Graphite Pencil
Is that a person in a row boat surfing on the serpent? Serpent surfing if you will?
this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2026
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Traditional Art
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I'm glad you're wondering about this person. But that's also the beauty of it – it's simply left to your own imagination, allowing it to flourish 😃.
Crossposting to !artshare@lemmy.world will give you more eyes from people interested in community made original art (but it's also welcome here.)
Yes, I know the community and I had posted the picture there as well.
I feel that some colors and inking would really make this piece pop.
Right now various textured areas are bleeding in to each other, for example the serpent's head with its body. I imagine that digital watercolors would probably work best.
That would definitely take it to another level. I don't have much experience with digital editing, and I probably lack the right tools. But feel free to try it out on the image yourself. I'd be curious to see how it turns out. 😀
I usually use the free GIMP tool for stuff like that, altho I still have a long ways to go. But... I got some quick help for this one, and I'll show you what I was thinking of...
. . . . .
(are you ready?)
. . . . . . .
FINE ARTS VERSION:
COMICS VERSION:
Since you seem to be German, would you mind if I share this to my Euro comics community?
Wow, that's fantastic! Thank you! I'm really happy about it. I find the colors in the comic version much more vibrant, which I personally prefer. How do you do that so quickly? I don't mind if you use it for your community. Please just be so kind as to credit my version as well. 😃
How do you do that so quickly?
I've been using GPT5.2 LLM to help me with various tasks, and tried it out on your drawing. I wasn't expecting anything amazing, so I was hugely impressed by how it handled this one. It took my basic idea and executed it way better than I would have been able to, even spending many hours in GIMP. The waves in particular are rather stunning, are they not?
What's interesting is that as good as GPT is these days, it still makes fundamental errors. For example, I specifically mentioned that there was a partial view of a wave on the right side, but it instead assumed it was part of the serpent, as you can see. Another mistake was mine alone, in that I forgot to give it any instructions about the person in the boat. They're colored oddly, and could probably be shifted lower and to the left for their placement to feel more natural.
Please just be so kind as to credit my version as well. 😃
Certainly! I will show all three versions, and tag you. That post should go out around the middle of this coming week...
The waves in particular are rather stunning, are they not?
The waves turned out surprisingly well. I really didn't expect that.
For example, I specifically mentioned that there was a partial view of a wave on the right side, but it instead assumed it was part of the serpent, as you can see.
I had more the impression that the body of the Serpent was shining through the wave and that the colors were being refracted by the wave.
Another mistake was mine alone, in that I forgot to give it any instructions about the person in the boat. They're colored oddly
I personally don't find that bad. It doesn't distract too much from the Serpent, but still leaves enough room for the viewer to create their own story around the image.
Like the pencil vibe. Reminds me of the Unagi on the bay outside Kiyoshi Island in Avatar the last Airbender