A thangka is a Tibetan religious panting depicting a Buddhist deity or concept. It’s usually done on fabric in bright pigments. To my surprise, I generated a dozen of these using the following prompt: Lion, human head of Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo, who is credited with bringing Buddhism to Tibet in the late Eighties. The …
Category: Fantasy
Elric: Acid, Goth, or Heavy Metal?
[Previous posting on Elric art here.] Another way portraits of Elric can classified is by the musical genre they evoke or were influenced by. Elric was born in 1961 and matured over the decades since, which means his teenage years, the most musically-influenced period of a young person’s life, ran through the 1970s and …
Elric: Fit, Frail or Fey?
It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody, and from the loose sleeves of his yellow gown emerge two slender hands, also the colour of bone, resting on each …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 3/15/23: Cults
Cults can be amusing, or terrifying. The quintet of fellows above date from the early 1970s, members of a West Coast cult called The Source that even had its own rock group, of which they might be the members (or perhaps Doug Henning wannabees?) Note their similarity in costume to pictures of Aleister Crowley done …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 3/1/23: The Best of Twittersnips (Plants)
A selection of plant-related Twittersnips from the years 2017 – 2020. Plants Plants Butterstink Blessed Weaselwand Thimble of Thorns Toadbeard Herbal Infusions Weeping skullcap Extraction of crushed foxpot Essence of sweethimble and pussy-pine Frogboot stamen solution that reduces a fever Brew of hairy queenspike bark and greatblossom seeds Nurestink Pollen Oil Pink Fiddlerus Velvet …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 2/22/23: Return to Melniboné
I went to generate a pic of Elric on a Melnibonéan dragon by using the prompt “Albino warrior, black armor, rainbow dragon” and look what I got! But it’s so cool looking I’m going to keep it. A more conventional Elric was generated later and you can see him to the side. I did an …
Cities a’ Walkin
Mexican philosopher Manuel DeLanda called cities the “mineralization of humanity.” Invertebrates like snails, clams, and nautiluses generate outer coverings of calcium to act as their homes. Now humans have begun to do the same, “mineralizing again when they developed an urban exoskeleton.” What might happen if those shells developed personalities of their own and began …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 2/15/23: House of the Dragon (Dragons)
The dragons of House of the Dragon are equivalent to B-52 bombers and almost as large, with unprecedented, literal firepower. They are what the Valyrians used to dominate the continent of Essos in ages past, building up an empire that was Roman-like in its scope. But unlike the jets, Valyrian dragons are sentient, and bonded …