Basically, three very special collections
Beginning now: “AI & I curated“
No, that’s not a copycat of my other site “Gameover’s Atelier“: there you may find a number of not necessarily ordinary stock images, some of them exclusive to the site, but not the ones where emotionally I left a piece of me. Those you’ll find here.
I’ve been practicing with AI tools for quite some time, I tested and discarded several of them, and the first thing I learnt is that, intelligent as it can be, a tool is a tool is a tool: what you get depends on you, on your fantasy and on your skills, not on it. With a bit of luck you may get from it the bizarre, the unexpected, sometimes even a trifle of inspiration, but hardly that vague, elusive, dreamy quality that hides in any piece of art – the “pushbutton art“ will have to wait a little longer yet 😉
Be as it may, a properly used good AI is still a precious creative tool. The best one I came across is Midjourney, so far unparalleled for aesthetics and quality. It took me quite a while to get it tamed, to develop a special way of prompting it, to build up my own personal styles (yes, Midjourney’s sophistication reaches that far!), but it was worth the while.
Now getting a good picture from Midjourney is ‘just’ a matter of stubbornly trimming my prompts over and again until I’m satisfied with the outcome, of upscaling and downloading it, of applying (manually, on my computer) the filters I see fit, and of postprocessing the resulting image to my liking. Hard work? Maybe so, but it’s a lot of fun too!
You may find those images (painstakingly selected among several thousands) here and only here. You may watch them at leisure, if you wish you may buy a print of the ones you like, or contact me if you’re interested in downloading the original. They aren’t pricey at all – quite the opposite, I daresay – but there’s a hidden optional price that you are free to ignore: making me happy by telling me why you like them and how you’re planning to use them.
Coming soon: Photography and digital painting
Messing about with paints and colors has ever intrigued me. My first “professional“ abstract oil painting… er, I abandoned it anonymously in an underground garage in Milan for my life mate claimed that merely watching it gave him a mighty headache – and I was nearly tempted to agree myself 😉
Well, that was a while ago. In the meantime several digital painting techniques came slowly to light and I found them way cleaner and more practical – no brushes to wash, no T-shirts stained beyond repair to throw away, no hopelessly hard-sealed color tubes, just “my rifle, my computer and me“ :-)))
Surprisingly enough growing accustomed to digital painting was initially anything but easy: I found significantly more difficult to get where I wanted with keyboard and mouse than with palette and brush (and to think that I dare call myself a computer specialist!). But over time I got more and more familiar with the ‘new’ techniques by playing out of the box with the parameters of the ‘artistic filters’ of so many pieces of software, and now I’m wondering if today I’d still be able to grab a real, physical brush by the right end.
All the paintings you’ll find here are based on original photographs of my own, © Luisa Fumi.
Beyond my digital paintings you’ll find here also some original photographs of mine and a few 3D-renderings that IMO suggest enough to deserve a frame on the wall.
Here too you may purchase a quality print of them, or contact me if you’re interested in the original.
Beginning: Antique engravings and prints
Let’s begins in a different way: actually I’m posting some single offers framed and ready to be shipped asap. Sound interesting? Please, have a look here
That’s another passion I share with my life partner (how else would he put up with me?), namely collecting ancient books that for a lifetime we dug patiently out of junk shops and flea markets or bought for a song from heirs eager to get rid of poor grandpa’s worm-eaten library.
There’s a strange fascination in leafing through those ancient dusty tomes, through venerable weathered pages stained with mold and here and there penciled on the margins by hands long since turned to dust themselves.
Behind the pictures engraved on those pages (photography was then still in its nappies) there’s nearly always an interesting story, plenty of ‘why’s’ and ‘how’s’ to be investigated, and here all too often Wikipedia is none the wiser or provides merely the beginning of a long enthralling search.
And once the mystery is cleared up there’s the satisfaction of scanning those respectable pages without damaging the book, of restoring them to their glory of yesteryear, of seeing them as they must have looked when the book was printed.
That’s how Antikstock was born, another website I’m very fond of.
Here you’ll find a selection of engravings and prints that may look great framed either in their largest format or as a set of delightful small pictures smelling of antique. There, right around the corner, you may find the originals in digital form – just follow the link on the page where you found your picture here.
