Gym Dragon, Series A
Today is Chinese New Year, the first day in the Lunar Calendar. 2024 is the Year of the Dragon, and I thought that I would create a series of a man who’s a dragon. As I’ve written previously, I was born in the year of the Dragon, so metaphorically, you these are portraits of my mind — if my consciousness could be visualized, then these half man half dragons would be close to my ethereal thoughts.
The Chinese Dragon (龍, 龙) is a symbol of power, strength, and good luck. It is often seen as a guardian of the heavens and a bringer of rain. It is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck. Unlike the dragons seen in the West, it’s generally seen as a benevolent creature, and is often associated with the Emperor of China.
Dragons are also a symbol of the Chinese people, and the dragon dance is a traditional part of Chinese New Year celebrations. The dragon dance is performed by a team of dancers who manipulate a long flexible figure of a dragon using poles positioned at regular intervals along the length of the dragon. The dance team simulates the imagined movements of this river spirit in a sinuous, undulating manner.
The men in this series are dancing in shorts and sneakers, and through their movements, evokes the motion of dragons in the air, sparking light, smoke, and mist — all attributes of a Chinese Dragon. Red, Gold and Silver are usually the colors linked in Chinese New Year, and hence the color scheme for the series.
The title of this series, “Gym Dragon,” is a play on my initials — Gym Dreams. But I can’t claim credits for it. It was @unpartitioned.ai who sent me a CNY greeting today, and so I decided to name this series as such — thank you!
Happy Chinese New Year! 🐉🎉
Stable Diffusion txt2img, Vibrant Horizon Turbo XL v2, multiple control nets, using abstract images rendered with Midjourney v6 to drive style via the IP Adapter control net. Topaz Gigapixel AI upscaling. Detailed tutorial will be posted in the future.
