A digital commonplace for a Regular Guy called Charlie Pharis

Category: Creativity (page 1 of 1)

AI for Non-Creative Creative Wannabes…

Greetings, fans of Just Charlie! All both of you have been waiting with bated breath for another infrequent installment in this space. Well, wait no more! It’s Friday, and that often means random goodness from all over the place. Let’s jump in with a quick glance at a new cool tool…

See those two images at the top? They’re what happened yesterday when I discovered the rabbit hole that is Adobe’s Generative AI products. I’ve used the Generative Fill tool in the beta of Photoshop once, and I had pretty good results. But I’ve kind of resisted playing around with Firefly and the tools in Adobe Express, just because. But yesterday, with a little dark and early time on my hands, I jumped in. Here’s what I discovered in my short introduction:

  • If you can describe what you want to see, there’s a good chance these tools will get you a reasonable facsimile.
  • There’s an issue with eyes, faces, and fingers. Why do the eyes look so funky? And why do some faces look distorted and even downright scary?
  • And what’s the deal with six fingers? Seven fingers? No fingers, just club hands?
  • The results are a mixed bag, but if you keep refreshing the space, eventually you’ll get something you can live with.

I know there’s quite a bit of conversation about AI and its role in our culture. I do fear that people like me—old coot wannabes with limited skills, at best—will likely be replaced by these tools. I’m also afraid of the ramifications for communication, politics, and our society in general, as we cede more and more of our rational human function to The Machines. Maybe more on that later. But for a few minutes on a Thursday, it was a fun little distraction for a guy who had an artistic and creative bypass at birth.

On Journals and Whatnot…

I’ve been keeping a somewhat regular journal/notebook since around 2003. Coincidentally, that’s about when I started blogging (but not nearly as regularly).

Anyway, I’ve never been real sure about how to format my journal, what to include and leave out, pencil or pen, computer or whatever. Somewhere along the line I came to the conclusion that what I have is not a journal in the classic sense, but more of a commonplace book that includes all kinds of stuff.

Today as I was making my way through the stack o’ stuff in my Reeder feeds, I happened upon this article from The Millions. This part about Lynda Barry helping non-creative people learn to express themselves included this:

I’m turning this over when I come across Lynda Barry’s Syllabus. Barry is a cartoonist, author, and teacher whose recent books are devoted to changing the way people think about their own creativity. Syllabus is based on a workshop Barry teaches called “Writing the Unthinkable.” The main course requirement is keeping a notebook—and not just any kind. Each day’s hand-written entry must contain these items: 1) a list of seven things you did, 2) a list of seven things you saw, 3) something you heard someone say, and 4) a sketch of one item from the “saw” list. Don’t even think about skipping the sketching step.

Much like , this approach has been bouncing around in my brain this morning. I think I’ll try it. Here’s my hack, though. I’m going to try to start each day’s entry with Barry’s list, and then keep using the same book for the commonplace items I come across throughout my day. We’ll see.

Design Aesthetics…

The best part of waking up

Rux Hall via Compfight

Simple. Classic. Elegant. Clean. Understated. Timeless. Whimsical. Appropriate. Gracious.

Real Simple (If only there were a similar publication geared toward men).

Apple.

Tumblr.

OXO.

Bodum. Chemex.

Bill’s khakis. Bass Weejuns (when they were made in Maine). Converse Jack Purcells. Sperry Top-Siders (when they were made in the USA).

Moleskine.

Good pencils.

Audrey Hepburn. Grace Kelly. Coco Chanel. Mary Tyler Moore.

Cary Grant. Fred Astaire. Frank Sinatra.