Nose Horns

I imagine each of you has seen graffiti featuring Jesus on the streets of your city at least once. Every time I encounter them in the streets of St. Petersburg, I am reminded that my hometown of Almaty also has its own city hero—a character you can find in various corners of the city. And I would like to tell you a little about him.

This is the rhinoceros of Galymzhan Balsary, known by the pseudonym GammaOverdoze, or simply Gamma. He has become one of Almaty’s recognizable characters; you can find him on walls in different parts of the city. The rhino is the artist’s signature character. Sometimes he is depicted flying; sometimes he looks slightly different, but he is still easy to recognize.

But the main mystery of this rhino is—how many eyes does it actually have? Maybe just one? And if so, how do you tell what’s an eye and what’s a nose?))

This little rhino is very close to my heart and the hearts of many Almaty residents. Therefore, I want to envision a future where he can travel the world. I want him to evolve from merely a local character into a hero recognized and loved far beyond the borders of our city.

In general, the neural network managed the silhouette and some of the proportions, but it failed to create a truly recognizable rhinoceros. Unfortunately, placing graffiti against a background of famous landmarks proved quite challenging for the neural network. Still, we can imagine our rhinoceros adorning a wall in one of the small alleys near the Louvre—as if it has already begun its journey around the world.

After a not-so-successful attempt to get the neural network to draw graffiti featuring our rhinoceros against the backdrop of Big Ben, I decided to move on to simpler generations.

The final series presents neural network interpretations of graffiti and an original character. The core stylistic elements were successfully captured: bold black outlines, simplified forms, and characteristic graphics. However, the neural network interpreted the rhinoceros’s appearance differently, altering its proportions and details. The texture of the walls and the placement of the drawings within the urban environment appear quite convincing. No additional processing methods were used. The results partially align with the project’s concept: while it was possible to present the character in urban spaces, maintaining its original appearance proved more challenging than reproducing the general graffiti style.