"Return to Grunge Guitars 2" CorelTRACE - CorelDRAW - Plus

"Return to Grunge Guitars 2"

"Return to Grunge Guitars 2" began as a photograph of our two guitars. I opened in Corel PhotoPaint and rotated the photograph to portrait. I cropped it slightly and saved the large file.

I opened CorelTRACE and turned the piece into a grayscale photograph and traced the Outlines. I saved the image to a Traced folder. I opened CorelDRAW and selected this image.

In DRAW I Ungrouped all the traced parts into individual pieces. I then selected some basic colors for the majority of them. Red, blue, cyan and yellow. I then regrouped all the pieces to one image. I copied that to the clipboard.

I pasted that into Corel PhotoPaint with a height of 2500 pixels at 300 dpi. I used the Adjust, Local Equalization and the Tone Curve for differing depth of colors. I then applied Filter Forge's Photo Effects Grunge, trying different variations, under Settings, til I found one I liked. I saved that large file.

I next opened the image with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. I tried a couple of auto painting styles and finally settled on Gouache with the programs settings. Auto Painting the piece gave it more character, brushstrokes, and some abstraction. I saved that iteration.

I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 and added my signature using Image, Visible Watermark, Lower-left corner. I added a 25 pixel black Border and saved that. I then resized for display saving my final iteration.

Listening --- The Beatles --- Help! CD