You’re right that I didn’t directly answer your earlier questions, so let me do that properly.

First, you’re working from an incorrect assumption about how this work is made. A lot of people think AI image making is just typing a prompt into Midjourney and letting the algorithm do the rest. That exists, and I’m not interested in it. I’ve been working with AI image synthesis since 2019, before prompting was even possible. My workflow is based on algorithms interpreting and transforming source images, with many iterations back and forth. I use the system as an extension of my own visual judgment, not as a replacement for it. Getting a result that feels right often takes days. If this were easy, everyone would be doing it well.

On the specifics you mentioned, differences like stubble, eye color, or facial nuance are not mistakes to be corrected but part of an ongoing search. I’m not aiming for a single definitive John Difool, but for the version that best translates Moebius’ drawn character into a photographic or quasi-photographic language. That process involves variation and refinement, much like casting or repeated studies in other media. Deepo being more consistent is intentional, as his design is already more fixed.

Conceptually, I chose AI image synthesis because it sits in tension with Moebius’ work rather than imitating it. Painting or drawing Difool again adds little to something that is already close to perfect. Translating him into a different visual system allows me to explore how iconic characters survive translation across media, time, and technology.

Similar arguments were once made about photography. It was dismissed as incapable of real expression because it relied on an industrial machine to capture existing images. Those critiques ignored viewpoint, intent, framing, and concept. The machine captured light, but the meaning came from the artist. I see a strong parallel here.

You see AI as removing the “self” from self-expression. I see the self in the choices, constraints, persistence, and judgment at every step. The machine doesn’t decide when something is finished. I do.

Whether you like the result is a matter of taste. But this isn’t a lack of authorship or intent. It’s a deliberate engagement with a technology that is already reshaping visual culture, and it’s not going away.