After sharing some of my AI Augmented art portraits on Facebook, i asked my friends and family for some requests of icons they would like to see reimagined. Most of them have no idea about Web3 or any kind of opportunities like Hive. That's not for a lack of trying. However, it's been interesting to see their responses to the art. I started out with 'A Little Burt Don't Hurt'... or this image of Burt Reynolds.

I know a lot of folks that were familiar with and enjoyed Burt's career. I figured it was a good starting point to open the discussion for other suggestions. It didn't take long before i got some cool requests that i would like to share with you now!

One of the first requests i got was from an old bandmate of my dads. He was the guitar player in a Blues band my dad did drums for called 'Texas Heat.' They were really good. So, of course, he asked for Stevie Ray Vaughan a blues musician born and raised in Dallas, Texas.

It took me quite a few tries to get that image above. I was pleasantly surprised with that result. The alternative image below was a bit off in a few regards of detail. Both turned out pretty impressive overall.

This next alternative was probably one of my favorites of the Stevie Ray Vaughan runs. It failed on the hands enough that i didn't want to use it.

Anybody who says that AI art is easy and takes no skill whatsoever is dead wrong and has absolutely no idea what they are talking about. I probably ran a few hundred 'digital sketches' to get to less than satisfactory results. Some of these portraits would have been faster and easier to do by hand. However, that would defeat the purpose of learning a new tool for my mixed media art applications!

Before continuing on, i wanted to give the opportunity for anyone here to come join the fun for free and give this stuff a try. I pretty much only use one bot on discord. I mentioned it in my last few posts and you can go check those out for more details.

Otherwise, you can come join Ausbit's Discord and illustrate your imagination via text prompts using the bot with a zillion settings for free by clicking this invitation link.

I highly recommend coming and giving it a try! You can tag me on discord @ castleberry#6859 and i will help you out the best i can.

The next person to comment with their request was a friend i have known for many years. She was a big fan of the 'I Love Lucy' reimagined. Her family loved that show and so she was obviously a fan of that artwork. She kindly requested 'Harrison Ford possibly as Indiana Jones of the original'... which i thought was a great choice.

The image above was not a bad start, but i didn't feel like it was the one i was looking for to fulfil her request. So, if at first you don't succeed.... try, try again!

The one above was probably my favorite because of how well the hat turned out. But that braid of hair or jungle vine kind of ruined it for me. So, it took many more runs to lose some quality of the hat in exchange for making the background more noticeable. So, this next image ended up being the one i settled on for sending to my friend.

Not too bad if i do say so myself! hahaha Raiders of the Lost Ark was a pretty awesome movie!

One of my sisters chimed in and responded with a gif. Since i speak in the language of gifs (not that she knows) i was quite pleased with this way of answering. We all grew up on horror movies. One of her favorite people has always been Vincent Price. She sent this gif as her request...

I had a lot of tries to make this one special for her. Some were decent enough.... but i kept trying. I really wanted to get something that would capture her imagination and attention. She is almost pickier than me, and in many ways so much more. I definitely didn't want to disappoint!

Of course, this hat is from a particular movie of his... but that's not what we were looking for. If you haven't noticed, and i expect you haven't.... one of the descriptors in the prompts i often use is 'Brian Froud' who was one of the concept artists for the movie Labyrinth. His fantasy art has been a huge inspiration in my own art and it's a nice touch to many of the generative images! You can see his influence on the suit.

This was almost a worthy candidate... but i didn't think the mustache or hair was good enough. Usually, when they are the hands have 12 fingers each or something crazy like that.

There were many more tries, all subtly different, but i settled with this one. Sometimes, you try too much and it goes retrograde on you!

So, my sister immediatly wanted a second option. I won't show you all the fails... but her gif response for a second request was a man after my own heart.

I present to you 'Exhibit A': Young Serious Pee Wee Herman

I was happy when she said the suit really made the art work, since it was the least Pee Wee ISH thing in the portrait. Another satisfied request.

My other sister requested the Abbey Road album cover from the Beatles. I felt like this was too easy... and boy was i wrong. I tried for hours to get the cover to look just right. I even tried to get the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band album attire on the Beatles as they crossed Abbey Road.

I won't explain the nerdy details as to why this was so tough... but it wasn't for a lack of trying. Another time when doing the drawing or illustration by hand or photoshopping it would have been much faster and easier.

I had a zillion fails on this one and i don't want to share any of them. Suffice it to say, i asked her for a second choice. She said she would have to think on it. But, she also blurted out, since she is going to be a grandmother soon, her baby nugget coming soon. I was very swift to oblige this response.

I do plan on working up the Beatles request by her. But, until then... this will have to do. Or, at least, until she comes with a second choice.

The last request was from a girl i grew up with that might as well be my 'other' sister. She wanted Brandon Lee as The Crow. This was my favorite movie growing up and Brandon and Bruce Lee are/were my heros. So, believe it or not, i had already been working on some of him.

Unfortunately, the name Lee is so trained into the data that it takes his Chinese heritage a bit too far. He was such a young actor with not much experience that i feel his potential in the algorithms is highly distorted. I don't even want to share the fails they were sooo bad. Another example of where my analog abilty surpases that of the AI capability at this time.

I told her i could do him, as he is passed on now making that movie, more honor and justice by hand. I also asked for a second choice. She mentioned Freddy Kruegar from the horror franchise Nightmare on Elm Street, Nicholas Cage from ConAir, or DimeBag Darrell from the local Dallas band, Pantera.

I originally wanted to do Nicholas Cage as Freddy. I tried for quite a while but nothing that was worthwhile. Hahaha

I did try DimeBag Darrel since he was murded not that long ago. He was considered one of the best metal guitarists of my day, which is getting older and older all the time. He definitely had a style on guitar and a look that was unforgetable. Here are some of the last runs before we wrap this post up.

This is another example of ignorant people who think creating the perfect image is just typing in some words. I probably spent more credits running this over and over to get the best results. I even used source images so the AI didn't take too many liberties. In the end, i wasn't completely happy with any of them. But with all art, you have to know when to quit at some point!

In the end, i decided to just do this last one for her. It turned out well enough. Nobody would really be the critic i am... especially on the Book of Faces. But since i couldn't get the Crow well enough i felt guilty and put more work in on this one.

My intention was to try and get more input and kind of crowdsource some ideas but to also deliver the art in a very timely fashion. Everyone was happy and mildy impressed if i had to guess based on their responses.

It's even cooler that i may mint some of these at my NFT ShowRoom Gallery or open commissions for this kind of art.

As we wrap this post up, i would love to know an icon or idea that you would like to see. Let me know in the comments for some curation as well as a way to synergize our web3 Hive opportunities!

I really do appreciate those that read far enough along to make it here. Thanks for sharing this experience with me and i hope you got some joy out of the art or my personal story to go along with it. Worse case scenario, you can get your joy out of leaving me a request in the comments. Take Care until next time!