Step Into the Art of Creation
Most art asks you to look. Mine asks you to stop, wonder, and create your own story.
Every piece I create is layered with intention, attention to detail, and meaning. Whether I’m painting, photographing, or working with AI, I use the same principle: art is built one layer at a time.
My most recent piece is called “Seeing Through the Illusion of Narcissistic Mind Control.”
It took a lot of experimentation in Midjourney, though after working with several prompts, I came up with the following image, which matched my concept quite well. As for prison bars, I used a stock photo.
To make the image work, I loaded the image of the man and duplicated the layer, then removed the figure from the background. I blurred the background to make it seem far away, then I loaded the image of the prison bars.
Using transparency, I found the position I wanted for the bars, removed the background, then selectively erased parts of the bars to create the effect of the man seeing through the bars. You can see the effect above.
The second photo is of a painting I created, which was acrylic on canvas. The title is, “A Surrealistic view.”
The shapes you see are real but are taken out of context. Alls of these were cut out from magazines. When I walked into the studio I was holding a stack of them in my hands. In the studio, I had a table next to my easel and a solid white cardboard background.
I dropped them on the surface. After they fell, I looked down, with the idea of rearranging the pieces. Much to my surprise, the composition was perfect. I taped everything down and I used a couple of cardboard measuring pieces and taped those to the background to create a maquette, as you see here.
I went home, scanned the maquette into my computer, used the find edges command in Photoshop and resized the image to match a canvas I had. Using a stained glass program, I printed out the pieces and taped them together.
After that, I prepared a light blue wash on the canvas, cut out all the pieces and traced the shapes onto the canvas.
After that, I painted the canvas slowly, over a period of weeks to get the result you see here. This painting was sold to collector in Victoria, B.C.
Why I'm Sharing this With You
I want you to see that my art isn’t about quick prompts or single strokes. It’s about the process and the time it take to create what you see.
That’s why I’m offering you a complimentary download of one of my best works from the Faces of Denial series—along with a short tutorial that shows you how to create coloring books with AI.
Of these downloads, Here is the image from the Faces of Denial series.
This image is 10x13 inches at 300 dpi. Feel free to use it in any way that you wish, such as a screen saver, wall art, or a print. The only exception is advertising. If you want to use the image in that capacity, I ask you contact me for a license.
When you fill in this form you will be directed to your complimentary download. I will also be sending information about new pieces of art and various offers.
About the Artist
Nathan Segal is a visionary artist and former Associate Editor at WebReference, where he led a global team of writers.
Author of the best-selling Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4 Insider (11,000+ copies sold) and published over 1,000 times in leading photography and computer graphics magazines worldwide.
Nathan’s expertise bridges traditional artistry, cutting-edge AI, and 3D modeling. His work blends raw authenticity with technical mastery, creating powerful, transformative pieces for collectors and visionaries.
Questions? Write to imagemagicdesign@proton.me