Reality's Other Face - In Not-So-Living Color | nftshowroom X alienarthive SKULL ART CHALLENGE (NFT Tokenized Video)

NFT Showroom partnered with Alien Art Hive for a SKULL ART CHALLENGE. I minted and entered two skull designs so far. According to the challenge post, you can join in by:

• make art incorporating a skull (or skeleton);
• mint it on: https://nftshowroom.com;
• make a blog post about your art and link to your minted piece in Alien Art Hive Community; and
• use "nftshowroom" in your tags.

According to the challenge post, NFTShowroom will feature all SKULL ART minted on the NFTShowroom home page / twitter, and Alien Art Hive will be curating participants' blog posts. The challenge is ongoing and will continue until the end of March.

To join in, check out NFTShowroom's challenge post here: nftshowroom X alienarthive SKULL ART CHALLENGE

Below is my third Skull Art project:

REALITY'S OTHER FACE

Joanne stood speechless, shocked at the apparition peering from the left side of the divider. From behind the platform, a shadowy form emerged. Slowly, it moved toward her coming into focus. Unfamiliar, yet familiar with a menacing stare, yet non-aggressive. That is, until the mirage closed in and paused only inches ahead.

Joanne gasped and shrank back as the image came into focus.

The female studied Joanne as if auditioning for an understudy position. Although dressed the part in identical wardrobe, the idea was preposterous. A hideous creature, of short statue, disfigured, with long, thin fingers and several broken teeth, the other female stood no higher than five feet and resembled an emaciated body and face that could have doubled as a skull.

Instantly and without warning, the female extended her arm in Joanne's direction. It wasn't Joanna the skull woman, as she'd named her, was after, but her veil. Instantly, the female tossed the shawl to the floor.

Not intimidated, Joanne's shoulders heaved as she now moved forward. She hurled angry words, "what the hell is going on here. Who are you, and why would you even consider interrupting my performance?"

"My name is Jo. I'm you, in case you haven't noticed," the skull lady retorted hotly. She continued in a raised voice. "You can't escape who and what you are. I'm here as a reminder. And I'm not leaving until you come clean."

Hundreds of corners in the dark maze that was her former life circled through Joanne's mind. Panicked thoughts sent chills down her spine. She quickly scoured the audience. Whew. Only a few people for matinee.

Joanne beckoned for security, but none answered immediately.

Jo continued to berate Joanne with information she didn't understand nor was aware of. An annoyed look into the green-eyed skull's face only unleashed an onslaught.

"Girl, please! you think you're all that. A third-class hypocrite. Remember where you came from. I knew you back when when you only had one pair of drawers and one dress. And the blue light district you called home for want of nowhere else to go, especially home."

"You don't know me!," Joanna quipped, then inhaled a sharp breath, trying to hold her shaky voice together. But she couldn't. Two dollars and fifty cent an hour; with the fifty cent tossed her way per client. Eye shadow mingled with tears threatened to destroy the expensive face she'd received that morning.

"Oh, but I do. And I can't wait to share." Jo let escape a shrill laugh as she witnessed Joanne disintegrate with that bit of knowledge. Gotcha! she pronounced gleefully,

Jo flicked her wrist, flung her hair from one side to the other exposing green eyes, then strode off. Down the platform steps, around the first row seats in case anyone noticed, then slowly down the aisle toward the entrance. Colorful stands trailed her small fragile frame. The sight looked ridiculous. She hoped those who did notice would assume she was part of the show's routine.

Joanne watched helplessly as Jo exaggerated her stride. But that face. One of vengeance. And that mouth reveled in kidding.

She's always been jealous of my abilities, Joanne reassured herself several times. An alternate past she hadn't dwelt on lately. Time had caught up with her. A small voice advised that she should dismiss and ignore Jo. She extended her hands, then instantly brought them close to her chest as if rehearsing.

How much she wanted to take that advice. But she knew that luck was never on her side. Jo, if that is her real name, knew things.

A reputation and future at sake, Joanna rushed from the stage to her dressing room.

Her fingers could reach the speed dial quick enough.

In this current skull art design, I leaned toward the absurd as I envisioned a human and a skull version of an antagonist is engaged in a conversation. The skull image of a female is emotional as it throws a tantrum, then threatens the human female.

It was fun creating this project.

Below is my NFTShowroom Minted project:

My approach to the design was to utilize the stable diffusion program, StarryAI, to retrieve the female with colorful hair and the lush meadow.

My next step was to blend the different type images to produce a still version. I utilized Canva, my design program. I begin with a blank, white canvas, then added layers of elements, removing backgrounds, resizing, colorizing, and repositioning items as needed. I wanted a vibrant scene, so applied a yellow flower as the background. Enlarged, the flower did provide a burst of color.

Below is the still Canva version with the additional images I felt added color to the stage production scene:

^{Gray Skull ~ Skull in desert with flowers in head ~ Brown skull ~ Yellow flowers - Contributed to the #LIL by @evagavilan2 ~ Winter flowers ~ AlienPurpleFlower - Contributed to the #LIL by @eve66}

Final step. Adding animation with a video from Deep Dream Generator infused life into the skul. Once uploaded, I chose the video model "RUNWAY". This is the best option for a single image to run the iteration. I feel that the text description for the video turned out better than expected. I had no idea how the skull would flick her hands as if to dismiss the human. Hilarious.

Deep Dream Generator Text Input:
"Human talking to skull. Skull talking to human with the hair flapping."

Model: Runway
Size: 896 X 720 (0.65 MP)
Aspect ratio: landscape

Below is the result and the video version I minted on NFTShowroom:

I returned to Canva to download in the appropriate size to fit PeakD and NFTShowroom requirements. This stage of the design is always more difficult given the size restraints of the final image. Numerous attempts to download with different sizes can be a bit taxing.

Thanks for taking the time to view my post. I hope you like my third mixed media project for the SKULL CHALLENGE.