Testing Clip Studio Paint AI Colorizing

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Today was my first day back to work in the real world. I spent the day preparing material for project I’ll be leading. It was just busy work — correcting dates, checking for spelling — nothing more. But it took all day.

When I got off work I was tired and feeling bummed out. My mind was depleted. Instead of working on my book, I diddled around with Clip Studio Paint’s AI colorizing tool. The picture on the left becomes the picture on the right. I don’t know if I would use this tool. The smooth gradients make the figures look like plastic manikins.

Upgrading iMac to Monterey --- a big failure

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Today we spent the day working on my partner’s iMac. The upgrade failed and restoring from backup took hours. After reinstalling the operating system using Time Machine, we still have to update to a newer versions of macOS.

Worse, I accidentally deleted my original post with a detailed description of the recovery process when I closed the browser. That’s life.

Jan 8, 2021: Chore Day

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The chores were: to vacuum the hours; to cook a pot of golden curry and bake a batch of vegan bean patties. The bean patties are referred to as “hamburgers'“ because the look like hamburgers.

I was a little lethargic today, perhaps because I had a covid-19 booster shot yesterday. My reaction to the first two vaccinations was so minor that I can’t definitively say that I was lethargic because of the vaccine. Whatever the cause, it was low-energy day for me.

That’s all folks!

Last official day of my part-time job

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My 16-week contract has expired and all of the clients have gone home. I have a few more days to work. I’ll be doing evaluations, removing the my projects from the web, and turning out the lights…until it all starts up again in 6 weeks. Yes, I re-upped.

Over the next 6 weeks I’ll be working on my children’s picture book in every free hour. Now I’ve feeling burnt out. My p-t job requires deep focus and lots of dealing with people who aren’t well-prepared for what it takes to complete the course. I do admire those who “get it” at some point. It’s a good feeling to see someone take a few concepts and run with them.

Nuttin to see here, folks...go on home!

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With this session wrapping up in two weeks, I’m a little overwhelmed with tying up loose ends. The event attendants are exhausted, their initial optimism having turned to stark realism, and I’m elated that the end is near. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, and I know that when I emerge into the sun, I’ll have six weeks to work on my book…until the next group of starry-eyed optimists enter the Reality Zone.

Looking back at the last week or so, I can see that I’ve been fooling around with faces. That’s because my goal for the next book is to make all of the animals cuter as the story deals with issues that are not at all cute. It’s going to be exciting, and fun, and maybe even controversial.

I’m still mulling over the idea of signing up for Ahmed Aldoori’s concept art course. I just have to figure out where I’ll find time to do justice to the lessons. That sounds like a lamp cop-out, but the fact is, there are days when I don’t even have time to fart, much less sit quietly by myself for hours at a time and learn how to draw and paint.