MidJourney’s skill in rendering human faces has dramatically improved within the past year or so of its public release. However, at the time of these creations, it took a tremendous amount of learning, reiteration and proper phrasing to create human renders that were at all anatomically correct much less appealing to look at. This is to say that I am aware of the bizarre grotesqueness of Ana De Armas’s facial features and have gone so far as to publish them proudly for a variety of reasons.
First and foremost, I should say that my initial desire to delve into AI was not its potential to replicate art in a traditionally acceptable manner, but specifically because of its abstract style. This mindset of mine has shifted as AI generators have rapidly become more advanced in their replication and subsequently lost that early charm of imperfection.
The second caveat worth noting is that this particular series set emulate the style of Ashley Wood, renowned for his chaotic painterly illustrations; his fragmented brushwork lent itself well to the fledgling creations of MidJourney. In July 6 of 2022, I stumbled on user fonglet rendering a set of portraits incorporating Wood’s aesthetic onto celebrities in fantasy armor. I had specifically avoided working with human faces because the AI had such difficulty with proportions, but I was encouraged by the progress fonglet had made with their iterations and decided to try out their prompts as well. I was also among friends and I enjoyed explaining the quirks of MidJourney including its inability to depict people. The topic of users branching off each other’s prompts is a contentious and extending tangent that I would do best to save for a later writing, but needless to say, I am fully aware of MJC003 owing itself to fonglet’s initial work.
It should also be said that the Dreams of Regret archive seeks to document nearly all my explorations in AI artwork, and thus it seems right that I include these moments when I am emulating others and when my renders prove less than flattering.
MJC003 was a project attempted over the course of several sessions. As a result, its prompt changed constantly with the various phrase trending on the server. I have given the example prompt of the armored portraits in the first row, but additional descriptors added flowers as well as some updated rendering features [upbeta and testp]. I may include more portraits in the future with MidJourney’s recent improvements to facial renders.
While Ana De Armas is arguably recognizable in these images, I was infinitely more satisfied with details that obstructed her face such as her full body armor or the way in which she is positioned relative to the viewer. The armor in particular lent itself well to the abstraction creating some Brutalist designs that look fierce and otherworldly.
Images created from July 7th to August 30th, 2022 on MidJourney’s Discord Server.
Full Example Prompt: painting of ana de armas wearing a knights armor by ashley wood, character concept, detailed, artstation, full body, side view, profile --ar 2:3 --stop 80
