Today I once again head to Oz. Watch this space for the usual posts, including hopefully a few experiences that I’ve not done (or seen) before.
Oh and in a few weeks I’ll be going to Japan ‘on the way home’ as well!
Enter the Machine Brain
As hinted yesterday, this years postcard contest was separately and individually assessed by an impartial third party. I don’t know her name, so we’ll call her Machine Brain. I also don’t know what she looks like but it’s probably something like this:
Machine Brain is an AI, specifically a ChatGPT-powered AI that utilized image analysis methods to evaluate our works. After a few failures (where the AI had trouble understanding the request) Bernard managed to refine a way for AI to assess and judge our two works week-by-week alongside the other five judges.
The multi-step process was complex, but essentially Machine Brain judged each pair twice (to avoid left/right bias) and gave a score out of 2 (one for each assessment). The score was based on evaluating each painting in four categories: colour, composition, detail and theme.
To be expressly clear: the contest results were decided by the five official judges (the results of which are in the previous post). AI judging was an experiment to see how closely (if at all) a machine could reproduce the opinion of five individuals. Before I get to its results, let’s go through some examples of its evaluations. In every case the text I quote below is verbatim what Machine Brain ‘said’ after she judged the paintings together:
The above was the first country, China, which the judges gave to Bernard (on the left). The AI disagreed and gave me the win with this explanation:
The left image uses simpler, less varied colors and has a less dynamic composition compared to the right. The right image has a richer color palette and a more interesting composition with the mountain shapes and bridge. Both images fit the theme of ‘china’ well, depicting the Great Wall on the left and a traditional Chinese landscape on the right, but the right captures a more quintessentially Chinese aesthetic with its mountain scenery.
Here’s Egypt, which I (on the left) very slightly won. The AI said this one was a tie, with this comment:
The left image has a more realistic color palette but lacks vibrancy, while the right image uses bold colors that catch the eye. The composition on the left is more cluttered and less focused than the right, which has a clear subject and horizon line. Both images connect to the Egypt theme, but the right image’s inclusion of the camel silhouette and pyramid gives it a slight edge in adhering to the theme.
The above seems like a win for Bernard and it was, but as I said the AI judged twice and the second time gave me the win so overall it determined Egypt was tied.
For Japan it agree with the judges and gave me a clear win:
The left image uses a bright palette but lacks some depth in color variation. The right image shows a bit more complexity in its use of color, creating a vibrant scene. Compositionally, the right image shows a more dynamic and engaging use of space with the torii gate framing Mount Fuji, while the left image is more simplistic and less engaging. Detail on the right is better executed with some attention to textures, though both show a naive style. Thematically, both images clearly reference Japan with Mount Fuji and cherry blossoms, but the right image adds the iconic torii gate, enhancing the theme.
And for Antarctica it also agreed with the judges and gave the win to Bernard’s depiction (on the left):
The left image has a brighter color palette, suggesting the reflection of sunlight on snow, fitting for the Antarctic theme, while the right has a more muted palette, but less variation in color intensity. The composition on the left effectively conveys depth with penguins as a focal point, whereas the right has a good central focus with the whale tail but lacks the same sense of space. Both images capture elements of Antarctica but the detailed depiction of wildlife and landscape on the left aligns slightly better with the theme.
These are amazingly nuanced comments from a machine aren’t they?
Interestingly, Bernard also wanted to see what an AI could create if they entered the contest as an artist. This proved challenging, since it was difficult to get the AI to account for the small canvas or inexperience of Bernard and myself. The idea was abandoned but here are some examples of what various AI image generators created:
The above was ‘acrylic painting of Egypt by someone with only a weeks experience’.
The above was similar for Netherlands.
And that was ‘an amateur painting of France on a small canvas’. The entire image above is AI produced, including the background and brush.
On to the results! To summarize:
The five official judges gave me six wins (France, The Netherlands, Egypt, Japan, India and Australia) to Bernard’s four (China, Italy, Antarctica and Atlantis). The final tally was therefore 6 to 4 in my favour.
The ‘Machine Brain’ AI judge gave me six wins (China, France, The Netherlands, Japan, India and Atlantis), Bernard one (Antarctica) and tied three others (Italy, Egypt and Australia). Awarding 0.5 points for a tie therefore makes the AI tally 7.5 to 2.5 my way.
The final judgement is up to you: did the AI agree with the official judges or disagree? And if not, then who was the most accurate?
Landscape Contest: Results
The judges have spoken and the ‘landscape’ postcard art contest is now complete. The first five scores were already revealed, after which I was ahead 3 wins to Bernard’s 2. It’s now time to see the results for the second half…
Japan
Bernard’s is on the left, and mine on the right. We both went for the obvious choice of Fuji, and I’ll humbly point out that only one captured the true colour of the famous mountain! I worked hard on my piece, which is based on a real location I hope to visit one day, and looking at it now I’m proud of how much better it was than my earlier works
The judges agreed and gave me the win 9.6 to 5.4. Here’s what they said:
“I think the painting on the right is a work of fiction. I don’t think this vista actually exists but is a juxtaposition of multiple scenes. Despite that it is very well painted and distills and concentrates the scenic essence of Japan into a small image.”
“Both are unmistakably scenes of Japan. I like the way in the right painting Mt. Fuji is being framed by the Tori, inviting me to walk right along the pathway. The left one however has the best color cherry blossoms.”
“I think both qualify as actual landscapes. I am naturally drawn to Right. The iconic gate, the subtlety of the mountain shading.”
India
Bernard is left, I am right, and once again we’re both choosing the same subject (in our defense what else could we have painted for India?). To be honest I’m not entirely clear what happened with Bernard’s (and the judges were confused as well) which appears unfinished! I went for a sunset view myself, and even attempted a (poor) reflection!
Unsurprisingly I won this one, once again 9.6 to 5.4. Some judge comments:
“This is the toughest one yet!! Left better represents the subject (size and color). Right has better use of paint.”
“The painting on the left suffers from poor colour choices, or being washed out. Right is a much more striking image..”
“I’d be curious to see the completed painting of left because the color is correct. The gold is long gone and if you’re going to say it’s sunset then right is missing the sky!”
Australia
You knew our home country would eventually make an appearance and here it is! Yet again we painted the same subject although our time of day differed. Mine is on left and Bernard is on right, and amusingly some judges assumed the reverse since they thought the silhouette indicated the same as the person (Bernard) who painted Egypt with the camel rider!
Judges seemed to struggle with this one and deliberated quite a bit. Eventually I emerged winner 8.1 to 6.9. There were a lot of comments about this one; here’s some extracts:
“The left one is vaguely Christmas card-ish. For some reason, that bothers me. The right-hand painting reminds me more of when I visited Uluru.”
“Kangaroo says it all.”
“Left is superb. The glowing last rays of the sun before it plunges into the horizon to cast the vacuous landscape into darkness. The anticipation of the twinkling stars ready to ignite across the night sky. And the charming little chap silhouetted against the setting sun. I just love it!!! Right has great detail in Ulu?u and a reasonable attempt at a scrubby foreground with good contrast from the bright blue sky. Two great paintings!”
“Left: Kangaroo is a nice touch.
Right: Best use of color”
Antarctica
Antarctica was Bernard’s choice, which made me think he had a plan. His with penguins is the left, and mine with a whale is on the right. It was clear the judges loved the penguins and it seems many didn’t know whales frequented Antarctica! I spent a lot of time on my iceberg shading. Maybe I should have added a penguin 🙂
This was close and ultimately Bernard won 7.7 to 7.3. The judges words:
“I like the color scheme on the left way more, but the penguins look like they are perched on clouds. Enjoy the crispness of the landscape more on the left, but why is the sky so grey?”
“Left wins because penguins definitely only live in Antarctica. Whales don’t mean it’s Antarctica. However penguins move in groups, how come only two?”
Atlantis
The final choice was mine, and naturally I picked a country I thought others may overlook and one that would give us a good final challenge. Happily we produced very different takes with my mermaid and Cyclopean undersea temple (left) contrasting with a monochrome depiction of a submerged ruin from Bernard (right). Both are I think striking in their own way, and I expected the judges to struggle.
And they did a bit, and as it turns out this category has the two most wildly divergent takes with each of us receiving an overwhelming victory from different judges. In the end though Bernard won 8.2 to 6.8. Here’s what the judges said:
“Wow. I love the painting on the left. Such lovely colours and the composition is superb. The colourful corals in the foreground with the looming ruins. The colour of the water is gorgeous and reminds me of the sapphire seas in the Mediterranean. I love the gorgeous little mermaid silhouetted in the background going to her underground castle bathed in the suns rays. Pure delightful fantasy.”
“I really love the right.”
“These visions of drowned Atlantis show how far both artists have come in mastering the budget paints at their disposal and in the ambition of their compositions. Once again, there are surprising parallels in the two paintings done in isolation from each other. So…does a marker reward a clever use of perspective in a dynamic, vibrant scene OR the not inconsiderable feat of evoking a setting with depth, light, shade and a hint of mystery using only blues? The answer is yes.”
Ten subjects completed, twenty paintings painted, and 100 judges scores tabulated. The final results are in.
The winner was me, with six wins to Bernard’s four! I’m taking a humble bow as you read this, and now it’s time for some final thoughts and comments from the entrants themselves.
Firstly I believe I speak for both of us when I say we struggled with the media and our tools. I recently read an interview with an artist talking about he liked acrylics since he could layer light colours over dark but this absolutely did not work with the cheap paints I bought us for this contest! So any mistake with dark paint was almost impossible to fix, which many times caused problems! Secondly the paint was very sticky to brushes, and with a canvas as small as a postcard obtaining any sort of fine detail was quite a struggle.
What was our best and worst? I felt my best was Japan, and my worst Italy. Bernard felt his best was Japan and his worst India.
Our opinion on the others work? I felt Bernard’s best was Australia and his worst India. He felt my best was Netherlands and worst Antarctica.
Did we agree with the judges? Broadly yes, although Bernard felt I should have won China and he should have won Egypt or Australia. I agree that he should have won China but felt I should have won Antarctica.
And thus another years contest ended, although with planning well along you can bet there will be anot—-
What’s that? The contest isn’t yet TRULY finished? There was a mystery SIXTH JUDGE?!?!??
Come back tomorrow to find out what I’m referring to…