Continuing my AI / Painting art collaboration (read my last post for process), I moved on to some different reference images for everyone's favorite cute and cuddly creature - the deep-sea dragonfish :)

Fun facts!

• The deep-sea dragonfish has invisible (totally transparent) teeth, basically razor sharp glass needles. It has a hinged jaw that allows the lower jaw to swing down all the way open and it bum-rushes its bamboozled prey (transfixed by the glowing lure) with invisible death teeth.
• Also, invisible spotlight. Almost all deep-sea creatures cannot see red light, some dragonfish being notable exceptions. So of course Señor Dragonfish emits red beams of light to illuminate its prey, with a light that the prey cannot see at all!

Dragonfish Numero Uno

The black dragonfish reference photo I used was of a dead dragonfish on the surface, photo shot against a white background. This actually worked perfectly for my technique.

My very first rough painting from reference photo (the top of the dragonfish's head was cut off in the reference photo and for some reason I didn't think to fix this, I just painted it the way it was):

The raw AI style transfer output (deepdreamgenerator.com / DeepStyle v.2, my painting as the base image and the reference photo I used for the painting as the style image):

Next I painted on top of the raw AI output above to tidy it up and bring it closer to the reference photo. I also fixed the top of the head (referring to a different reference photo for what the top of a black dragonfish head looks like).

Second generation painting:

I ran the second generation painting through AI style transfer twice, both using the original reference photo as the style image but setting the scale of the style image differently between runs. I layered the two AI outputs back over the second generation painting in PhotoShop and tidying it up to achieve this final image:

Dragonfish the Second

Painting on top of the final black dragonfish image shared above, I made the background black, transformed it into a slightly more head on view and re-painted the lure so the end of it was in the picture. Here I was using two different reference photos of dragonfish in the deep-sea environment, and running AI style transfer using one of those reference photos as style image. Here are the raw AI outputs from this transformation:

Finally, using those two reference photos I spent a while painting on top of the last AI output to polish this up.

Process showing the two reference images I was using and my painting in PhotoShop (I do not own the reference images):

For a final touch I ran my final painting through AI style transfer using a style image that showed bubbles in the water in a deep sea environment to add bubbles in the light cast by the lure. Final image incorporating all the above:

Dragonfish Part the Third, Red or Scaleless Dragonfish

I used a reference photo of a red or scaleless dragonfish in my process of painting the previous image (see above), so I decided to see what it would look like if I used that as the style image in the AI style transfer (instead of using the black dragonfish reference photo). It turned out quite well, so I decided to paint on top of that and make a red dragonfish version.

First raw AI output, from the last generation of black dragonfish painting as base image and the red dragonfish reference photo as style image:

Final result after painting in details using the red dragonfish as reference image, and bringing in the bubbles in the water layer:

Stay Weird Hive

Until we meet again :)