My newest tokenized artwork, "Lurker". was created while listening to the excellent Vampair Series story by Daria Cohen, using music by Voltaire.

![DarkerDragons-small.gif](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmaJg8t22QfifCrxNPxQYiHP2wf6VsJpWauoztmRPZd16X/DarkerDragons-small.gif)

https://superrare.co/artwork/lurker-3683


To create this little horrifying dragonling, I started out, I kid you not, with this image taken by my sister, Marie, of a toad that's been visiting/living in my mothers garden for at least a decade or so:
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmeMC86GTchG28DNBd5yZdiVjZWnuxryC9SwhQX4m6NCSb/image.png)


I then did some editing in GIMP
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmd5QN9rDgRZ1ddhjudKBKrYmjLtR4pogkektdSg5MMJ9x/image.png)

And looked at what kind of output I could get from the Kaleidoscope:
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmfGCdjBbgEETAn5jWgJcWMeZELcXYWqLne4wRJT1qiw2D/image.png)
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdBp1WesVNozr9cjhtqRa5cofN8LrUCumdNSgJFThdnfW/image.png)
I tested a few filters to create some more visuals:

![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmPfJ4PmDm6yefJsCm2VES8ZG5KBsJyaE7YWxiXsdBTMYc/image.png)
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUJi2mbshDQt8fZ9aTZS6rATPxntY8PjL9moUovvJyFyo/image.png)
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmambsE6tG9TEeZsU4QnTjTaHgnwBCzSZm52s9bp8mLExg/image.png)

I did some editing of the eyes, by selecting a specific region of the eye and entering a Supernova effect into it:
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmaGkHWr5Fybh7JwWcFZSws1KPKksD9TSjcGWgo2XCsx7L/image.png)
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXqPgVCKSLuYiRDXLTckk9yA5T6bxcv2uQnVaiEqDf2Ua/image.png)

As you can see, in between the two I also erased some of the extra material.

Initially, I intended for that excess mateial to resemble wings, but no matter how I tried to rework it, I couldn't get the effect to my liking.

The Supernova effect was applied the same to all 3 image types I've shown, and I used the original image to create a background for it.

![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmVXUqX7CTeforLbRjwVMeogQePpsaZDELCQaGLByEnzXL/image.png)

I then used the GIMP G'MIC-qt plugin's Blend[fade] effect to combine the different images using a circular fading pattern.
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmfFKfzP684DWxJ3Le767ZGpjAHc65b9PZMdvb4RHyya2D/image.png)

After that, I wanted to replicate an effect from an old work "Out of the shadows, into the light":
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmShqDuAh2GKttbh9mMXyXDS3bmdTrM3cub5BDx6c6K9fq/image.png)

https://superrare.co/artwork/o...-into-the-light-1682
The effect has it fading in and out of darkness, so I created a copy of the current image, but using a few filters to darken it (mainly Contrast and an Edge Detection algorithm)

![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmPCd4XJySAVNvZTLhDs9kCQ3gEMXRuoroT9E64G39roft/image.png)

I then created an even darker copy, and duplicated the two others:
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQme1TNLzu1M2vdCnCh5XKWJWrKp8ZsBuv2yTtn4TArFkWW/image.png)

And rearranged the order a bit and used the default Blend functionality of GIMP to create a GIF.


I then converted the image to 255 colors and applied the "Optimize (for GIF)" effect to reduce size:
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZjMABkgyHBMkmeZcG9NzedeRupPiVKpHdhyB6mix5qsr/image.png)

and voila !

![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdU1j3YEEvoDcgezP1xwf2mMqjur9pEPQtSGT3JFmhdjB/image.png)


https://superrare.co/artwork/lurker-3683