My attempt at using AI 'photography'

There's a site which allows you to create fake photos of landscapes using AI.

I thought I'd try it out with a scene I know well:

Quinaig & Loch Nedd

Here's what I inputted. Each colour represents a particular preset 'material' - turquoise is 'sky', grey is 'cloud', khaki is 'mountain', green is 'hill', lime green is 'tree', brown is 'rock', blue is 'sea', and olive green is 'bush'

And here's what it came up with 😆😆😆😆😆

Here's another with a sunset filter on it:

I know it's not really mean for recreating real scenes, so I tried a made up one (purple is 'river', bright green is 'grass', brown is 'house' and that weird greeny browny yellowy colour is 'sand'):

Hmmmmmmm.....

You are all I need

Woke early this morning, my mind whirling with many things. Getting ready for church I was tired, and getting more and more uptight.

In church, the first song we sung was given out by an elderly widower who probably has more difficulties in his life than I can imagine. The song was We bow down and confess, and one line simply says, "You are all I need."

It got me thinking:

When everything seems terrible,  

  you are all I need.
When I'm aware of my sinfulness, 

  you are all I need.
When I think I'm actually good enough, 

  you are all I need.
When I think I can do it on my own, 

  you are all I need.
When I feel inadequate, 

  you are all I need.
When things don't go my way, 

  you are all I need.
When it's hard to believe, 

  you are all I need.
When I'm full of good ideas for things I want to do,

  you are all I need.
When I worry about the future, 

  you are all I need.
When I feel like a loser, 

  you are all I need.
When my to-do list is growing, 

  you are all I need.
When the world is confusing, 

  you are all I need.
When it's hard to live your way, 

  you are all I need.

Planning an outfit for King David

I went for a golden brown colour as it's similar to his shepherd clothes, but also looks regal.

More illustrations

Just finished these illustrations this week for Go Teach.

Top story is Jesus healing the demon-possessed girl (which is an incredibly difficult story for children - and adults for that matter. But I just had to draw it, not teach it!) Bottom story is Jesus bringing Jairus's daughter back to life.

The last two pictures are closely based on ones I did for my own PowerPoint. But a very different style, to fit with others in the series!

I really like the hands in this.

And finally, a set of illustrations for the 2nd commandment (no idols), based on Psalm 115.
If you think these don't look like my illustrations, that's because they had to fit into a set done by a previous illustrator, so I tried to fake his style.

The first picture is the writer of the Psalm. I wanted him to look like he was trying out ideas while writing his song, and I immediately thought of this album cover:

Only I've swapped out the guitar with a lute, which actually was an instrument at the time, though looks familiar enough to kids not to need explanation.

The last one, with the body parts, was actually the hardest to draw! That, and finding idols to draw that weren't nude or otherwise inappropriate :-)

Colour wheel

Here's a colour wheel I made, for finding complementary colours.

Cmyk, and all steps are mathematically accurate (except that you can't have 0.5 of a colour, so I had to do some rounding!)

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie

Look what I met in town!

He was very small and round - I think he may be a wood mouse.
He was sitting on the pavement so I nudged him over to somewhere safer.
He even let me stroke him!

Nicodemus illustrations

Just finished these today. There was extra space, so I was able to add some icons to represent Jesus' metaphors in both this lesson and the next. Hopefully this will help! (The sun & moon were an extra because I'd still not filled my space.)

How to grill pizza

I learned this from one of my flatmates at uni, who learned it from her mum.

How to cook pizza without heating up the oven.

• You will need a frozen pizza. If it didn't come frozen, you will need to freeze it. (I have only ever tried it on small ones - I don't know if it would work with big ones).

• Remove the grill pan from under the grill, and heat the grill to hot.
• Dampen the bottom of the pizza (I just stick it under the tap) and place it on the grill pan upside down.
• Grill base until brown. (Because the pizza was frozen and the pan was cold, the cheese & tomato should still be stuck on, and not have melted).

• Turn the grill down to medium.
• Turn pizza right side up, and place on grid of grill pan.
• Optional - add more toppings. Here I added more cheese, and herbs.

• Grill until cheese is nice and melted and beginning to brown.

• Eat!

Every Moment Belongs

Just happened to listen to this on Saturday night. Doesn't it fit well with what I wrote in the previous post?

In the desert

I'm doing the story of Moses' escape to Midian on Sunday. Just remembered this thing I wrote for someone online, who felt he'd wasted a year by being distracted by side projects that lead nowhere.

---

Just thinking about Moses. His mistaken idea of what he was supposed to be doing lead to him kicking his heels in the desert for 40 years.

But that time wasn't wasted at all (though I'm sure to him it felt like it - he didn't know how the story ends). He learned to live in the desert, he got a wife and kids and useful contacts for the journey ahead (father-in-law and brother-in-law), and he gained maturity and patience.

I guess sometimes when it seems like we've been on the wrong track that doesn't mean it might not be the best thing for us. Both professionally (learning what not to do) but also personally.

If we always made the right decisions and everything went smoothly it would be nice, but also probably detrimental to us. We'd get to rely on ourselves too much, and also get too comfortable here.

But the fact that everything doesn't go right, and we discover how incompetent we are makes us look beyond ourselves to our future hope when things will be perfect (but not because of us).

"Perseverance produces character, and character hope, and hope does not disappoint us"