Gunnar Quist
@gunrquist.bsky.social
Computer artist. Graphic novelist. SubGenius.
Cut and glued panel frame for "The Black Rabbit of Inlé". It is 48"x24". I'm describing my entire process--including generative AI image processing--in a series at gunnarquist.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Cut and glued panel frame for "The Black Rabbit of Inlé". It is 48"x24". I'm describing my entire process--including generative AI image processing--in a series at gunnarquist.substack.com
In this article I describe my realization--thanks to the oracular wisdom of a woman that was higher than a Georgia Pine--that three years of obsessively mastering local AI art technology has produced only nine paintings and consumed the time needed to actually create and sell work for survival.
The Raving Madness of a Generative Dream
A tale of sunk costs, broken LoRAs, and the woman at the rave who knew better
gunnarquist.substack.com
January 2, 2026 at 11:13 AM
In this article I describe my realization--thanks to the oracular wisdom of a woman that was higher than a Georgia Pine--that three years of obsessively mastering local AI art technology has produced only nine paintings and consumed the time needed to actually create and sell work for survival.
"Betty Lou à la Delores", July 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My fourth painting of her. Trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 32 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:31 PM
"Betty Lou à la Delores", July 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My fourth painting of her. Trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 32 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
"Betty Lou Tubin'", July 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My fourth painting of her. Trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 27 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:28 PM
"Betty Lou Tubin'", July 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My fourth painting of her. Trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 27 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
"Betty Lou Flash", July 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My fourth painting of her. Trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 32 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:23 PM
"Betty Lou Flash", July 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My fourth painting of her. Trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 32 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
"Betty Lou's Midnight Skinny Dip", July 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My third painting of her. Trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 32 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:16 PM
"Betty Lou's Midnight Skinny Dip", July 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My third painting of her. Trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 32 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
"Betty Lou Kudzu", June 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My second painting of her. Trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 30 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:12 PM
"Betty Lou Kudzu", June 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My second painting of her. Trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 30 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
"Betty Lou's Rope Swing", June 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My second gen AI painting, the first to feature Betty Lou: a trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 42 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:12 PM
"Betty Lou's Rope Swing", June 2024, acrylic on panel, 24"x36", $1600. My second gen AI painting, the first to feature Betty Lou: a trained SDXL LoRA of at least 5 different women combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 42 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
"Hecate's Muse", October 2023, acrylic on panel, 30"x45", $2500. First painting I created using gen AI: trained SDXL LoRA of several woman combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 32 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
January 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM
"Hecate's Muse", October 2023, acrylic on panel, 30"x45", $2500. First painting I created using gen AI: trained SDXL LoRA of several woman combined. Composed in Photoshop. Painted in 32 hours. Prints available at gunnarquist.com
The year 2026 is now upon us and my latest Substack article is out. The first part is free. The rest of it is available to paid subscribers.
January 1, 2026 at 12:00 AM
The year 2026 is now upon us and my latest Substack article is out. The first part is free. The rest of it is available to paid subscribers.
Écoutez l'émission des Octave Docteurs de la Compagnie d'Opéra Invisible du Tibet de la planète Gong:
"I see you sittin' there on your old back veranda
You got your shady lady and waltzing Matilda
I only wanna know if you really remember
You're really only me in the morning banana"
"I see you sittin' there on your old back veranda
You got your shady lady and waltzing Matilda
I only wanna know if you really remember
You're really only me in the morning banana"
December 15, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Écoutez l'émission des Octave Docteurs de la Compagnie d'Opéra Invisible du Tibet de la planète Gong:
"I see you sittin' there on your old back veranda
You got your shady lady and waltzing Matilda
I only wanna know if you really remember
You're really only me in the morning banana"
"I see you sittin' there on your old back veranda
You got your shady lady and waltzing Matilda
I only wanna know if you really remember
You're really only me in the morning banana"
"The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (v3)". Generated using a publicly available model trained in the USA. Oh, wait a minute... no American organization has ever publicly released an image generation model. Instead, Americans have been renting access because capitalism, shareholders, AI bubble, etc.
November 28, 2025 at 9:05 PM
"The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (v3)". Generated using a publicly available model trained in the USA. Oh, wait a minute... no American organization has ever publicly released an image generation model. Instead, Americans have been renting access because capitalism, shareholders, AI bubble, etc.
"The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (v2)". Generated using Z-Image, a model that was released the day after Flux 2. It's low-powered, generates very quickly, and the style is nice. But its prompt comprehension is limited. This Chinese model doesn't know what a satyr or pan flute is. Flux 2 is German.
November 27, 2025 at 7:38 PM
"The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (v2)". Generated using Z-Image, a model that was released the day after Flux 2. It's low-powered, generates very quickly, and the style is nice. But its prompt comprehension is limited. This Chinese model doesn't know what a satyr or pan flute is. Flux 2 is German.
"The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", generated using Flux 2 which was released today. Although not a great composition, there are no errors and I did not need to edit it all. It follows prompts EXTREMELY well. This half-power watered down version of the model pushed my rig to the limit.
November 25, 2025 at 10:31 PM
"The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", generated using Flux 2 which was released today. Although not a great composition, there are no errors and I did not need to edit it all. It follows prompts EXTREMELY well. This half-power watered down version of the model pushed my rig to the limit.
One day I feel I’m on top of the world
And the next it’s falling in on me
I can get back on
I can get back on
One day I feel I’m ahead of the wheel
And the next it’s rolling over me
I can get back on
I can get back on
And the next it’s falling in on me
I can get back on
I can get back on
One day I feel I’m ahead of the wheel
And the next it’s rolling over me
I can get back on
I can get back on
November 21, 2025 at 11:04 PM
One day I feel I’m on top of the world
And the next it’s falling in on me
I can get back on
I can get back on
One day I feel I’m ahead of the wheel
And the next it’s rolling over me
I can get back on
I can get back on
And the next it’s falling in on me
I can get back on
I can get back on
One day I feel I’m ahead of the wheel
And the next it’s rolling over me
I can get back on
I can get back on
"Paddle Witchin'", 2025. Lucinda Faye Foxfire, Betty Lou Kudzu, Ruby Lee Possum, and Queenie float the French Broad River on Halloween night. Happy Halloween!
October 31, 2025 at 8:28 PM
"Paddle Witchin'", 2025. Lucinda Faye Foxfire, Betty Lou Kudzu, Ruby Lee Possum, and Queenie float the French Broad River on Halloween night. Happy Halloween!
Ruby Lee Possum shreddin' at the park on a warm autumn day in #Tennessee! Another art style mix experiment. Perhaps with refinement, it could be suitable for poster print.
October 7, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Ruby Lee Possum shreddin' at the park on a warm autumn day in #Tennessee! Another art style mix experiment. Perhaps with refinement, it could be suitable for poster print.
Success! A turning point! Might not look like much but it's the culmination of years of work towards a goal. The breakthru was ditching SDXL and finally mastering style mixing and inpainting with Flux in ComfyUI. This image is the illustration style I want for my graphic novel.
October 3, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Success! A turning point! Might not look like much but it's the culmination of years of work towards a goal. The breakthru was ditching SDXL and finally mastering style mixing and inpainting with Flux in ComfyUI. This image is the illustration style I want for my graphic novel.
Processed the sketch using masked areas of separate hooked LoRAs that I trained myself. The figure is in the style of Drew Struzan and the background is in the style of Frank Frazetta. Face corrected with ReActor. Minor edits in Photoshop. Credit to respective artists. My research continues...
September 29, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Processed the sketch using masked areas of separate hooked LoRAs that I trained myself. The figure is in the style of Drew Struzan and the background is in the style of Frank Frazetta. Face corrected with ReActor. Minor edits in Photoshop. Credit to respective artists. My research continues...
I converted the photo-realistic image to a sketch and edited it in Photoshop. Fixed her hair style. Added Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye on the left. and fluffy clouds in the sky.
September 28, 2025 at 8:52 PM
I converted the photo-realistic image to a sketch and edited it in Photoshop. Fixed her hair style. Added Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye on the left. and fluffy clouds in the sky.
Artemisia in Yosemite Valley-- or at least someplace that kind of looks like it. I generated this as a base image for further art style experimentation. Stay tuned.
September 26, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Artemisia in Yosemite Valley-- or at least someplace that kind of looks like it. I generated this as a base image for further art style experimentation. Stay tuned.
"Wild Ride", based on the 1989 painting of the same name by Frank Frazetta. Generated using a Flux LoRA I trained last night using a dataset of comic book cover illustrations by Adam Hughes. Credit to the respective artists.
September 26, 2025 at 12:32 PM
"Wild Ride", based on the 1989 painting of the same name by Frank Frazetta. Generated using a Flux LoRA I trained last night using a dataset of comic book cover illustrations by Adam Hughes. Credit to the respective artists.
"Maya Biomechanics", in the style of Hans Ruedi Giger. This took a few days of work in ComfyUI and Photoshop. Could be a cool painting? We'll see..
September 25, 2025 at 11:50 PM
"Maya Biomechanics", in the style of Hans Ruedi Giger. This took a few days of work in ComfyUI and Photoshop. Could be a cool painting? We'll see..
Happy Equinox! It's Fall again! Betty enjoys the Autumn air in #tennessee! (In the style of the Brothers Hildebrandt.)
September 23, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Happy Equinox! It's Fall again! Betty enjoys the Autumn air in #tennessee! (In the style of the Brothers Hildebrandt.)
Lucinda Faye Foxfire is ready for Oktoberfest!
September 21, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Lucinda Faye Foxfire is ready for Oktoberfest!