Pages

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Digital Light Photography - Collage


While at the Book-
store I picked up a book on experi-
mental digital photo-
graphy and it reminded me of the work done by my son, Keir M. Gatzka in this regard.

Opening Picasa 3 I located a number of Light experimental digital photos done by him, so I created this Collage of these works.

All I did was use Picasa 3 for the collage and resize it for display here so I made sure it was credited to my son with his copyright notice. He instinctively took these photographs without training or a copy of the book I was looking at. He used my Canon Rebel XTi Digital SLR.

I love the way the light plays on these images and they made a great collage to share. I know have the desire to experiment as well with this type of digital photography, and will in the near future.

----------------
Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Photographs
via FoxyTunes

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Corel Painter - Painter 8 Wow! Book Acrylics - Autumn is Coming


Summer is cooling, Autumn is right around the corner. Time marches on, and we can't stop it. Here is a digital painting of a fiery tree done in Corel Painter using the Painter 8 Wow! Book's Acrylic brushes.

I have posted a larger version of the image than I usually post, for your enjoyment. The photograph was taken by me last fall at Kensington Metro Park, Michigan. Near their petting Zoo. It was a family outing and we had a great time and got some good photographs of the autumn colors.

I have this at an Art Trading Card size of 375x525 pixels for the purpose of trading if anyone is interested in a trade of cards. It is in an edition of 3 only, and will be signed by myself on the back, listing the location and the year printed. It is on Matte stock Photo paper.

In music I have been working on a Drop D tuning song for the last few nights. I love the drone of the dropped D (bass E in regular tuning) as it sounds amazing. I continue to experiment with new chord structures trying out new D chords and a few open chords to see if they fit the Drop D tuning well. It's great fun and I have really been enjoying it.

Here is a Blues Drop D tuning song video, but it's not me playing.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Corel Painter - Liquid Inks - Digital Watercolors - Sitting Portrait


I'm back to using Painter for some painting today. I had been working on a few Art Trading Cards for a project based on an Autumn theme, as well. Then I took this Photograph of my son Keir M. Gatzka, that I shot a while ago and began to imagine it painted.

To begin with I opened it in Paint.NET and experimented with the Ink Sketch, Find Edges, and a couple other filters but finally chose the Effects> Artistic> Pencil Sketch>. I saved this file at a large size (larger than displayed here.)

I opened the file in Painter 8, And selected Liquid Inks for the face and body of the image. I then switched to a dry bristle Digital Watercolor brush and kept resizing it as I worked. I tried to keep the surroundings light and the pieces of furniture and lamps I used darker colors.

I finished the piece by using the watercolor over the Liquid Inks adding more color to the face and body. I saved that file and reopened it in PhotoPaint and used the Filter Forge's Frames on it to give it a small frame.

----------------
Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Til It All Comes (Runs) Together
via FoxyTunes

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Grunge Guitars - Rhyme Time - PhotoPaint


I used a back-
ground of some tree bark for this image from Mayang's Free Texture Library [click here]. A photo-
graph of dual guitars taken by myself, shot with a Canon Rebel XTi, and two other pics of guitars put through Little Ink Pot's Thredgeholder for the line art and placed using object properties of Difference for the inversions.

All done in Corel's PhotoPaint. I blended in some paint splatters with drippings using Effects> Distort> Wet Paint> filter on the font objects. I wrote a quickie poem about being creative from the heart and added it using a grunge font complete with drippings and an angle.

----------------
Now playing: Kenny Chesney - When the Sun Goes Down
via FoxyTunes

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

PolkaDots - Vector Graphics - Dover Clip Art


Shepherdess with polka dots and her creatures are todays focus. I again took some liberties with the design books and magazines I looked at and created an imaginary scene in vector graphics with the backgrounds from Dover Publications.

I used CorelDRAW, and PhotoPaint for the creation of this piece. I selected odd colors on purpose as well as odd creatures to shepherd. I added the polka dots at the end as the girl's shirt needed something extra.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Experimental Digital Visual Art - Vectors - Clip Art - Odd Animals


A trip to the book-
store always results in inspir-
ation. I viewed many design magazines and portfolios of Art. In them I discover a variety of topics and visual feasts.

I used multiple graphics programs for today's piece. CorelDRAW, CorelTRACE, Paint.NET, Picasa 3, and PhotoPaint to pull it all together.

The subject matter was gleaned from Dover Publications clip art, freehand drawn vector images, photographs by my son, Keir M. Gatzka.

What resulted was a busy image about NOISE and confusion. I had a lot of fun putting it together. Though I only drew parts of the piece, I had to adjust many of them to a black and white format to suit. So, much manipulation was done on the photographs, and the clip art.

I started with the idea in mind to create a being with characteristics of two different animals and ended up with a bird-giraffe and a fish-woman I used the Victrola as a fountain for the noise spewing out of the horn, turned upside down. The finding of the very interesting woman's faces with the tongue sticking out and the poutie face was a challenge to add them to the image. I liked the dragonfly, and of course the butterflies had to be added. Thus an experimental piece for your enjoyment.

----------------
Now playing: BB King - Three O'clock Blues
via FoxyTunes

Saturday, August 21, 2010

On the Avenue - Woodward Dream Cruise



I guess that our plans for more Dream Cruise photographs for this year's annual gathering of custom and pristine old cars are amiss. It appears that not any of us will be making it to Woodward.

So I offer another couple of photographs taken by my brother Kent M. Gatzka from 2009's Dream Cruise. I again used PhotoPaint and Paint.NET as well as KPT's Collection Lens Flares coupled with the Ink Sketch filter for these. I added Filter Forge's film frames to both also.

I cropped in on these great cars to show them at their best and took out distractions, and adjusted the size for display here on the blog. Don't forget to click on them for the larger versions of them as they are at a decent size for display.

We are all disappointed that we will miss this years Dream Cruise. I was hoping for more great photographs to use for your viewing pleasure. I still have a few from 2009's that I haven't used but going is part of the fun!

Listening --- Til It All Comes (Runs) Together DADGAD --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka


Friday, August 20, 2010

Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise - Metro Detroit, Michigan



The Annual Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise is on! Every third weekend in August the Dream Cruise is held in Metro Detroit, Michigan. And this year is no exception. The Local News on Channel WXYZ is covering it [click here] as are other Television channels in the area.

The two images I have posted today were done today from Photographs by my brother Kent M. Gatzka at last years (2009) Dream Cruise.

I cropped them in PhotoPaint and saved them opening them in Paint.NET for the Ink Sketch style. Then I reopened them in PhotoPaint and used KPT's Collection Lens Flare to add some sparkle! This year my son and his wife are attending and will get more photographs for me to add to my collection of custom car photographs and share with my brother Kent who can not attend this year.

I am looking forward too using the best of those photographs to manipulate and enhance for your viewing pleasure. It's one of my favorite Digital Visual Art projects, and I like to share them here.

Listening --- Laughing At Me DADGAD --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka

Monday, August 9, 2010

Building an Appetite - Vector Floral - Paint.NET - CorelDRAW




I am currently being featured as a Digital Artist in the August 2010 Issue of Digital Paint Magazine [click here for their Blog and their link to the Free Issue]