When I saw those glitchy AI portraits floating around last month, I figured I’d try recreating one myself but for Los Angeles. Grabbed my battered notebook and wrote “Project: Face of LA” at the top like some cheesy detective.
The Gear Hunt
Rummaged through my hardware graveyard first. Dusted off that Raspberry Pi 4 from 2021 still running Raspberry Pi OS Buster. Plugged it into my decade-old Samsung monitor – the one with three dead pixels near the bottom right corner. Couldn’t find my proper stylus anywhere so grabbed one of those cheap plastic-tipped ones that came with a forgotten tablet. Felt like drawing with a chopstick.
Stumbling Through Setup
Spent two hours wrestling with outdated Python libraries. Pip kept throwing errors about SSL certificates until I realized the damn thing’s clock was set to 2019. Fixed the date then installed six different image processing tools until one actually worked. Messed around with Midjourney briefly but got sick of typing prompts. Settled on generating base images through NightCafe’s basic settings since I’m too cheap for premium.
- Scraped public domain LA landscape shots from museum archives
- Fed them through three different noise filters until the colors looked radioactive
- Accidentally shattered a coffee mug during export because my cat knocked it over
Hand-Drawing Disaster
Started sketching on my tablet using Krita. Wanted that fractured-glass effect but my hands kept shaking. Drew what was supposed to be the Hollywood sign but looked like rotten teeth. Got frustrated and smeared the digital ink like fingerpaint. Ended up making oily smudges where the eyes should be – kinda looked like traffic lights melting in summer heat. Said “screw it” and kept the mess.
Slapped everything together in GIMP with the grittiness cranked up. Added text using that font from Blade Runner posters but distorted it sideways until it bled into the sidewalk cracks. Final export crashed twice before saving as a PNG large enough to see the pixels like grains of beach sand.
What Actually Happened
Posted the ugly thing on Reddit expecting crickets. Somehow got 200 upvotes overnight – bunch of Angelenos said it captured how the city feels during wildfire season. That’s the magic I guess. Realized perfection’s boring anyway. My cat walking across the tablet midway probably saved the whole piece.
Still finding glitter on my desk from when the glue spilled three days ago. Lesson learned: LA’s soul looks better when it’s messy.
