Creative Sunday | Digital Collage No. 1 : Guadressa And Her Stallion (Short Story)

Guardressa And Her Stallion

The blue moon skirted across the sky and settled in its place. Around it, crowded dark-gray skies. The stars abandoned their twinkling lights and hid behind the moon.

All was at rest. The kingdom of Mecouria was quiet.

However, evil stirred behind the timid mountains overlooking the fields in the valley. Sitting high in the clouds, trouble was brewing for the simple people who resided there. Farmers who believed in the old way of life. The gods of the sky would provide and protect them.

But the gods' hearts turned elsewhere. Infighting, scandals, backstabbing, power seekers sought to rule over the common people.

Of the common people stood a young maiden. Strong of will, she resisted the gods' domination over the people. The people would care for themselves if left to their own ingenuity.

She did not fear the gods. But she was only one, and one one else, especially the men, stood behind her.

Zephyrius sent word that the day of repentance and submission to him was near. He had declared himself the true ruler of the gods by birthright.

The people fled.

But not Guadressa. The daughter of a common man and a female god, her identity was hidden. But not for long. Declaring their union against the law of the gods, at age eighteen, she was stuck down. Instead of dying, her goddess mother descended and wrapped her arms around her daughter, shielding her from death. But she could no longer be human.

In broad daylight amid a thunderous roar, she came.

Lightning bolts appearing out of the sky. With piercing wings, her voluptuous body glided to earth. Fiery eyes to match her ebony body, she stood seven feet in height. Her jet black hair flowed to her shoulders and beyond. Her wings were a shade of blue, her mother's favorite color.

Traveling downward, she looked a thing of exquisite beauty, molded in the image of the goddesses residing high behind the mountains. Her father forged a body shield. Her mother transformed it into a magical armor.

She came that day to liberate her people. For she once dwelt among them. Clasping her golden spear, she proclaimed that day the first and last of Zephyrius' domination.

Her mother sent the Stallion Centaur to guard her for eternity. This incredible and rare creature was a type of Centaur. According to legend, Ixion was his father. His mother was queen of the Mares residing on Mount Pelion.

These creatures were once airborne. Over the centuries, their pegasus form were no longer useful to the gods. But they were still proud beasts.

Powerful legs consisting of six, with a strong chest resembling a male human, he was an extension of the half-human, half horse breed. His golden brown, glistening maroon coloring is said to be derived exclusively from his diet. His species dwelt beyond the high mountain range. Once a thriving horse clan rumored to possess magical powers, their numbers dwindled to less than one hundred.

Loyal was her companion. His keen night vision and warning sounds were said to have prevented the destruction of the commoners during the famine in the old days.

With their heads lifted toward the cliff, the roar of thunder caught their attention. Zephyrius had arrived.

Gray clouds gathered low over the cliffs. Guadressa stood her ground. Stallion Centaur stood at her side.

Zephyrius made the first move.

The landscape on each side of the river disappeared as the lightning bolts scorched its resources. The air usually clean with the smell of the flowing river, was not filled with dense smoke and the odor of decay.

Sensing this, Stallion Centaur quickly reared up to catch the glow of the final the lightning bolt. It entered his chest, then retreated. When he returned to the ground, two long silky bronze legs that looked like extensions, sat proudly underneath his shoulders against the rib cage.

The stampede of emotions coursed through Stallion Centaur's body. He had protected his charge just long enough for Guadressa to activate her sword and armor.

Their opponent knew nothing of their combined power.

Guadressa rose up off the ground. With one powerful swing, the head of Zephyrius came tumbling down and landed in the riverbed.

His short reign was over.

Guadressa accompanied Sallion Centaur to his home. With one swift move, her wings grew wider and lifted her up into the sky.

The people of Mecouria was safe. This day.

For my current digital collage project, I wanted to portray a magical kingdom where a warrior angel named Guadressa and her trusted companion, Stallion Centaur, helped banish the evil ruler and free her people. Set in a mystical world, the angel is worshiped for her kind heart and good deeds. Will she and her stallion be able to bring light to their world once more?

Software/Application

After discovering a generative art program. I began searching for software that could produce quality digital programs. I had heard about stable diffusion software and decided to investigate the programs. I was thoroughly pleased once I created my Free account.

I love short story fantasy. I discovered that could create the mystical worlds surrounding them with stable diffusion images.

What is Stable Diffusion?
Stable Diffusion is a text-to-image latent diffusion model released in 2022 and trained on 512x512 images from the LAION-5B dataset. The dataset is used to generate detailed images using text prompts.¹ The text prompt is required, as it provide the software with a description of your desired image. You are limited only by your imagination.

Who created it?
Stable Diffusion was developed by the CompVis group at LMU Munich. The model was released by Stability AI, CompVis and Runway with support from EleutherAI and LAION. ¹

How does Stable Diffusion Work?
Stable Diffusion uses a “diffusion” process at runtime. Starting with only noise and a text prompt, the software gradually improves the image until it is entirely free of noise. Running their progression process creates the image from your text description. ¹ I have discovered that the more precise my description, the better the results.

Who owns the creations after they are generated?
Through the AI Generated Art License at StarryAI, creations are made to be used freely by the creator. The license states that:

• You own the copyright to your creations;
• Commercial and non-commercial purposes are permitted; and
• No permission is needed (though attribution is appreciated. ¹

The result of the stable diffusion descriptions indeed creates an ethereal imagery. Designing a stable diffusion image begins with the type of software, method used, and text descriptions.

Internal Steps

For my current project, I decided to utilize StarryAI Stable Diffusion software. I was able to create the images used in my digital collage. What I love about StarryAI is that, as a member, I'm awarded 5 CREDITS daily for using their site to create my images.

In order to create the images, I must use some of my credits. A typical diffusion image costs 1 Credit. Below are the procedures to creating an image with the software:

STEP 1:

i) Visit: https://starryai.com

ii) At the top Menu, Click --> CREATE

iii) Select which AI Style you want to create.

The design look I felt would be best accomplished with the ART Style.

iv) On the left hand side is where the magic happens. Enter your text description, then choose your settings:

v) On the right hand side are your previous creations. If you click on each thumbnail, you can see your settings for each design.

Below are the four stable diffusion images I created for my current Digital Collage No. 1 Project:

---

---

---

STEP 2:

With my four stable diffusion images created, all that remained was for me to create my digital collage. For this task, I chose Canva. Canva is a free photo editor in a graphic design application. Creating visually-appealing social media content, flyers, cards, photo collages, videos and other design images is easy. This site is a valuable design tool.

Utilizing Canva, I was able to blend the stable diffusion images. Although you can join Canva for free, I opted to upgrade to an Annual Pro Membership Subscription. Some of the features and tools are only available to upgraded members. Since I use the site daily for all my collage creations, I decided it was worth my time and effort to upgrade to Pro.

In this project, I uploaded all four images.

In order to design any collage, you must be able to move the images around on your canvas to place them. That means, you must remove the background. Locating a good free background removal program is many instances, an inconvenience. The diffusion images are produced on various backgrounds according to the text description chosen.

Fortunately, Canva provides a background removal feature. But the tool is not free. Only upgraded member have this ability to use it.

First, the mountain diffusion image. I added this image to the blank canvas in Canva. I utilized the mountain cliff diffusion image as the setting for my story. Sizing it to fit my standard collage dimensions, I knew I would need to duplicate the image and flip it to create a mirror version and have a full background to work with for placing my other images.

---

Perfect. Now, I have my background.

---

Second. I started to add my characters. First was my heroine fairy. Her image was produced on a black ground, so I needed to remove the background.

---

Now, removing the background makes a difference.

---

Third. Time to add her trusted Stallion. As you can see, again, I will need to remove the background to see the mountains.

---

I wanted to add additional detail to the Stallion, so I duplicated his mane to create a rippling effect.

---

Fourth. The moon. I added it at the top left. But again, I needed to remove its background.

Final Look

As you can see, Canva was perfect for my needs to blend all the elements. With a bit of adjustments to the sizes an position, I feel my final product looks nice.

Here is the final version:

RULES AND GUIDELINES FOR COLLAGE

Must write at least 300 words while making the content.

You must include separate sections like Software/Application, Internal Steps & Final Look.

Minimum 6 Steps (Photos) of the whole process (including internal steps & final look)

Must use necessary images/artworks from copyright free websites to make collage. And you will have to source each of the used photos properly

Thanks for taking the time to view my post. I hope you like my Digital Collage No. 1 project.