Valencya In the Vanity

Eyes lowered. Demure smile. Slight turn of the head. Dark and alluring eye shadow not too deep. Thick swipe of liner. And of course, an extra layer of lashes. Valencya stared intently at the mirror. Alabaster silhouette with perfectly shaped nostrils formed. Acknowledging the mirage in the mirror was acceptable, she nodded, then turned to shut the double-sided pane. But it refused to close. Suddenly, the vanity swung violently open. "But what about me?" the voice countered.

"Who dares to invade my personal space?" Valencya hesitated, then allowed a hearty laugh to erupt. It held a slight tone of indignation, together with a harsh sneer from her lips. The attitude seemed to indicate an encounter such as this had previously taken place.

The answer came immediately.

Attempting to ignore the voice, she headed for the bay window. For a second, her feet felt heavy and refused to move. She glanced back in the mirror.

Her heart pounded uncontrollably as nerves began to swell. Blood polled in numerous sections. Colored veins carrying a red substance spread the length of her forehead.

Finally, small round heaps of carbuncles pushed against flesh before erupting.

Valencya turned fully, facing the mirror. The once small vanity loomed larger than life as it grew from floor to ceiling, providing a full length view for her displeasure.

All she knew to do was scream even more. Hands flew up to examine the painful knots on her face. Before she could reach the curve of her chin, a second exterior form burst forth.

She tried to hold it in, but couldn't prevent the second face from emerging. While doing so, the carbuncles began to slowly recede as if it had completed its assigned task.

The exterior of the second chin resembled her face as the one she'd known her lifetime. However, now her features were elongated. Warped out of proportion. Instead of a similar facade, one that looked disfigured appeared. This time it contained one eye, mouth, and ear.

She could do nothing but continue to scream. She'd no idea what was the problem. Have I wrongly accused or dealt someone an unjust or unfair deed recently? she thought. She discontinued this line of thinking as there were too many to remember.

Then suddenly as soon as it began, the face disappeared.

She fell to the floor. "Why me? Why now? she yelled. Please, someone, come help me."

No one came.

For my current generative art project, I wanted to portray a female who is in turmoil with her inner self. She encounters her alternative being in her vanity mirror. A struggle ensues in the woman's mind.

To create the female, I utilized Deep Dream Generator.** I like working with this program to provide filters to enhance images. However, recently the site incorporated a stable diffusion option. I was excited as I've been using stable diffusion programs for about two months.

The only drawback to using this site for stable diffusion purposes is that any process images are not rendered and saved for the user to capture.

Below are my steps:

Text input:

"Fantasy face captured in two with flowers."

Modifiers:

• digital painting
• fantasy
• Michelangelo
• light reflections acrylic art

Image Prompt:

As a starting point, I utilized a facial mask I discovered on a free image site. This served as the basis for the image. I wanted the image to reflect a light tone.

^Source

Result:

I feel the resulting stable diffusion image looks lovely. I was mildly surprise at how the program interpreted the two-faced woman.

Thanks for taking the time to view my post. I hope you like my generative art project.