The other day I thought I’d play around with some Midjourney styles to see what they would do. Just for some fun I thought I’d use Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties as my subject for the image. For me, Dudley Do-Right was a cartoon character most kids my age knew. His cartoon was part of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show we watched on the weekends.
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show was an American cartoon aired from 1959 to 1964. It was known for its witty and satirical humour. Its two main characters, Rocky the squirrel an Bullwinkle the moose got themselves into some serious troubles more than once as they battled Boris and Natasha, foreign agents trying to undermine national security.
The Dudley Do-Right segment was a parody of the silent movie melodramas popular in the early 20th century. Dudley was the quintessential melodrama hero: noble, brave, somewhat naive and bumbling. His nemisis, Snidely Whiplash was the typical villian as depicted in the melodrama. His actions often involved tying a woman to the train tracks for the ernstwhile hero to save.
Midjourney had no idea what a “Dudley Do-Right” was. Then I decided I’d just use a Mountie image and make it into a caricature. Except Midjourney had the concept of the red uniform but not the red serge and stetson the RCMP wear as their dress uniform.
I thought maybe I was just describing it wrong. I got a picture of a Mountie off of Pixabay and had Midjourney describe it. I saw pretty quickly part of the problem. Midjourney thought the RCMP were Canadian military in red uniforms. The resulting images had red uniforms but not even close to the Mounties.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were first formed in 1873 under the name the North West Mounted Police, NWMP, with the mandate to police the Canadian territories. In 1920 they received the RCMP title and became our national police force. They are a paramilitary organization.
I’ve heard American media refer to them as a military unit when they formed an honour guard for the arrival of a US President. I laughed at it then, but it seems the idea is more deeply entrenched than I thought.
So, how to get Midjourney on the right track?
I went over to DALLE to see how it would fare. I asked it for an image of an RCMP member of the Musical Ride. The musical ride started as a way for mounties to practice their riding skills. The ceremonial movements performed to music take considerable training and skill to perform.
In 1897 the first public performance of the ride took place as part of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in London, England. In 1969 the Mounties presented Queen Elizabeth with a black horse named “Burmese”. She rode the horse in the annual Trooping of the Colours event until the horse retired in 1986 and the Mounties gifted her another horse.
King Charles received a gift of a seven year old black Hanoverian mare named “Noble” just before his Coronation. The RCMP were also marking their 150th anniversary by carrying on the tradition of gifting horses to the monarchy.
Yes, I digressed, back to the image making. Here is how DALLE did with creating the image:
Considerably better than Midjourney. But, let’s see how MJ can do with the prompt DALLE used:
Well, it did better than any of the other attempts. It got the uniform mostly. The left shoulder strap and the insignia on the sleeve are wrong, the stetson is wrong and the horse in the musical ride are always black. But, it was good enough to work with and see what some styles would do.
Here’s the prompt I brought from DALLE to Midjourney:
An image of a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as a member of the RCMP Musical Ride. The officer should be in full Musical Ride uniform, which includes a red serge tunic, breeches with a yellow stripe, Strathcona boots, and a wide-brimmed Stetson hat. Additionally, the member should be mounted on a dark horse, as is customary for the Musical Ride. The officer should appear in a poised and elegant posture, showcasing the grace and discipline of the Musical Ride. The background can feature a performance arena or a field, reflecting the setting of the Musical Ride performances.
I got the seed value of the set of images to use for all the others. The first step I took was to get the cartoon effect by adding: exaggerated caricature
Maybe just caricature:
Then I tried: Kirlian Photography Caricature In Acrylic Block. Kirlian photography captures electrical coronal discharges, creating images without a camera, often misinterpreted as "auras."
Next up: DMT Zentangle Art Caricature. This is a fusion of DMT, an hallucinatory style fused with the meditative style of Zentangle
Checking out a weather effect, sort of, with: Raging Storm Caricature gave us what appears to be a raging Mountie
A hat tip to the silent film era, next was Wet Plate Photography Caricature. Wet plate photography involves coating plates with light-sensitive chemicals and developing them immediately.
SpaceTime Caricature didn’t produce anything spacey but it’s kind of a neat image. This often happens where a style will have little effect on the image.
Tabloid Art Caricature produced an image that feels like tabloid art. Tabloid art refers to sensationalist or scandal-focused visual art, often echoing the style of tabloid newspapers.
Plasticine Caricature produced an image of what could be a model sold in tourist shops of Mounties.
Fashion Illustration Caricature brought out the model in our Mountie image. Fashion illustration is artistic visual depiction of clothing and style designs.
Art Deco Poster Caricature reminded me of the exaggerated caricature up above. Art Deco posters are graphic designs showcasing the bold, geometric style of the Art Deco era of 1920s to 1940.
Graffiti Street Scene Caricature produced a cute looking image painted on a door.
Cinema Poster Caricature looks like it might be an ad for Due South but that was a TV show. A cinema poster is a promotional graphic used to advertise movies, typically showcasing title, cast, and imagery.
Steampunk Caricature got with the program. Steampunk is a genre blending Victorian-era aesthetics with futuristic technology and steam-powered machinery.
Kawaii Caricature produced a cute image that would look great as a doll. Kawaii is a Japanese term for "cute," often used to describe a charming, childlike, and adorable style.
Thought I’d try out a couple for the Trekkie fans.
James T Kirk Caricature … well, I’m undecided. Did it capture him?
Spock Caricature.. It did better here.
Finally, let’s give the Mounties some alternate transportation. Horses are so 19th century.
Polar Bear Caricature for when the snow is deep and there’s no fuel around.
Snowmobile Caricature because what self-respecting Mountie can’t use a snowmobile in the frozen north.
Well, that was fun. Midjourney didn’t do badly considering I started out with it barely able to grasp what a Mountie is. I think the Caricature style could be fun to play with especially combined with other styles.
Shadowspub writes on various subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use, like journals, notebooks, colouring books, etc. Her Nicheless Narrative podcast airs on Thursdays each week.
NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all images are the author’s.
Some of the image work may have been done in Midjourney, for which I hold a licence to use the images commercially.
How to Connect With ShadowsPub:
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Publishing Website: Shadows Publishing
Nicheless Website: Nicheless & Loving It
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