gatzkART!

"Contours Ice Sculptures" Corel PSP Pro X3

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:51:00 +0000

Contours Ice Sculptures 1

Contours Ice Sculpture 2

Browsing in Picasa 3.9 I grabbed two photographs of Ice Sculptures and opened with Corel's PSP Pro X3. I quickly adjusted the color and saturation of the photographs (individually.) I decided to try some of the effects of PSP and found that the abstract designs of the sculptures lent themselves well to the Effects, Contours feature.

I had taken my signature file and opened it in another graphics program, Fireworks MX, and with some experimenting I made a transparent PNG file for the watermark. I added my now transparent signature to the photographs. Then I added a 25 pixel black border and a simple black frame.

As usual I saved the largest files and resized for display here.

Listening to the television News right now

"Daughter and her Doll" Grunge Digital Collage - Corel PhotoPaint Plus

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:41:00 +0000

Daughter and her Doll

This is from an actual 400 ASA Black and White film photograph taken years ago of my "Daughter and her Doll," sitting in a little rocking chair. I had scanned it in and saved it. Some time ago I used Corel's Painter to create a woodcut image of her. I've had it for a long time and decided to play with it a bit.

I located it in Picasa 3.9 in a People folder. I had recently downloaded two grunge backgrounds, this one of rusted materials. I opened with Corel PhotoPaint and fit to screen to see the entire texture. I copied and pasted the woodcut into it. I used the property Multiply on it and adjusted the Opacity to 78%, allowing some of the background to seep through.

Browsing in Picasa 3.9 again I went to my Dover Clip Art folder and selected some Victorian corner embellishments for the top right and left corners. I used the Tone Curve on them to increase there depth of black color. I also found an antique Grandfather clock and some floral designs and added those to the bottom, to the right and left of the woodcut. I again used the Tone Curve and the property Multiply. I slightly cropped the image for size.

I saved the large file, and reopened it in Corel PSP Pro X3. Here I increased the Vibrancy with the Hue and Saturation features. I added a gold mat and a simple black frame to complete the image. Saving that iteration, I resized for display here. Back in PhotoPaint I added my signature and saved both the large and medium sized duplicates.

"The Wall" Photo-manipulation - Corel PSP Pro X3

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:37:00 +0000

"The Wall," or facade was found near the Ice Sculpture show in Plymouth, Michigan. Again the photographer was my son, Keir M. Gatzka. I did the photo-manipulation on them.

I used Picasa 3.9 to browse to the folder containing all the photographs from the outing. I selected the photographs one by one and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3. I started out with the fit to screen to see the entire photograph. Then I selected Adjust Smart Photo Fix feature and made changes to the Brightness, Shadows, Highlights, Focus, and Color.

As the day was very overcast each photograph had a lot of blue in them, shot at 1600 ISO. I attempted to adjust the bluish cast by using the Color, RGB tool increasing the red and green a bit. Tried to pull out the brick color in each one. I also added a twenty-five pixel border to each photograph for display.

With my son's inventive approach to photography, and my skills at manipulation and the good Corel programs I have, we make a really good team.

I did resize in PSP but I am learning the placement of watermarks in that program and don't have it down yet. I believe that I need to make my signature a PNG file, transparent except for the signature itself. Maybe that will work, I end up with a white border all around my jpg signature file. Can't have that - need to experiment with PNG.

So I added the signature in Corel's PhotoPaint for three of these four images.

Listening to Blues Rock on Pandora

"Ice Sculptures at Plymouth, Michigan" Photo-manipulation Picasa 3.9 - Irfanview

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:42:00 +0000

I am sharing some photographs of "Ice Sculptures," taken by my son Keir M. Gatzka. They were taken at the Plymouth, Michigan show over the weekend.

I used Picasa 3.9's HDR tool on each photograph, to bring out the details of each sculpture. He took many photographs so I may be sharing more in the near future. I used Irfanview to Batch convert the sizes to 75% the size of the original photographs. I still don't have a handle on all Batch conversion features in Irfanview, even these images are larger than I usually share.

Listening --- Amazon Cloud Player --- Various Songs

"Three Narrow Dress Ties" Photo-manipulation - Picasa 3.9 - Corel PSP X3

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:40:00 +0000

Narrow Ties 1

Narrow Ties 2

I wanted to play with photography today. I decided to take some photographs of some older narrow dress ties that I have in my closet. No, I can't remember the last time I wore these ties. The narrow tie is back in style, I think, so I thought I would work with them as subject matter.

I tied each one in a single Windsor knot style and hung them on a hanger using safety pins for the two on the outside, draping the center one from the hanger loop. I got my Canon Rebel XTi out, mounted the ties and hanger on the wall in my studio office and shot a few photographs with differing settings. I did use the flash, though the room is pretty bright.

After I took them I loaded them onto my computer and opened Picasa 3.9. I used that to browse the new folder of tie photographs.

The first photograph I selected is the one with the black signature. I opened it with Corel PhotoPaint and adjusted the saturation by 15 for more color punch. I used the Tone Curve just lightly for a bit of depth. I saved both the large file and a medium size file.

The second photograph I picked has the white signature. I used Picasa 3.9's Lomo on it and also saved the large file, resampling a medium file in PhotoPaint.

I brought the medium files into Corel PSP Pro X3 and added black borders of 25 pixels each. I played around with some of the Picture Frames but did not like the end result. I resized to 300 dpi and made to fit my blog.

Now I feel like wearing these narrow ties again. Go figure.

Listening to Acoustic Blues Guitar on Google+

"Shhhhh!" Digital Collage - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:28:00 +0000

Shhhhh!

Scanning fun with my Canon MP495 and various old magazines. I used pieces of advertisements and news items Icons for today's image. I created the main image in CorelDRAW using Acquire from the scanner. It was all a bit unconsciously done I just selected images that were attractive to me and placed them as I scanned.

I used the bar code maker in DRAW and that is where I placed my signature. I had grouped all the scanned pieces in DRAW and copied them to the clipboard then I opened PhotoPaint and pasted New from Clipboard into the program full size, Approximately 8"x10".

I used the wand to select lines of white and filled them with the fill tool, black. Using Papersize I added a black border, then switched to a red one to frame the completed image. I used the Tone Curve to add depth and upped the saturation by 9 for a color boost.

Listening to Blues Rock all day on Pandora

"Peacock and Paisley" Digital Collage - Corel Painter 11 - Corel PSP Pro X3

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:50:00 +0000

Peacock and Paisley

I opened a Photograph of some bamboo papyrus and used Corel's Painter Photo Essentials 4 Gouache painting style on it, creating the background.

I saved that file and opened it with Corel's Painter 11 where I added guitar, florea, iron textures in chalk. I browsed in Picasa 3.9 and went to a recent sampler choice of a peacock poster. I had saved that iteration now opening with Corel PhotoPaint. I added the peacock erasing and pasting with the property Subtract.

I had also picked some paisley sampler from Dover Publications, like the peacock. I added it with copy and pasted after I had used Color Replace to change the black to a burgundy Pantone color. I resized the paisley to a size corresponding to the peacock. This balanced out the composition. It almost looks like a large 69, which is the year I graduated high school, 1969. I know I'm dating myself but age in art doesn't' really matter does it.

I saved the file yet again and opened with Corel's PSP Pro X3 added the ice blue mat, drawing on the blues of the image. Then finished it off with a golden frame and my signature. One thing I have to learn is how to resize the signature in PSP, any suggestions from our readers would be appreciated. I saved the large file, resized for display here.

Listening --- mylittlebrother --- Nosedive EP on Soundcloud

"Acoustic Magazine No.6" Fake Cover Parody - Corel PhotoPaint

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:58:00 +0000

Acoustic Magazine No.6

I'm ill with a very bad chest cold so I won't write much today. Another one of my Acoustic Magazine parody pieces, done using Corel PhotoPaint and Picasa 3.9. Multiple scanned photographs gave me the pieces I needed to create this image. I also used a Dover Clip Art Victorian corner pedestal for the theme. I went with a grunge background.

Not Listening to anything right now - I feel Yucky! Hope you like the piece.

"Stained Glass Birds" Digital Collage and Painting - Corel Painter 11 - Corel PSP Pro X3

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:40:00 +0000

Stained Glass Birds

Opening Picasa 3.9 I made a collage of Flaming Pear's textured squares. I used the Neon filter on the collage and adjusted the color to a bronze like tone.

Saving the large file I opened with Corel's PhotoPaint (I resampled to a slightly smaller file size.) Browsing to my Dover Clip Art folder I found two "Stained Glass birds" images. I placed and resized them to fit the textured image. Saving again I opened with Painter 11 and used a simple watercolor brush to paint the birds. Then I selected a Liquid Ink layer and painted the backgrounds of the bird images.

I saved the file again and opened with Corel's PSP Pro X3. There I adjusted the saturation Vibrancy and the Curves adding depth to the color. Then I added a soft mat and the simple black frame. I saved the file once more and opened with PhotoPaint.

I added my signature and resampled for display here.

Listening --- The Beatles --- Blackbird

"Cars Continued" High Contrast Photo-manipulation - Corel PhotoPaint - Picasa 3.9 - Filter Forge

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:57:00 +0000

High Contrast 1

High Contrast 2

Short post for this day. Here are two photographic manipulations done in Corel PhotoPaint, using Filter Forge's frames.

I first applied Local Equalization to them and then used the Tone Curve for depth of color. I framed them with a simple border in Filter Forge's frames.

I do enjoy good images of my Grandson as is evident by my last two posts. He is growing fast as they say.

I had browsed in Picasa 3.9 to the folder that contained the photographs, as this is a frequent part of my workflow on my current PC.

Listening --- The Beatles --- Yellow Submarine

"Playing With Cars" Infrared Photography - Corel PSP Pro X3

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:29:00 +0000

Take 1

Take 2

One of my favorite pastimes is visiting and photographing my Grandson. I took these photographs recently with my Canon Rebel XTi with the ISO set on 1600 and in Program mode. As you can see, at just short of 2 years, old he is interested in playing with Cars. The Pixar movie "Cars" is one of his favorites, he gets very excited watching it.

I opened Picasa 3.9 and went to Corel's PSP Pro X3 with both photographs. I always fit to screen and then make my adjustments. I applied the Decrease Digital Camera noise on both images first. I cropped the photographs. Then I used the Infrared feature for both. I applied the Unsharp Mask for sharpening. Then I added the film frames. Saving the large files I reopened in Corel PhotoPaint.

Here I added my signature and resampled for display. I could have used Picasa 3.9's Infrared feature but I like Corel's PSP Pro X3 a lot for image manipulations.

Listening --- The Beatles --- Baby You Can Drive my Car

"Love Is All You Need" Corel PhotoPaint - Corel PSP Pro X3

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:14:00 +0000

"Love Is All You Need"

I browsed in Picasa 3.9 for some Victorian style clip art. I located some in my Dover Publications folder. I began with the stylish scrolling frame as the background.

I opened with Corel PhotoPaint and added the lovers clipart then created a Duotone giving it a bronze cast. I converted back to RGB and Using Replace I added the color of a golden cast.

I browsed some more and found the image in the center. I cut it out of an advertisement using only the young man and woman. I pasted the piece and feathered it a bit, shrunk to fit the center and pasted it into the background.

I used the theme of "Love is All You Need," with the font "Newveau." That, of course, is from the Beatles song. I added my signature in brown. I saved the large file and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3.

There I added a Daguerreotype frame and resized for display here.

Listening --- The Beatles --- Love Is All You Need

"Yellow Burnt Guitars Steampunk Grunge" Digital Collage - Corel PhotoPaint Plus

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:21:00 +0000

Yellow Guitars Steampunk Grunge

Today' image is built out of a number of pieces. I started with a scratched Yellow metal paint texture from Mayang's Textures for the background. I added a quad guitar piece, which I used the Color Burn property on. Then I added some sheet music that I got from my Dover Publications Sampler folder.

I also found a scrolled Sign in the Dover Clip Art and added that using the property Multiply, enlarging it to be prominent. I went to my Leonardo folder for the Head and cut and pasted that into the piece. I added an old camera, a sausage hand cranked tool, a measuring tool and the couple at a table. These also came from my Dover Clip Art.

I added my signature and saved the large file, resampled for display here all in Corel PhotoPaint. Of course, I used Picasa 3.9 for browsing and selecting the pieces for the image.

Please feel free to read my new additions to the blog, my "About" page, which is an upgraded discussion explaining who and what I'm about. And the "My Art For Sale" page which describes how you can collect a piece of my artwork printed as a poster or on products. Thanks for your interest!

Listening --- Edward Sparks --- I Won't Go There

"It's A Mannequin" HDR Cinema - Picasa 3.9 - Corel PSP Pro X3 - Corel PhotoPaint

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:26:00 +0000

HDR Cinema Mannequin

Browsing in Picasa 3.9 I saw this photograph of a mannequin's face that I once had painted in Painter 8. I was the original image before I painted it. I decided to play with the image. In Picasa 3.9 I applied the HDR effect and made some adjustments to it in strength and radius. I then applied the Cinema effect which gave me this narrowly focused view of the face and it's angular features. I ended up with an Art Deco appearance to the piece.

I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 and resized it to a larger size then used a film frame and then the ornate frame features on it. I saved the large file and opened with Corel PhotoPaint. Here I added my signature and used the Tone Curve just a bit for depth. I resampled the image to display here on the blog.

I really like Picasa 3.9's newer features and it makes it simpler to get a good HDR effect, as well as other effects. I did find out that as long as my external drive is connected I can add the My Pictures folder to be searched by Picasa and it would add all my saved photographs and images. I don't leave the external drive connected at all time so I have not done this as of yet. But it is a possibility to do so.

Listening --- Guess Who --- She's Come Undone

"Acoustic Magazine No.5" Fake Cover - Corel PhotoPaint - Picasa 3.9

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:19:00 +0000

Acoustic Magazine No.5

Yesterday I worked on this piece. "Acoustic Magazine No.5," is another parody of a faked magazine cover. It is essentially a Digital Collage that pretends to be a magazine cover. I browsed in Picasa 3.9 to my Mayang's Textures folder for a background texture. I opened with Corel PhotoPaint and began browsing for more pieces to make up this cover.

I used scanned in images from my Canon MP495 All in One. On the background I used the Tone Curve for depth and a bit of increased saturation. I copied, pasted, erased and placed the images. I gave the main guitar player Elvis Costello like glasses and eyes and added the shoulders to the arms and guitar.

I used bright colors as accents to the blue in the background for my text boxes. I used the fonts Bleeding Cowboys, and Arial, as well as one I believe was Avantgarde MdBt. I centered by eye and dragged the text to fit the box sizes for a elongated style.

Listening --- Otis Taylor --- Mexican Cowboy

"Art Nouveau Grunge" Digital Collage - Corel PhotoPaint - Filter Forge - Dover Clip Art

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:17:00 +0000

Art Nouveau Grunge

Earlier today in my workflow and posting. Using Picasa 3.9 I browsed to my Dover Publications Sampler folder and looked for some Art Nouveau clip art. I found a great floral background and opened with Corel PhotoPaint. I adjusted the size by increasing to 128dpi and used that for the background.

I browsed some more and found a couple of pieces, one of a woman's face in a circular style, and the second an embellishment, both Art Nouveau. I copied and pasted them and used the property Multiply on them for transparency. Then I applied Replace Color on both using a purplish or puce color.

Before I merged them I applied Filter Forge's Photo Effect Grunge variation changing some of the settings to enhance the stain, lessen the grunge. I merged all pieces and added my signature. I saved this large file and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3.

Here I added a wooden like mat and the golden frame using the Picture Frame feature. I saved that iteration and then resized it in PSP for display here.

Listening --- Rusty Truck --- Cold Ground

"Oriental Grunge" Digital Collage - Corel PhotoPaint - Dover Clip Art

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:03:00 +0000

Oriental Grunge

Late in the day, I love this floral grunge piece I used for the background. I opened with Corel's PhotoPaint and built this "Oriental Grunge," Digital Collage. After selecting the background I browsed my Dover Publication's Sampler folder in Picasa 3.9. I found the pieces you see here.

I cut out the woman from an image and pasted her after using the Tone Curve and boosting the color saturation of her. I also found the large plant like piece which offsets the woman. I applied the property Subtract to that and placed it in the collage.

I found another oriental lady and placed it as a "picture on the wall." I then, still using Dover Clip Art placed the scrolling frame. I put a black border using Papersize, centering it around the image.

Oh, yes, I must mention I did my clean up of my Hard Drive, making certain I kept the image folders I wanted for such a work as today. Textures, Clip Art, and some other items for inspiration. I saved all the photographs and images on my external Hard Drive and still have them for use if so required, but I regained a good amount of storage back on my work PC's Drive.

My workflow will alter a little to accommodate this change. Now if I can figure a way to have Picasa browse my external Drive, hmmm.

Listening --- Freddy Jones Band --- Better Tomorrow

"Self-portrait with my Wife" Corel PSP Pro X3

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:51:00 +0000

Myself and my Wife

Here is a Springtime portrait of myself and my wife taken remotely with our Canon Rebel XTi on a tripod. I hope you have enjoyed all the Digital Visual Art shared this year. I will continue to share art that interests you and is compelling in some way.

This photograph was adjusted in Corel's PSP Pro X3, cropped, saturation was altered a tad, and the mat and frame was added there. I did add my signature and resample in PhotoPaint for display.

"Older Photographs Given New Life" Picasa 3.9 - Corel PhotoPaint

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:22:00 +0000

Cordovan and Black

Black

I've been doing a review of photographs using Picasa 3.9 on my Hard Drive, looking to cull some, to add space to the Drive. I browsed to this still life folder of my straw hat and Rockport dress shoes photographs.

I jazzed them up using Picasa 3.9 features for HDR, Lomo, Boost, and Museum framing. They have a homey feel to them as I have had the objects for quite some time and they are still in fair shape. The straw hat is a little beat up and has a headband made from an old narrow tie I got from my now deceased Father in Law.

I have an external drive with all of my photographs and images copied to it and still have plenty of room for more. But, my computer Drive is down to a third free space after defraging. I need to do some house cleaning.

Thus the browsing of the folders and folders of photographs and images. I need to bite the bullet so to speak and clear them off of my work PC's Drive. Need to make room for more images and newer photographs yet to be taken. This is a step many of you probably do or consider doing at various times.

I admit to having some trouble with deleting my stock of photographs and images, even though they are fully available on the external Drive. It is a conundrum. What is to worry about? The failure of either of these Drives. Which is likely, but not for some time as the external is much newer than the work PC's Drive.

So I must dive in and delete these extra folders I don't really need on this Drive and access my stock from the external. I find myself rambling. Which I don't do here often, so I hope you will excuse me.

Listening --- Pink Floyd --- Empty Spaces

"HDR Experiments" Tractors and Truck - Picasa 3.9

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:06:00 +0000

HDR Tractor One

HDR Tractor Two

HDR Tractor Three

HDR Truck One

I really like the new Picasa 3.9 for it is feature rich and easy to use. These HDR images were all done using the HDR tool in Picasa. I also used the Museum frame feature included in 3.9.

I did use Corel PhotoPaint for some color adjustments in using the Tone Curve for depth. I also added my signature and resampled the photographs for display. These are older photographs and I am certain that the Blue GMC truck in the snow was taken by my son Keir M. Gatzka, but I don't remember the source of the tractors.

The only quirk in the using of Picasa's features is that when you apply them they sometimes change your source photograph, even before you save with a different name. I found that a little disturbing, because I am used to iterative saves of changes with differing names for each file in succession.

In any case Picasa 3.9 is a really good program to keep track of your photographs and images and videos, as well as helping to create some attractive photographs with just a few clicks on the desired feature and some adjustments to each.

Listening --- Kenny Chesney --- She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy

"Acoustic Magazine No.4" Fake Cover - Corel PhotoPaint

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:54:00 +0000

Acoustic Magazine No.4

Today I am sharing another "Acoustic Magazine," fake cover. This is a Grunge Issue with a rusty background and some grunge fonts. I complied the digital collage in Corel PhotoPaint using pieces I had found in my folder for the Series 66 collages.

I added some dripping paint splatters and merged the "guitar player," with the background. I had created the player at an earlier time in another piece, but he fits here.

I always use Picasa 3.9 to browse my folders and found the pieces to put together for this "issue." I used the "Eyes Wide Shut" idea because of the large eyes on the guitar player, a play on words.

I saved the large file as usual and resampled for display here.

Listening --- Corky and the Juice Pigs --- The Grunge Song

"A Digital Room" CorelDRAW - Corel PhotoPaint Plus

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 21:17:00 +0000

A Digital Room

Browsing my Dover Publications folder in Picasa 3.9 I found a coloring page of a simple room. I opened CorelDRAW and pasted the bitmap into a page. Using the Poly Pen tool I drew the lines around the pieces of the room. Using the various fill tools I added texture, a floral wall and used gradients for the other walls.

Back to my Dover folder I looked to populate the room with colorful characters, I found two women that I liked and I carefully cut them and pasted them, resizing as needed. I added two posters and the vase from more Dover Clip Art.

I did quite a bit of this in Corel's PhotoPaint after I had created the rooms walls, floor and ceiling. I also used the Tone Curve for more color depth on the file. I saved the large file and opened with Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3.

Here I added the brown border of 25pixels and added the frame to the piece. I saved that file and then resized for display. I had added my signature in PhotoPaint as usual.

Listening --- Doves --- The Cedar Room

"Blue Guitars" Digital Collage - Corel PhotoPaint - PSP Pro X3

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:40:00 +0000

Blue Guitars

Today's image is a Digital Collage of a texture from Mayang's Textures (of concrete,) two photographs of Gals playing Guitar, and two photographs of Guitars hung in display.

I browsed in Picasa 3.9 and found all the images with the exception of the texture which is newly downloaded as of yesterday. It is a densely packed collage with redundant guitar images and a Blue's color. I built the original image in Corel's PhotoPaint, but I also used Paint.NET for the Ink Sketch and Pencil Sketch tools.

After I amassed the collage to where I wanted it, I applied the blue tint to it in Picasa 3.9. I saved the file and opened with Corel's PSP Pro X3 adding a rough frame then adding the Cyan frame after that.

I added my signature and resampled for display in PhotoPaint.

Listening --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka --- The A Shuffle

"Digital Watercolor Paintings" Corel Painter - Corel PSP Pro X3

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:47:00 +0000

Four Eyes

Watercolor Portrait

Browsing in Picasa 3.9 I found a couple of examples of portrait work. The first one is an abstract I did years ago and had scanned in. I opened in Corel's Painter and created a clone then using the Ballpoint Pen I sketched the faces. I switched to Watercolor Camel brush and painted the colors into the image.

I added the signature in PhotoPaint. But I used Corel's PSP Pro X3 for saturation boost and the adding of the ornate frame.

The second image was a pen drawing I did at a book store, also quite a while ago. I had scanned this one in as well. I used the same Camel Watercolor brush to begin with, resizing it as needed. I also used a Flat brush for lines and for the background as well as the Erase Salt brush in the same.

Again I added my signature in PhotoPaint and matted and framed this image in PSP Pro X3.

Both images were smaller when I began, I used 300 dpi for them both and resized for display here in PSP Pro X3.

Last night, before going to bed I got out my Seagull 12-String Guitar and played and sang some Beatles tunes, starting with I Am the Walrus. I ended with Fool on the Hill. What an enjoyable hour that was.

"Dual Guitars" Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 - Picasa 3.9

noreply@blogger.com (Kirk Mathew Gatzka) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:16:00 +0000

Dual Guitars Gouache

Dual Guitars Cinema

I began today on Twitter sharing photography, digital art, graphic design and typography leads. I enjoy using Google Alerts on these subjects set for "everything" and "happening now," as it garners some nice leads to share.

I then went to browsing in Picasa 3.9 and selected two photographs of my Seagull 12-String and a Lyon 6-String guitar. The first photograph I opened with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and played around with it with a Gouache auto Painting. I had first added some saturated color and a "museum mat,' in Picasa 3.9.

The second photograph I played with only in Picasa 3.9. I upped the saturation and applied a feature called "Cinema." This cropped the image and placed a black border on top and bottom. I saved the file and opened with PhotoPaint to use Papersize to add a full black border. I had both images in PhotoPaint to add my signature and resample for display.

Listening --- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss --- Rich Woman