Skyship

First Chippy collaboration!

Created on Midjourney. Image one by author. Image two by Mixed AI Art. Used with permission.

Welcome and Thanks

Welcome to the first edition of Eclectic Extras! For now, Eclectic Extras will publish on the last Sunday of each month. It will feature AI art collaborations and stories based on the artwork generated.

First, and always, credit goes to Chippy, who came up with this format for AI artists to collaborate in the creation of images. Chippy has graciously agreed to allow me to present his formula and to use it in this newsletter. You can look forward to a collaboration between myself and Chippy on the last Sunday in March.

You can find Chippy on Instagram at @chippytheai. Here on Substack, he’s Humans of Generative Art (HOGA). You can read about Chippy, myself, and other AI artists there, learning about the people behind the art. You can also check out Chippy’s art on his website.

Second, credit goes to Mixed AI Art with whom I created this first set of images, and who was kind enough to allow me to use their prompt data and image to create this post and the story that accompanies it. You can find them on Instagram.

Thank you to both of these wonderful artists. I look forward to working with you as Eclectic Extras grows and evolves.

How collaboration works

Below I’ve included two sets of very similar images. The first are those I published to Instagram and the second, those Mixed AI Art published. In each set, the image shows both the collaboration instruction and the choices each of us made. I am contributor A in my image, and, of course, Mixed AI Art is contributor A in theirs.

Mine

Created by Author and Mixed AI Art. Used with permission.

Mixed Ai Art’s

Created by Author and Mixed AI Art. Used with permission.

In step one, we each privately chose four words, then shared them. In step two, we each added four more words which we did not share. We then arranged those words in an order we liked and submitted them to Midjourney to create our images.

The order in which words are presented, as well as the words themselves and how those words are grouped, affect the images created.

Our shared words were multicoloured, cute, neon, magic, iridescent, skyship, billowing, and cat. Mixed AI Art added waves, wather (water), ocean, and blue. I added twilight, hidden, mountain, and abode. Our resulting images are very different.

Of course, Midjourney produced multiple images for both of us. We together chose the two we liked best, and what you see is the result of our collaboration.

The Story

Here’s the story I came up with based on our collaborative creations.

Skyship

Upon the billowing, windswept waves of cloud, Neon guided her skyship and its frightened passengers on the final leg of their journey toward the safety of the order’s mountain abode.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she spotted the hideout, well hidden within the multicolored landscape of the mountain. The magic the cat people shared concealed them here, though out on the blue of the ocean, many had been hunted down and now lay deep beneath the water in their final resting place.

As the sun sank low in the sky, an iridescent twilight greeted the ship’s final descent into the mountainous village, where Willow, her mate, had already made landfall with her own refugees. Both had come safely home with all of the souls entrusted to their care that day.

As usual, Willow struck a cute pose for Neon, then, smirking, raised an index finger to indicate she was, again, the first to arrive. Their good-natured competition, as always, helped to lighten the stress of their ongoing rescue efforts.

For today, at least, the couple was together again and safe. It was a good day for Neon and Willow and a good day for catkind.

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Afterword

You may have noticed that I incorporated all of the words from both prompts into today’s story. I’d like to do this as much as possible, but if technical terms like “octane render” are chosen, I would be hard pressed to find a way to do so. Perhaps we’ll institute a rule that those words aren’t permitted.

This was such a fun collaboration and challenge (using all the words). I’m excited to see what the next collaboration will bring. In March, Chippy and I will collaborate to bring you more fun images and the story they prompt.

Chippy has connected me with other artists interested in collaboration. I’m so excited to work with them and see what we come up with. I will, of course, write stories for all of the collabs. Stay tuned! (And if you would like to do a collaboration, let me know.)