Gold Desert (AI)

I scanned an old certificate from 1996 belonging to my father, which certifies his training in Tai Chi Chuan and Pushing Hands from the Chinese Wushu Association (中国武术协会; Pronounced: Zhōngguó wǔshù xiéhuì).

During the editing process, I used Photoshop combined with AI to fix the gold elements. Gold text and details rarely turn out well in scans, and in this case, they simply came out black. My goal was to restore them to their original gold appearance.

While working in Photoshop to seamlessly blend the new gold elements back into the original scan, I used various masks, selections, brushwork, and feathering techniques, and/or else. At one point, after making a specific selection that I can no longer recall, I used the AutoFill feature. This accidentally generated a highly unique and fascinating background. I then continued to refine this result using additional steps in Photoshop and AI, leading to the final piece you see here.

Important notice

It is worth noting that this Photoshop process—which spanned several hours that morning (Oct 16)—involved a vast number of layers, likely dozens or even hundreds. Near the end, I realized I had made a major mistake, forcing me to backtrack through the history log; consequently, many of the steps I had taken were erased. I continued working on it for another half-hour to an hour, but eventually had to stop because I needed to head to a meeting.

A few hours later (or the next morning), when I returned to the project file—which I had left open—I discovered, fortunately, that a single layer (or perhaps a few) had not been deleted. In other words, I hadn’t gone far enough back in the “tracking history,” and as luck would have it, the layer containing that specific error had been preserved. This allowed me to continue from that point to arrive at what is shown here.

I should mention that sometimes I get into a creative flow (a muse) that lasts for hours, and I often end up working on “autopilot”. Consequently, I occasionally make mistakes—but fortunately, the layer wasn’t deleted. What a relief!

In short

I eventually returned to finish editing that document, and subsequently, I began the process of creating this piece.

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