An Apology to Ancient Redwood | Splinterlands Art Contest

Once more, despite my lack of drawing skills I feel the need to participate in generating art for Splinterlands. Therefore, I do so by giving direction to Midjourney instead. This week, I'm honoring (and apologizing to) Ancient Redwood. When Ancient Redwood first came out, I thought he'd be useless. I looked at the kit and felt he was very one-dimensional. Although I still believe he's situational, I've actually found him to be very powerful under the right circumstances, and I use him more than I originally thought I would. So this one's for you Ancient Redwood.

In all of my attempts, I fed Midjourney with the original art from Splinterlands. My first couple of tries used the original art as inspiration with keywords like "realistic", "cinematic atmosphere", and specifying resolution and detail. I was able to capture various images that have a real likeness to the original.

Afterwards I wanted to add a bit of action, so I started specifying things like "running", "fighting", "screaming" to the mix. It required more re-rolls as MJ struggled a bit with having the tree-man do much, but some turned out rather well.

To give a sense of scale, I asked MJ to put another character in the frame. This part's typically difficult, because if you put two subjects in one single part of a prompt it may mix up the subjects (for example "tree man fighting a demon" may result in a single subject that's part tree-man and part demon). In the following image I have a "menacing tree man" and separately a "shaman" - though I feel MJ's interpretation of the "shaman" is a bit loose, I really like the overall balance of the image and it captured the scale and mood I was going for).

I went back to actions after this and tried some more with the "running" and "fighting" themes. I added some words to increase accent/contrast/brightness to give a better feel of movement, and this one turned out rather well. Ignore the odd six-pack...

In this next one I went back to the original prompts without specified actions, and instead went for a full body view with intricate detail. I feel this one turned out really well, and the "full body" piece also helps give a sense of Ancient Redwood's size by showing the trees in the background.

Finally I tried a bunch of very random prompts, one of which was "tree man with a butterfly". I wasn't expecting much, but I love what MJ did here, making essentially a leafy butterfly to flutter over Ancient Redwood's finger. Not sure why AR has a devilish / necromancer vibe but I kind of dig it.

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Finally, here's a poem following the lore of Ancient Redwood:

In the shadow of the Elder Tree, an Ancient took his stand,
Born of the only nut that fell, he grew upon this land.
Father of the Forests, so Splinterlands he did bless,
Without his sacred presence, all would be in distress.

The first treefolk sparked to life from his breath,
Exhaling earthen mana, defying even death.
In the Splintering's fury, he held Anumun tight,
Against the sea's insistence, he fought with all his might.

Through generations slumbering, while men and memories fade,
He awakens to a new dawn, in the world his breath had made.
Friend to the fey, guardian of nature's choir,
Woe betide those who would rouse his ire.

When the Chaos Legion swept in, a great stirring unfurled,
The Ancient Redwood awoke, displeased at the state of the world.
Yet these are but whispered legends, truths to some; to others, jest,
Though deep inside the forest, the Ancient will not rest.