"Stringed Instruments in Foliage" Corel - Plus

Stringed Instruments in Foliage

Returning to the Guitar motif I used a couple of photographs of an unknown stringed guitar like instrument, and three classic guitars. I opened with Picasa 3.9 from my folders and used the Pencil tool on both. Saving them both I opened the largest with Corel PhotoPaint, there I applied the Tone Curve to deepen the line color.

I opened the other of the three guitars and pasted and erased unwanted background elements, resized them to fit and pasted. I saved that iteration and used Corel PSP Pro X3 for the sepia tone and vibrancy of the tone. I added a brown border there as well.

Saving that I used Picasa to add to the sepia depth. Back in PhotoPaint I added my signature first changing the color with Replace Colors tool. I cut and pasted the large file. I had resized to display in PSP Pro X3.

Simple changes made for an attractive Sepia toned image.

"Vintage Young Girl Playing Violin" Corel PhotoPaint - Dover Clip Art

Vintage Young Girl Playing Violin

I am keeping with a music motif with some Dover Clip Art from my Dover Publications Sampler folder in Picasa 3.9. I selected the "Vintage Young Girl Playing the Violin," and a background of Butterflies in black and green, and some sheet music. I opened them in Corel PhotoPaint and did my cutting, erasing, placing of the Girl on a bed of leaves (also Dover Clip Art) with a Bird accompanying her playing.

I used the Tone Curve to give the Girl and Bird and leaves some depth. I copied and pasted them onto the Butterflies background. On the background I did use Color Replace White to Green for the pleasant coloring. I added the sheet music from the Free Vintage Digital Art folks. which I promptly placed behind the Girl and Bird. I used the property Multiply on the music score.

I did all the work for this Digital Collage in PhotoPaint. I resampled to display size, adding my signature in white (again Inverting the black signature.) I saved the medium size iteration for display.

Musically I have been researching Chordings for Double Drop D Tuning and have found a couple of references with PDF files. Which I downloaded but then lost my page I was on so I can't share the Links.

I may use this tuning for a new song I am working on. The meter of the lyric is very different to what I usually use. So I am going to have to be really creative with the chords and melody and the chorus and verses and bridge. I am excited about it!

Feels great to be thinking and feeling musical again.

"Grunge 12-String Guitar with Chords" Corel - Plus

Grunge 12-String Guitar with Chords

Back to the 12-String Guitar motif, with a Grunge touch. I opened one of my Mayang's Texture with blue and orange color in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. There I applied an Impressionist setting with Rough Paper, and a Random brush setting. I auto painted the background. Saving that iteration I opened with Corel PhotoPaint. I rotated to a portrait view.

I took one of my recent photographs of my Seagull S12 Cedar from Picasa 3.9 folder and I copied to the Clipboard. I opened the New from Clipboard in PhotoPaint and cut out the guitar and case. I copied and pasted that onto the portrait textured background.

I adjusted the guitar to fit and used the property Overlay to place it with transparency. I merged that. I next applied the Orange text of guitar chords in a progression I recently have been playing with. I applied the Basketcase Font to the letters. And then applied the Distort, Wet Paint set at 48 for the dripping paint look.

I used the Font WC Rhesus B Bta for the paint splatters in orange and blue on the background and the guitar. I applied Filter Forge's Photo Effects Lomo for the final touch of framing and the darker grunge feel. Adding my signature in white (inverted) I saved that large iteration.

Then I resampled to a display size in PhotoPaint.

"Diesel the Min-Pin HDR Experiment" Corel - Plus

Diesel the Min-Pin

I recently took a photograph of my Son's dog, Diesel, that is a Min-Pin. He's about four years old, and is at his full grown size, which is small. He is a great cuddler and is a food driven dog.

I opened the photograph taken with my Canon Rebel XTi and cropped it. I then saved the cropped image. I reopened from Picasa 3.9 with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and painted it using the Impressionist setting, Rough paper, and the Watercolor brush. I saved that iteration after a bit of touch up with the Soft Cloner brush.

I opened it with Corel PSP Pro X3 and tried an experiment. I used the HDR tool to load two photographs, one painted the other not. Using the HDR tool I aligned both images and output the HDR result you see.

I saved that and added the Picture Frame in PSP Pro X3. Saving that I opened with Corel PhotoPaint to add my signature. It turned out to be a decent image of little Deese. Detailed but having that painterly look and feel.

"Vintage Gypsy Woman Muse" Corel Painter 11 - Plus

Vintage Gypsy Woman Muse

I picked an image from the Free Vintage Clip Art folks today. It is a "Gypsy Muse," vintage piece. I opened from my Picasa 3.9 folders with Corel PSP Pro X3 and used the Smart Photo Fix on it punching up the color and sharpening the image. I also used the Skin Softening on it for the skin tones.

I applied the Saturation Vibrancy on it and saved it as a display size image. I reopened in Corel Painter 11 and I painted it with differing clone brushes, Soft Clone and Thick Camel brushes. I used a Watercolor brush for the background surrounding the woman.

I used the Soft Cloner for the stringed instrument she is holding so the details would show clearly. I added some line in the background to halo the woman.

I saved that iteration and opened with Corel PhotoPaint. I used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrance. Then I added a film frame with Filter Forge's Frames. I also placed my signature in black and saved that iteration.

Music wise I tuned my 12-String Seagull to standard tuning and have been practicing using some chord progressions I got online that I printed out.

A minor, G major, D minor, and A major chord progressions with differing structures. They were divided between VERSE and CHORUS lines of progression.

I did some recording of my practicing and listened back to them using Audacity and improvising leads. I used a Archtop Jazz Guitar for the rhythm and different leads for some flavor. I found that switching from minor chords to major chords posed some difficulty in my improvisations. All in all I am feeling good to be practicing again.

"Song and Chords along with Photograph" Corel - Plus

My Wife as a Child on a Carousel

This is the photograph of my Wife that inspired the song "Lil' Miss Lillian Decides."   ©2010 by Kirk Mathew Gatzka.

Here are the Chords and Lyrics, the link is to the song on SoundCloud:

Am   D7
Lil' Miss Lillian decides
Am   D7
Over on the East side
Am   D7
Round and Round, Its been said
Am   D7
Up and down, No one's ahead
Am   D7
The Carousel rides
Am   D7
You are alongside
     G
of me.

G      Em      Am7    D
Light from the stereo
G      Em      Am7    D
Radio in my eyes
G      Em      Am7    D
Tearing up to cry
G      Em      Am7    D
Watching the video
G      Em      Am7    D
Black background lies dark
G      Em      Am7    D
Colors vibrant radiate
G      Em      Am7    D
Music loud plays its part
G      Em      Am7    D
Like it did in the Park

Am   D7
Lil' Miss Lillian decides
Am   D7
Over on the East side
Am   D7
Round and Round, Its been said
Am   D7
Up and down, No one's ahead
Am   D7
The Carousel rides
Am   D7
You are alongside
     G
of me.

G      Em      Am7    D
Storms from television
G      Em      Am7    D
Lightning for the lost
G      Em      Am7    D
Thunder, loss of vision
G      Em      Am7    D
Who cares what it costs
G      Em      Am7    D
Blazing seconds bright
G      Em      Am7    D
To return to black and blue
G      Em      Am7    D
When it is going to?
G      Em      Am7    D
Where is it? There's no clue.

Am   D7
Lil' Miss Lillian decides
Am   D7
Over on the East side
Am   D7
Round and Round, Its been said
Am   D7
Up and down, No one's ahead
Am   D7
The Carousel rides
Am   D7
You are alongside
     G
of me.
G      Em      Am7    D repeat end on G

I used Corel PSP Pro X3 for this rendition of the photograph. I applied the Infrared tool and then the Time Machine Daguerreotype tool. I did not know my Wife at this time we met in 1970 and have been together through many difficult times, but our relationship has survived! I have a photograph of us on the About Page from the 70's if you want to take a look.

Have a listen to the song and enjoy the image.

"Self-Portrait Digital Collage" Corel - Plus - Logitech

gatzkART - Self-Portrait

Today I updated my Logitech C260 Camera's software and was playing around with it. I took a couple of hi-res photographs of myself. I decided to do a self-portrait collage with one of them.

I opened the photograph with Corel PSP Pro X3 and applied the workflow I use for digital camera photographs, Noise Removal and Smart Photo Fix. I also applied the Skin Softening tool to the photograph.

I saved that iteration. I opened both Corel PhotoPaint and CorelDRAW and also Picasa 3.9. I used Picasa to locate a Art Nouveau background and other clip art pieces, in my Dover Clip Art folder. I used the Local equalization on the background. Added another yellow based floral on it, adjusting the Opacity.

I opened the self-portrait and cut my self out of the image and copied that to the clipboard. I pasted it on the background and used Multiply and Opacity for transparency.

I used a drop cap "G" for the word "GatzkART," and used DRAW for the text. I also altered the Opacity of the word and the Tone Curve of the capital "G" changing it's depth (I also changed it to green to match the "atzkART" portion.

Using my Dover Clip Art Samplers I added the women and a couple of designs in black using the property Multiply and the Tone Curve to darken them.

I added a small green border in PhotoPaint using Papersize, and then my signature in black. I merged all layers (objects) to the background to finish.

"Cyanotype Seagull S12 Cedar Guitar" Corel - Plus

Cyanotype Seagull S12 Cedar Guitar

One of my favorite motifs a photograph of my Seagull S12 Cedar Guitar. I took a number of shots of the guitar, resting on the case, and I took this one without the flash as 400 ISO, with my Canon Rebel XTi. I opened it in Corel PSP Pro X3.

In PSP Pro X3 I applied the Digital Camera Noise Removal and the Smart Photo Fix tools. I created a duplicate layer and applied the Pencil tool for a lightly colored embossed layer. I used the property Soft Light for this layer and Merged both layers.

I then used the Time Machine settings for a Cyanotype photograph on it. Thus the blue end result.

I saved that file and then resized to display size. I opened in Corel PhotoPaint to add my signature in white. I used Papersize to add a 25 pixel blue border to finish it.

I have been playing the 12-String in DADGAD tuning for a while now and really have been having fun with it. I am about ready to tune it standard and try some new songwriting, but I'm still a bit hesitant. I have some new poems that I may be able to work into lyrics with the right chord progressions and melody.

I have room on SoundCloud to add at least one more song on the free version. It would be satisfying to do that with a new tune. We'll see.

"Review 'Merry Go Round' by Shani"

"Merry Go Round"

I had the privilege of creating an image of Singer Songwriter +Shani S  and as a result I won a signed copy of her new Album. I have spent time listening to it today closer than my first pass. The image you see is of the cover of the album, I did not create it. Credits are on the Album cover inside and out.

Entitled "Merry Go Round," it is alternative pop with great emotion and strong songs. She has a delightful singing voice and the mix is fabulous. One of my favorites is the song "I Am," and I really like the bluesy intro to the title song "Merry Go Round," my second favorite. A bit of RnB piano in it and a pleasant blues guitar riff that relaxes you and then she sings again about it being "bolted to the ground." Fantastic!

I don't regularly review albums so you'll have to excuse my few words and if I am inaccurate in the terminology. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire album. It is soft, tender, hard hitting and emotionally charged with fine lyrics and wonderful backup musicians along with great Artwork.

Her website is at:  http://shanirose.com/

"Lizzy Spit - In the Spotlight - Artists in the Plus" - Corel

Singer Songwriter Lizzy Spit

I was able to watch a recent "In the Spotlight," with guest, +LIZZY SPIT on YouTube. An interview and some songs were performed by Lizzy. Her musical background was interesting to find out about and her performance of songs was wonderful and delightful.

I used a screen capture of her and opened it in Corel PhotoPaint to crop, afterward I opened that file with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. There I selected the Classic Oil Painting setting, with Rough Paper and auto Painted the image. Saving that I opened with PhotoPaint and applied Filter Forge's Frames film frame. I added my signature and saved in display size.

If you Missed the Show from Artists in the Plus here is the YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeWmrlrXIeQ

Credits: +Artists In The Plus +John Voshell 

"Lisa Marshall In the Spotlight" Artists in the Plus - CorelDRAW - Plus

Lisa Marshall

I was able to attend the Artists in the Plus "In the Spotlight" the other night on a Google+ Hangout on Air. I viewed it from YouTube live stream. The Guest was +Lisa Marshall , and she was not only interesting in her background but amazing in her singing and guitar.

Her singing was like a silver throated Janis Joplin. Punching out emotion and soul. I truly enjoyed her performing. Her guitar playing was strong and punctuated her songs with rhythm and great accompaniment.

Using Picasa 3.9 I took a few screen captures to work with and decided to join two images together. I opened Corel PhotoPaint to crop the images and then unified them to size in CorelDRAW. In DRAW I converted to bitmap and Traced to a Vector image with CorelTRACE. I was able to copy to the clipboard the traced image and in PhotoPaint I opened with New from Clipboard.

I saved the large bitmap file with the Vector artifacts to disk. I opened it in Corel PSP Pro X3 and punched up the color with Saturation Vibrancy. I did that after I applied the Smart Photo Fix. I applied the Polaroid frame and a black border in PSP Pro X3.

I added my signature in PhotoPaint and resampled for display size there.

Here are some links to the show and Lisa's website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU9a6_khnz8 hosted by Artist in the Plus +John Voshell

http://lisamarshallmusic.com/

If you haven't tried a Hangout On Air yet on Google+ try one out by joining Google+ through your Gmail email address, you will be glad you did.

"90,000+ Pageviews Milestone - Morning Dove" Corel Painter 11

Morning Dove

I wrote yesterday about some birds pictures from Dover Clip Art and today I have used the "Morning Dove," piece. I am following through on a motif of birds for a few images. This Dove image is Digital Watercolor done in Corel Painter 11. The inking is from the Clip Art and the painting is all done by myself. I chose to make the leaves variegated with white to add detail to the scene.

I selected a number of watercolor brushes, and textures for the piece. We have Doves living nearby so I tried to keep the colors close to reality. I used Corel PhotoPaint to apply Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrance to punch up the colors. I added the signature in PhotoPaint as well. Then I added the black border in Corel PSP Pro X3.

We have reached the Milestone of over 90,000 Pageviews for gatzkART! Thank you to all who have visited and viewed my digital artwork. 

"Floral Falcon" CorelTRACE - CorelDRAW - Plus

Floral Falcon

I recently received some bird based Dover Clip Art and with it this colorful Falcon. I opened the image with Corel PhotoPaint and overlay another piece of Dover Clip Art of a Floral image. I used the property Multiply and adjusted the Opacity as well to let the bird show through clearly.

Saving that iteration I opened with CorelTRACE and turned it into a Vector image I saved that as a native Corel CMX file. I opened with CorelDRAW and made some minor adjustments. I copied to the Clipboard and pasted the large image into PhotoPaint with New from Clipboard. I added my signature and resampled to a display size.

I really like the way that the colors deepened with the addition of the Floral overlay. I did little to adjust it afterward, just used Picasa 3.9's Warmify filter on the image and saved that.

Birds and florals are among my favorite images and I like to use Them periodically instead of Guitars and Musicians for digital works.

"Design for Life" CorelDRAW

Design for Life - Live for Design

"Impressionistic Alaskan Mountain View" Corel - Plus

Alaskan Mountain View

A post from my laptop, a short statement. This "Impressionistic Alaskan Mountain View," comes from a photograph taken with my Canon Rebel XTi DSLR, a couple of years ago now. I browsed to the photograph in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and auto painted it using the Impressionist settings.

I saved the large digital painting and reopened with Corel PhotoPaint where I added the frame using Filter Forge's Frames. I added my name and copyright as my signature is not yet on this computer. I resampled for display here.

A simple image with lovely color and brushstroke detail as you click on it for the larger view on your screen.

"24 String Guitars" Corel HDR - Plus

24 String Guitars HDR

I took three of my 12-String Guitar photographs and merged them in Corel PSP Pro X3's HDR feature. As I aligned the photographs (which I did not take with a tripod,) they created this 24-String Guitar.

I auto adjusted the HDR and saved the large iteration. I opened from Picasa 3.9 with Corel PhotoPaint and cut out the Guitar and made it into a trio of them. I placed the opposing Guitars upside down on the background of the single guitar. I did stretch them length wise to fit the page. So they have an elongated look.

Still in PhotoPaint I added using Filter Forge's Frames a film frame. Then my signature in white. Merged all layers and saved the large file. I then resampled to display size and saved that iteration.

"A New Day - DADGAD Instrumental" 12-String Seagull Guitar

"Seagull S12 Cedar Guitar" Corel - Plus

Seagull S12 Cedar Guitar

Trying out different settings on my Canon Rebel XTi DSLR today and using my Seagull S12 Cedar Guitar as a subject, I garnered a few photographs. I selected one of them and opened it from Picasa 3.9 into Corel PSP Pro X3.

There I used my workflow of the Digital Camera Noise Removal, and Smart Photo Fix. I applied the Saturation Vibrancy to it to give the color some punch. Using the Picture Frame tool I found the "mat" of instruments and a gold frame. I saved the large file.

I reopened in Corel PhotoPaint and added my signature and resampled for display.

I have the Guitar out and I am going to do some practicing with it this afternoon. That is a great way to make my day a good one. DADGAD tuning here I come.