time and just throw out tons of stuff because it’s just not right, or it’s boring, or you name it.
This angel/bear pair, though. It’s truly striking to me. My AI agreed. I asked it for a description, and here’s what it said:
In a moment of quiet devotion, an ethereal angel wraps her arms around a watchful black bear, their embrace a symbol of unwavering trust and unspoken understanding. Her golden curls and soft wings glow against the bear’s midnight fur, their contrast both striking and serene. Draped in flowing rose-colored silk, she rests in a peaceful reverie, as if guarding a love as old as time itself.
And, reading that AI output, it got me into researching bears a good bit, which is how I came up with the idea for doing the other bear image, which I’ll share next time.
Thanks for reading! Some links for you:
- This puzzle on my web site: https://jpd3.com/puzzles/the-guardians-mmbrace (includes more description and purchase links);
- All of my current “Jester Puzzle” offerings: https://jpd3.com/puzzles
- Finally, the link below talks more about AI and “AI Collaborative” artwork, as well as this overall project:
