Curating the AI Art into Fine Art

We'd done a post about some of the principal characters of Brotherhood of Light, and I figured they needed to be more accurate to the book. Additionally, these are some of the better art that AI had generated (Gemini, Co-Pilot, Chat-GPT). Chat-GPT or as I call it Chat-GPG used to be peak at making edits to photos, right now it is merely mid. You can still sort of guide it to where you want yet now after the update a week ago that includes an update to not edit messages sent, it now takes 3x longer to get a photo how you'd like it. The one with Brundin and Eloisa took several attempts and in my opinion should've only taken two. 

Needless to say it is like Gandalf the White entering the Hall of Edoras and saying, "Your courtesy has lessened as of late Theoden King!" If King Theoden was under the spell of mediocrity and mid-ness. Alas! It is a notable downgrade, down from 5 stars to 3.5 in my eyes.

My sincerest desire that our audience is looking forward in anticipation for Brotherhood of Light. Going through it now to do some proofreading.

Two moon-crossed lovers. 

His leg is sinking into the sand.

Hammer Time. Brundin taking a ceremonial photo 

Exuding stoicism.

Little Grey. No this is not a bearded halfling!

The little troublemaker himself.

The author Ricky wanted him to wear primary color green clothes. Yet I do feel that is too cliché as green is a rather safe choice for fantasy people's. He said that it is meant to be a joke, his clothes and name should not match. What do you all think, funny?

Yet another status update

 Editing is tough. I guess that is the gist of everything I have to say right now. I’m still working through some of my editor’s comments on Brotherhood. It is taking way longer than I thought it would. I guess with Maleki, after getting my editor’s comments and reading through them, it took me a full year or so to pick the book back up and edit it. So, in that regard, I guess I’m doing better. Still, I hope to eventually get my books in front of a larger audience. Even my own mother doesn’t want to read them, but I guess that is because they are fantasy, which apparently isn’t her genre.

As I write this, I’m brought to reminisce about a book I recently finished reading for Leaf Bound Review called Stray. In this book, some of the sections are writings on a message board of sorts, kind of like this blog in a way. The poster at times says there are perhaps a few Ukrainians who read his work. I kind of feel the same way. I say all this into the ether and hope something is heard. I’m not sure it is. In any case, though, the writing continues, albeit slowly.

By way of another update, I still don’t think I’ve figured out how to get email addresses for a newsletter. I guess that is something to explore shortly as well.

Ok, maybe some AI art

 Okay, so I might have overstated this in the last update. Lejus-Li is fine with AI art and actually likes it. His issue was that I was just including too many options in each post.

Still, I think the idea was kind of fun. I definitely overdid it because it was easy to make, and honestly, it was a little fun to see the characters I created visually. It might have helped my process a bit to see them visually like that.

In any case, if I wasn't clear before, I am still using AI to help edit the book. It's good at picking up my typos and whatnot. This isn't a replacement for a human editor by any means, and I have a human editor looking at Brotherhood and Maleki right now!

In fact, I think that's what the holdup is right now. Well, there are a lot of holdups. The other two are me reworking the covers and cover art (or, well, maybe getting some help in that regard), and coming up with a launch plan. I also used AI for that, so the plan actually looks pretty good. It's just a matter of executing on it, which is harder.

I hope to have a bigger email list for all this, too. I haven't had much success in that regard yet.

As I probably said before, it's easier now than ever to write and produce a novel. It's harder than ever to actually get attention for your writing. I'm definitely not going to solve that problem tonight. But hopefully, we can bring a fun story to some people.

No more AI Art

 Andrew isn't loving all the AI art content, so if you're reading this, it's probably the end of that. I'm not sure yet if we're going back to AI-written content either. I think it's pretty concerning to have a bunch of AI-written slop on our website while trying to convince people to buy a book that doesn't have any AI slop in it. That mismatch feels kind of problematic. So that leaves written content like this: me and a computer, probably a bit of a rambly mess, maybe talking about the struggles of the craft.

While I don't use AI to write the book, I do sometimes consult it during edits. AI is actually pretty good at catching typos and that kind of thing. It doesn't seem able to help much with a developmental edit, but it's often good at picking up mistakes on a line level. That said, it won't really tell you how to fix the error, or it will, but take it with a grain of salt. It's decent at identifying issues, bad at fixing them. You probably need to do that part yourself.

Anyway, the point of this post was to explain how I'm stepping away from AI usage, not to explain how I still use it.

If there's content you'd like to see, more behind-the-scenes of the writing process, more lore from the world, more character backgrounds, leave a comment below and we'll see what we can do. I might even do a podcast episode on it if that sounds interesting.

Battle Master Folgrim

So not only is AI going to generate these images, it going to tell you about it!

Three Takes on Folgrim: A Character Art Breakdown

I generated three versions of Folgrim mid-swing with his spiked flail, and each one tells a slightly different story about who he is. Here's how they stack up.

Image 1: The Braided Berserker

This is the most "storybook fantasy" of the three. The dwarf has long copper-red hair and a beard braided into two distinct plaits, and his face is caught in a full battle roar, teeth bared, brows knotted. The background does a lot of work here: other fighters grabbing weapons off a rack, a straw practice dummy, shields scattered on the ground. It reads like a courtyard under attack, not a posed portrait. The flail itself is the star of the composition, its chain traces a near-perfect circle around him, so your eye follows the weapon's arc before it lands on the character. Armor-wise he's light: leather bracers, a chainmail underlayer, no shoulder plates. This version feels like the "younger, hungrier fighter" of the three.

Image 2: The Battle-Scarred Veteran

Completely different energy. This dwarf is bald, with just the long braided beard remaining, and he's got a scar cutting across his forehead. He's built heavier through the shoulders and wears actual pauldrons and shoulder armor, gear the other two versions skip. His stance is lower and wider, like he's absorbing the momentum of the swing rather than generating it. The flail head is motion-blurred into an almost unreadable smear, which actually works in this one's favor, it sells speed and weight better than a crisp render would. Background is sparser too: barrels, a sword stuck in a crate, a distant strawman target. Less chaos around him, more focus on him. If Image 1 is the young hothead, this is the guy who's done this a hundred times and isn't impressed by it anymore.

Image 3: The Classic Portrait

This one splits the difference in some ways but reads the most "cover art" of the three. Full head of hair and a beard braided into multiple thin plaits, no armor plating at all, just cloth, leather, and a chain shirt underneath. The lighting is the most dramatic of the set, strong directional light carving out the muscles in his forearms, and the flail's chain has a nice double-loop motion blur that gives it more hang-time than the other two. The background swaps the mob of fighters for a single straw dummy and some idle shields, quieter, more staged. This is the one I'd reach for if I needed a single hero shot rather than a "moment in a battle" shot.

Which one is actually Folgrim?

This is where it gets interesting, because these three don't just look different, they suggest different versions of his backstory.

Image 2, the bald, scarred veteran with real shoulder armor, is the one that argues Folgrim has survived a lot before the story even starts. A scar like that isn't cosmetic, it's a scene someone hasn't written yet. If his arc leans into "old soldier who has seen too much," this is the design that sells it without a single line of dialogue.

Image 1, the younger-looking berserker with the full head of hair and the mid-roar expression, plus the busier background full of other fighters grabbing weapons, reads more like a man still in the middle of proving himself. If Folgrim's introduction happens in a chaotic group fight rather than a solo moment, this composition already does that storytelling work.

Image 3 is the cleanest "this is the character, look at him" portrait. Strong single-source lighting, minimal background noise, most dramatic chain blur on the flail. If you need one definitive reference image for Folgrim, this is the one that reads as canon rather than as a moment.

My instinct: if Folgrim is meant to be a grizzled, experienced fighter, Image 2 is the strongest match. If he's younger or more hot-headed in temperament, Image 1 fits better. Let me know his actual arc and I can tell you which one to lock in as his reference art.

The Professors, Seogh and Alastar

 Here are the two named professors in Brotherhood of light. The first images give me kind of Harry Potter vibes.

Here are the two, its a little cartoonish.

Slightly better from Gemini.

Has a little of the Copilot patina to it. kind of good, but the Crosses are a problem.

Not bad.

Here is ChatGPT and I think it nails it.

Brundin

 Brundin, the main character of Brotherhood of light. Youthful and unaware. 

Gemini is off to a strong start actually. 

ChatGPT too. although I'm not sure why he has is hammer indoors.

Copilot isn't bad, but his grip of the hammer is kind of comical. In any case any of these three seem fine.

Lets do one more scene, Brundin and Eloisa. Lets see if the AI remembers here.

This Eloisa looks pretty good, although, I don't think the sisterhood should use the brotherhood emblem. 

Fine

a little silly.

Honestly, I think I like this Eloisa better than our previous post on this https://manetera.blogspot.com/2026/07/ai-images-eloisa.html

 I still don't love that crest/ emblem, but I think it is good enough.