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"Daria Musk Singer Songwriter" Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 - Plus

Singer Songwriter Daria Musk and Ram

I was watching a Live Google+ Hangout on YouTube last night and I did a screen capture. Here is Singer Songwriter Daria Musk and her producer, fellow performer Ram Rich. Daria's website is at www.dariamusk.com. The hangout was sponsored by Artists in the Plus on Google+ with host John Voshell.

She is a pioneer in bringing together musicians from all around the world on G+. Absolutely enthusiastic and a charmer, her performances are just plain fun to watch. I gained permission from her and John to create this image and post it here, for which I am grateful.

I grabbed the screen capture and then from Picasa 3.9 I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3. There I resized the image for display size. I applied the Digital Camera Noise Removal tool and increased the saturation with the Vibrancy tool. I saved that iteration.

Next I opened it with Corel Painter Essentials 4. Here I auto painted using the Detailed Watercolor settings, Rough Paper. I added back in details with the Soft Cloner brush.

Saving that, I reopened with PSP and added the Polaroid frame and a black border.

This is our 968th post, plugging on to our goal of 1,000 posts!

"Rebecca Perl Singer Songwriter" Corel PSP Pro X3 - Plus

Singer Songwriter Rebecca Perl

I met another Singer Songwriter, from NYC, on Google+: Rebecca Perl! I was able to get permission from her to use this portrait for today's post. Her website can be found at: Rebecca Perl Music.

I got the photograph from her Google+ photographs and downloaded it. From Picasa 3.9 I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 and resized it for working on it. I applied the Digital Camera Noise Removal tool to the photograph and added some color with the Smart Photo Fix. I saved the larger file.

From Picasa I opened with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. There I applied the auto paint Watercolor Sketch with no setting changes. I then took the Soft Clone tool and added back in some details of her face. I also painted a bit on the guitar and background. I saved that iteration.

I reopened in PSP and used the Picture Frame for the Polaroid Frame and added a 25 pixel black border. Saving that file for display, it's a little bit larger (click on it for the larger picture) than I usually post, so I hope the viewing time is not too high.

This is our 967th Post on our way to 1,000. Share and Circle on Google+ both myself and Rebeccca Perl. I am at +Kirk Mathew Gatzka and she is at +Rebecca Perl.

Thanks for viewing and comments are always welcome.

"Milestone 79,000 Plus Pageviews!" "THANK YOU!"

79,000 Plus!

On our 966th Post we have reached a new Milestone of 79,000 Plus Pageviews for gatzkART! We thank you for your interest in our Artwork and in our explanation of workflow to create it.

Today I took a Rust Texture at 300dpi and resampled it to a larger file for display. I used the Font Chic Decay for the milestone announcement. Which I duplicated in dark brown for effect. Then reversing the effect I used the Font American Bravado with yellow for it's background and the dark brown for the forefront.

I did Enhance the saturation of the riveted rust by increasing it by 11. And since it was already in display size I saved it. All work was done in Corel PhotoPaint.

"Autumn Seedum III" Corel PSP Pro X3

Autumn Seedum III

I took some macro and other photographs of our garden yesterday with my Canon Rebel XTi. This shot you can see two types of Autumn Seedum. I browsed to the dated folder in Picasa 3.9 and selected this photograph.

I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3. I first used the Digital Camera Noise Removal tool. Then I used the Saturation Vibrancy for some more punch to the colors. I used the Unsharp Mask tool on High Res Normal.

I then cropped the landscape photograph for a more portrait version. Using the Visible Watermark I placed my signature. I added a reddish Border and then the ornate Picture Frame. I saved differing iterations, one sans border and frame, a large size with them and then resized for display here.

I had shared two of my macro photographs on Google+ under my name +Kirk Mathew Gatzka, yesterday and they are now part of my Profile's Photos there.

965 posts and counting! That goal of 1,000 seems so far yet so close!

"F-Hole Guitar Player" Corel - Filter Forge - Plus

Guitar Player

I was browsing in Picasa 3.9 through my images and photographs. I discovered this badly blurred photograph of a Guitar Player. I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 and applied the Digital Camera Noise Removal and the Smart Photo Fix. Then I used the Unsharp Mask on it. After it looked a bit clearer I saved that iteration.

I opened with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and auto painted with the Pastel Drawing. After I did that I selected Simple Watercolor and set it with the contrast very light in color. I auto painted over the Pastels.

I selected the Cloner brush and added back in some detail around the face, guitar and arms and hands. I also painted some background lines around the darkened images hanging on the wall.

I saved that file with a new name and opened with PSP again. There I upped the Saturation with the Vibrancy tool. I added a loose white border. Using the Filter Forge Frame plugin I added a Grunge Frame to it. I added my signature with the Visible Watermark tool. I saved the large version then resampled for display.

I have painted a different version of this photograph quite a while ago, but wanted to attempt a newer version of it.

964 posts and counting to 1,000!

"Infrared Guitars" Corel PSP Pro X3 - Plus

Infrared Guitars

This photograph was taken with our Canon Rebel XTi of our two guitars. The Seagull 12-String is mine and the Lyon 6-String is my Son's.

I had this stored on my external HD and opened it with Corel PSP Pro X3. I applied the Digital Camera Noise Removal and then the Smart Photo Fix. I cropped out of the right hand bottom corner an unwanted part of the photograph to focus on the guitars.

Then using the Photo Effects I picked the Infrared Film tool. This gave me a B&W high contrast image which I liked. I added a black border and the black Picture Frame to the image. I saved the large file.

From Picasa 3.9 I opened with Corel PhotoPaint. There I used the Touch-up tool to remove some white spots from the dark rug. I added my signature by Inverting it to make it white and placed it, merging with property Add.  I resampled for display in PhotoPaint saving that iteration.

Post 963 and moving to my 1,000th post.

"Sparks and Son" Digital Watercolor - Corel - Plus

Sparks and Son

I was emailed this photograph taken by Chary Izquierdo, of Singer Songwriter Edward Sparks and his son Josh performing. It was on my laptop so I saved the PNG image. I converted it to JPG and transferred it to my external HD.

I took that to my Desktop PC and opened it with Corel PSP Pro X3. I first applied Digital Camera Noise Removal and then the Smart Photo Fix. I also applied the Unsharp Mask tool to the photograph to sharpen it a bit.

Then I used the Hue and Saturation Vibrancy tool for some punch to the colors. I slightly increased the size of the file as it was smaller than I desired. I saved that iteration to my Local HD.

I went to Picasa 3.9 and opened the file with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and used the Watercolor Sketch feature to auto paint  it. I then used the hard edge cloner brush to add back some color and detail to their faces and hands and instruments.

Saving that iteration I opened with PSP Pro X3 and used the Smart Photo Fix on it to lighten it up a bit. I added the Polaroid frame (it's one of my favorites,) and a border in black. I saved that iteration.

I opened with Corel PhotoPaint and added a white signature, using Invert on my signature file and Add as the property.

962 posts and climbing ever so slowly to 1,000! Follow with me on this adventure! We've reached over 78,000 pageviews this past weekend! Thanks for your visits and please keep coming back to see what I'm up to next!

Visit Edward Sparks link: http://www.facebook.com/edward.sparks.71

"Picasa Collage Van Gogh Style" Corel Painter - Plus

Picasa Collage Van Gogh Style

In Picasa 3.9 I selected two photographs. One was portrait the other was landscape, of the Lyon and Seagull Guitars. I used Picasa's Create Collage Superimpose at 16:9 setting. This gave me a large, almost panoramic image. I saved that iteration.

I opened it with Corel PSP Pro X3 and used the Digital Camera Noise Removal on it then the Smart Photo Fix. I used the Saturation tool for Vibrancy then applied Curves for color depth. I saved that iteration.

I then opened with Corel Painter 11 and did a Quick Clone, used the Auto Van Gogh feature with the brush setting at 32.9. This Auto Painted the image with a Van Gogh look and feel. I saved this large iteration with a differing name.

If you look closely you can see the Music Stand, as well as the overstuffed chair and a corner of a painting on the wall. The lightness of the musical paper on the stand slightly offsets the blanket on the chair's back.

I used Filter Forge's Photo Effects plugin Lomo feature for color changes with in the piece and a frame. Though I had to alter the size of the canvas to do so as I am using the free Filter Forge plugins and they work only on images less than 3,000 pixels. My beginning image was over 5,000 pixels wide. So I resampled in Corel PhotoPaint to a display size prior to using the plugin. I added my signature and saved the display sized image.

961 posts and climbing to 1,000 slowly but surely.

"Grunge Trio of Electric Guitars" Corel PhotoPaint - Plus

Trio of Electric Guitars

I opened Picasa 3.9 and browsed to my Mayang's Textures. I selected a crosshatched cloth background and opened with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. I auto painted it with my favorite Watercolor Sketch. This gives me both the watercolor and the sketchy lines that worked so well with this texture.

Browsing in Picasa again I found an Electric Guitar and copied it and pasted it into Corel PhotoPaint where I already had the background open. I made a trio of the guitars placing them onto the background. I selected them all and used the Property Color Burn for transparency. I merged them together to the background.

Using the plugin Filter Forge's Frames I added a Grunge frame variant to the image. I chose a couple of my guitar picks, one from Guitar Center and the other from Elderly Instruments and scanned them in at 600dpi. ( I usually use Jim Dunlop picks for playing, but I have a small collection of guitar picks.) I used the auto Unsharp Mask on for these scan. I pasted them onto the background using differing properties for transparency.

I adjusted the image with Auto Equalize to lighten the color a slight amount. Adding my signature in white I saved the large iteration. I resampled for display.

Don't forget you can always click on my images for a larger view. It shows the details much better.

960 and counting to 1,000 Posts!

"12-String and 6-String Guitars" Digital Watercolor Corel - Plus

12-String and 6-String Guitars

This photograph of the 12-String and 6-String Guitars and the overstuffed chair was taken with my Canon Rebel XTi. I opened with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. I applied the Watercolor Sketch feature for the look and feel.

I saved that iteration and opened from Picasa 3.9 with Corel PhotoPaint. There I used the Filter Forge Photo Effect Vibrance testing out differing variants. I also increased the saturation a bit for more color.

I used the plugin optikVerve settings as a Slide at 1600 ISO and Warm color on the image. I saved that iteration and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3. Here I used the Smart Photo Fix and brightened the colors. Then used the Vibrance tool on it for deepened color.

I added a Polaroid frame and a 25 pixel black border to the image, after I added my signature. I resampled for display and saved.

Late Posts are better than no posts! Post 959 and counting to 1,000 posts.

"Grunge and Tiled Lyon and Seagull Guitars" Corel - Plus

Grunge and Tiled Guitars

I took this photograph of my Lyon 6-String and Seagull S12 Cedar with our Canon Rebel XTi. I browsed to it in Picasa 3.9 and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3.

There I cleaned up the photograph with the Digital Camera Noise Removal. I then used the Smart Photo Fix on it. I applied the Unsharp Mask to it to sharpen the details.

After I was happy with the color I applied the Seamless Tiling Factory Defaults feature for the multiple Guitars look. I then opened the plugin Filter Forge's Photo Effects Grunge and used that for the linen grunge effect.

I added a 25 pixel black border and saved that iteration, starting a new folder for my newer images. I am trying to keep my images to under 300 to a folder including each iteration of any certain piece.

I had reopened the image in Corel PhotoPaint to add the white signature and resample for display here.




Post 958 and counting to 1,000 posts!

"Grunge 78 Travis Bean Artist Guitar" Corel PhotoPaint - Filter Forge - Plus

78 Travis Bean Artist Guitar

"Grunge 74 Travis Bean Artist Guitar," also taken from the Guitar Photographer site mentioned in my last post with link. I created this grunge image using both Corel PSP Pro X3 and Corel PhotoPaint along with Filter Forge's Photo Effects and Frames.

I had much to do today so this post is very short with little explanation of the workflow. I am still working towards the goal of 1,000 posts for gatzkART!, 957 and counting.

"Grunge 1958 Gibson Les Paul" Corel PSP Pro X3 - Plus

Grunge 1958 Gibson Les Paul

Got a wallpaper image of a Les Paul Guitar at:

http://www.guitarphotographer.com/index.htm 

Which images are for non-commercial use, unless otherwise specified by the photographer. I created a Digital Art image of this 1958 Gibson Les Paul Std Historic photograph.

I downloaded the large file and opened through Picasa 3.9 with Corel PSP Pro X3. There I upped the Vibrancy of colors and used Effects on it, Topography for the edges. I used the Wand tool to select the bulk of the black background and filled it with white. I applied Filter Forge's Photo Effects Old Photo Sepia tone to it.

I used Curves to add depth to the color. I added a 25 pixel black border. Then I boosted the color Saturation by 34. I saved iterations as I went along through the workflow.

I finished by adding a Film Picture Frame and using Filter Forge again gave it a linen grunge look and feel. Saving that iteration I opened with Corel PhotoPaint and added my signature in white. Resampling for display here I saved again.

Post 956 toward the 1,000 Posts Goal! Keep following my quest Please!

"Ryan Van Sickle Canadian Singer Songwriter" Digital Watercolor Corel - Plus

Ryan Van Sickle

I have gained permission from the photographer Nathanael Absher (see  www.nathanaelabsher.com) and the subject Ryan Van Sickle singer, songwriter to adapt this image. Nathanael has requested that this piece not be placed for sale at any time, so it is not for sale.

Heather Fay and Ryan Van Sickle have done some performing together and I have watched both online. Very effective performers! Both are on G+.

I used the same programs as I did on Heather Fay's image recently.  Corel PSP Pro X3 and Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. In Essentials I used the soft cloner brush to add back in some details as before.

I used the Watercolor Sketch auto paint feature for this in Essentials. I did all color and other adjustments in PSP.

Ryan is from Canada and has a nice site at: http://ryanvansicklemusic.com feel free to visit either site, Nathanael's or Ryan's!


Listening --- Edward Sparks --- No Perfect People Allowed

"Grunge Gretsch Ebony Guitar" Paint.NET - Plus

Grunge Gretsch Ebony

I found two images that I thought would compliment each other in a Grunge composition. One, for the background, is a water-colored stained paper. The other was a clean Gretsch Ebony Guitar.

I opened from Picasa 3.9 the background with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and auto painted with the Watercolor Sketch feature. I reopened that file with Corel PhotoPaint and using Papersize added a brown border.

Selecting the Gretsch I opened in Paint.NET and used the Ink Sketch tool without any color, just a black pen and ink look. I copied and pasted that onto the background in PhotoPaint. There I placed it and then duplicated it in differing sizes and rotated them to create a line of guitars.

I used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Grunge feature to add the grunge linen look and feel with a small frame. I took the Text tool and added the words "Gretsch Ebony" in Basketcase font. I duplicated that and layered for some depth. I then used Distort, Wet Paint to add the paint drippings to the words. I saved that iteration adding my signature in white still in PhotoPaint.

Listening to Peace and Quiet today.

"Heather Fay Singer Songwriter" Corel PSP Pro X3 Plus

Heather Fay

"You may use it Kirk. Please credit ©2012 Kevan Christine w/ a link to the website http://www.kevanchristine.com. Thanks." I received this on my notifications and email about today's image.

As you can see Kevan has taken a wonderful photograph of musician singer, songwriter, Heather Fay. I have listened to Heather's music online and in recorded G+ Hangouts. I really enjoyed her work and look forward to listening to more.

I downloaded the photograph and through Picasa 3.9 I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 to add Vibrancy to the color and some Softening. Saving that iteration I opened with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. Here I used the Watercolor Sketch feature to auto paint the entire image.

I then took the clone tool with soft edges and brought back some detail to the face and other areas of the image. I saved that iteration and reopened with PSP. Here I added a Polaroid frame and a 25 pixel black border. Because this photograph has a copyright, even though I altered it, I did not add my signature to the image.

My thanks to Keven Christine and Heather Fay! I hope they like the image I created from the photograph.