September 2, 3036
Like everyone else on the planet we're wrestling with AI issues at True West. Here's the deal: Dan Harshberger and I have been producing photo-art covers for the past 27 years. In a nutshell, that would be artistic renderings based on authentic photos. The goal for our True West covers has always been to give readers a better look beyond most of the stodgy photographs of Old West characters. You know what I mean: the formal bust shot in banker-style-clothing. Often we will take a known photo and marry it to another image and then paint over it to give it a different look, trying to keep the integrity of the original photograph, but at the same time making it pop on the newsstand as something "new" but still authentic. This is a good example of that:
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And, here's a couple others.
So, in the next issue we ran up against a similar problem with a certain, crusty old Mountain Man named Mariana Medina. Thanks to artist David Wright, who sent us this excellent photo of Medina seated.
Mountain Man Mariana MedinaNow, this photo will be great for the inside feature, but on the cover we want to illustrate him with his legendary Hawken rifle and we have a photo of his actual rifle! So, David Wright married the two on his computer and sent us this.
But we were concerned it looks a tad mechanical—and too AI!—and it needs more of a softer, artistic touch, so I went here.
And, the moral is: we will go to great lengths to avoid the AI tag. Perhaps we are splitting hairs here, but I believe we are doing an artistic take on a known photo of Medina and his famous rifle and we have packaged them together for a dynamic cover, and, we are being honest about how we got there. And speaking of being honest, here is another artistic take on a famous photo.
Teddy & The Captured Boat BanditsThat story tomorrow.
"All roads eventually lead back to the interest you had as a child."
—Old Vaquero Saying
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