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The Parlor Learns How Words Can Come to Life
A survey of the artwork for the novel discussed here is underway. It's meant to give you a
better idea of the type of fan art I like to see and create that remains true to the novel...and to give me an excuse to talk
about this novel, because I LOVED it!
And I'm tellin' ya, this Parlor is haunted.
The Legend of Diadamia
From Authorhouse: Longtime residents of the Rhode Island mill village, Amethyst Hill, can tell you all about the haunting in the town’s
old cemetery. The legend of the Amethyst Hill ghost has been around for as long as they can remember.
But the story becomes all too real for shopkeeper Lydia Gwyndorra and her friend Cory Spenceton, who is the sole heir to the
mansion that overlooks the town where the Spenceton Textile Mills were once a prosperous industry. With the discovery of
some old diaries and stories from the past, Lydia and Cory are curious to learn what happened that turned a beautiful, intelligent
young woman from the 1920s into the terrifying Amethyst Hill ghost. While they uncover this compelling tale of murder and
deception, the supernatural activity around them intensifies at an alarming rate, as though the ghost were watching their
every move, and manipulating Lydia and Cory into playing out the parts in a twisted reenactment of her past.
Discovering the truth behind the legend may no longer be a mere curiosity. It now may be a matter of life and death…
A sequel to ‘Afterimages,’ The Legend of Diadamia is C.J. Fisher’s second novel, again combining his love
of the old amusement parks from New England, with his fascinations in history, architecture, movies, ghost stories, and new-age
philosophy.
Illustration of the title character, Diadamia, on the title page of
novel, done by the author, C.J. Fisher., and a realistically rendered version I created on NightCafe, and then blended the
portrait of the woman into the face.
My family has some old portraits of my great-grandparents and 2nd great-grandparents in convex frames identical to the one
used here. These were a popular frame around the turn of the 20th century, and the glass was bubble-shaped--convex. The
image was typically attached to the glass itself, so you couldn't switch out the images in the frames.
Do you recognize the car in the cover image? How about the Nosferatu
font?
As the Parlor begins to explore more new and fun ways to create graphics that bring the Mayfair
Witches to life according to the vision of their creator, Anne Rice, a discussion on fan art and AI is certainly necessary.
There are many well-known examples of fan art from series fiction, and even the movie and television franchises based upon
them. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Resident Evil, Silent Hill...those are a few examples.
There are many novels and series that are lesser known that I really enjoyed reading and would like to explore, and hopefully,
you will, too. These two novels by C.J. Fisher are a perfect example of this. The descriptions of the places and people
in the novels are written in such a way that you really can immerse yourself in the story. They are also the first time I've
seen an author give the readers a virtual "tour" of a location setting in at least one of the two novels. What this provides
is what I think is an excellent example of what I mean when I say "fan art".
I thought this was an interesting and just plain fun coincidence, how
similar (allowing for time period) the two characters are dressed. In the novel discussed here, the girl's coat was described
as a military style wool coat from about WW1, whereas the blue coat Rowan Mayfair wore in the books was described as a Navy-style
peacoat.
This image is of Alexandra Daddario as Dr. Rowan Fielding in Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches on AMC.
This is a brief clip of Katherine Mayfair from MAYFAIR-Stories of
the Mayfair Witches, made in Second Life by Idle Rogue Productions, 2015. The similarities between this creation of Katherine
Mayfair and the character of Diadamia, although no doubt unintentional, are pretty incredible!
To find out more about MAYFAIR-Stories of the Mayfair Witches, click the link below:
Dance of the Mayfair Witches
Back to
The Face of a Legend
The First Face
This sepia image, enhanced in the animation website I use, appeared
in a fantastic 3D model of the Charles Addams house made by a 3D modeler named Demilune.
If you want to explore this incredible 3D model, click the NightCafe render below to take you to it in 3D Warehouse. You will
find the picture to the left in--wait for it--the parlor!
 See
3D model of Addams House Revisited by Demilune on 3D Warehouse
Image rendered by the Parlor on NightCafe (but it ain't
exact)
I colorized the image from the Addams House model, then enhanced it
in the animation site before using it to blend with still images of each witch. After blending them in AI, I was able to
animate the face of each Mayfair Witch. The animations are still available as Shorts on the Parlor's YouTube channel.
I've even blended those results with an additional blend of facial features, which produced even more incredible results!
I have made videos from Demilune's models, and one that has appeared often is of the 3D model,
"Car from Legend of Diadamia". Click the link or the image below to see the model on Demilune's 3D Warehouse page.
 See
3D model of Car From Legend of Diadamia by Demilune on 3D Warehouse
There is one image in particular on the site that uses just this image with one of the Tubes Femmes Mayfairs images. You might notice that the way this face blends in alone looks very much like an actress from early Hollywood. Not
simply "Old Hollywood"--EARLY Hollywood. Meaning she looks like an actress from Hollywood's Silent Era, from the early 1910's
to maybe the mid 1920s.
It's not uncommon in fiction novels to describe a character's physical description by comparing them to actors/actresses.
One character in the Afterimages books discussed on this page of the Parlor was described as "...the one that looks
like Courtney Cox." Likewise, actresses were used in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches to help provide a physical description
of at least two of the Mayfair Witches.
The image that makes this girl look like an early Hollywood movie star and the two actresses used to describe two of the Mayfair
Witches on Mayfair Witches in Pictures.
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The Face of a Legend
Diadamia as a Mayfair Witch
To the left is an example of the making of the Parlor's Face of the
Mayfair Witches using AI. The original portrait is one that was painted by a follower of Rembrandt. Unfortunately, the name
of the painter has been lost to time, as far as I've been able to find out. If you do know the name of the original painter,
please email the Parlor.
The portrait was chosen in order to create as realistically as possible what the portrait of Deborah Mayfair might have
looked like. Rembrandt was obviously a real person while Deborah Mayfair is a fictional character. However, it is not uncommon
for historical figures like Rembrandt to appear as characters in fiction. The animation shows the facial features transitioning
to the face of Deborah Mayfair, and you can see in the second image how the face in the photo above has been blended with
the face of the original. Then, the result of blending a second face with hers to create Deborah as the Mayfair emerald begins
to glow.
Who is the lady in the portrait? I honestly do not know her true identity. However, I absolutely
loved the book above when I first stumbled on it in late 2013.
Some of you might remember when Anne Rice addressed the problem of authors being personally attacked on sites like Amazon.com.
I did respond to this, as I had noticed the problem. There are many authors who publish their work themselves. This novel
was published through Authorhouse, and like other novels published through Authorhouse or other companies authors publish
their own work through, it was sold on sites such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Google Play (where I found it).
Some authors had even been personally and viciously attacked just over problems with punctuation, spelling and grammar. I
mentioned this and said I thought such attacks just for technical issues was way out of line. Anne's response was that if
this is the only problem they have with a book, all anyone needs to do is to return the book to the seller and state the reason
as being "Not up to professional standards."
Exactly.
This novel has managed to avoid the scathing personal attacks other novels and authors have been subjected to since its publication
in 2005. However, it is still an example of just how many authors there are who have produced some really good stories.
All they really needed was an opportunity to present their work to readers.
In choosing this image as the face of the Parlor's Mayfair Witches illustrations, I found her features were so distinctive
that they would clearly mark this line of witches across the generations as the genetic line they are. This is especially
evident in the heavily lidded eyes, the shape of the nose and the mouth. These things tend to be most noticeable when comparing
facial features to see if there is the possibility of a genetic relation between two people.
There is something else that is distinctive about the face, something that brings to mind the rather androgynous features
of some of the Mayfair Witches. The jawline is squarish, which tends to give a more "mannish" look as a distinctly squarish
jawline is mostly a male feature. That does not mean women who have this shape of jawline are considered physically unattractive.
Far from it. Mary Beth Mayfair is one of the Mayfair Witches known to have this feature, so this was one of the biggest
reasons behind my choice of "face of the Witches".
The novel is still available. For those looking for a copy of it as an ebook, I believe it is still available in ebook format
from Authorhouse and, I believe, Barnes & Noble. Hopefully, the first book (The Legend of Diadamia is a sequel), Afterimages,
will again be available. It, too, is a fun and interesting read!
Back to
The Face of a Legend
Demilune Gwynn
Demilune's 3D models on 3D Warehouse have become very popular with a lot of creators of digital graphics. Even tutorials for rendering engines like Lumion that
can be found on YouTube, and results on Facebook pages have used Demilune's models for training.
Demilune's models can be explored on 3D Warehouse and using SketchUp for Web Viewer. SketchUp for Web Viewer is a browser-based
viewer with basic navigation options. No need to download viewer software, or sign up just to look. Links to the 3D model
description page for each model on 3D Warehouse are included on this page of the Parlor. If you are familiar with SketchUp
modeling software or you have the software version of the viewer, you can download the model to your device if you wish.
Demilune is perhaps best known for this model here, called Scariest Haunted House, uploaded to 3D Warehouse on May 11, 2017.
 See
3D model of Scariest Haunted House by Demilune on 3D Warehouse
Image rendered by the Parlor on NightCafe
This is going to be something of a "subsection" of The Mayfair Witches Parlor. There are comparisons
to be drawn and it can show a lot about the approach I take to fan art and the use of AI to create Mayfair Witches-related
graphics for this site. Below, you will find a link to a page of the Parlor that will give a survey of the settings of the
Afterimages novels as created by their author in 3D:
A Survey of Fan Art From Novels
Back to
The Face of a Legend
Afterimages Series on Authorhouse
Click the Books to View or Purchase on Authorhouse
Author C.J. Fisher discusses his novel, The Legend of Diadamia, published in 2005, in a YouTube video uploaded in 2011
Back to
The Face of a Legend
The Parlor Ghost
I TOLD you it was haunted.
Back to
The Face of a Legend
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