"Art Nouveau Lady with Butterflies" Dover Publications - Corel

Art Nouveau Lady with Butterflies

"Art Nouveau Lady with Butterflies," is the Digital Collage for today. I used my Dover Publications Samplers files for the whole image. I opened the Background in Corel PhotoPaint.

There I applied the Local Equalization tool and the Tone Curve for depth to the floral background. I resampled it to a Medium sized file. I then browsed for more and found the Art Nouveau Butterflies Clip Art (coloring page.)

I opened that in PhotoPaint and also opened up the Art Nouveau Lady, also a Dover Clip Art piece, a model with a hat and dress separately like a paper doll and clothes. I placed the Lady on the new background with the floral and butterflies. I cut out the hat and placed it. Then I did the same with the dress. I grouped the Object (layer) with Create New Object. I then applied the Tone Curve to her for color depth.

I added my signature in blue and bright pink outline. I applied Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrancy to punch up the colors. I saved this iteration with a new name for the file. At this point the file was 24-bit color at 300 dpi.

I opened the file in Corel PSP Pro X3 to add Image Information: Title, Copyright, Artist, etc. I added the Ornate Frame to the image and applied Saturation Vibrancy to it one more time (set at 33.)

I saved this iteration with the same name. I resized it for display, saving with a different file name.

"12-String Seagull C12 Guitar on Chair" Paint.NET - Corel Painter

12-String Seagull C12 Guitar on Chair

I selected a photograph from my Guitars and Stuff CD of my 12-String Seagull C12 Guitar. I opened it in Paint.NET and applied the Artistic Pen and Ink Sketch tool to it, without color, for a Black and White Ink Sketch. I saved the large image.

I reopened with Corel Painter 11 and painted it with the Digital Watercolors Brushes, varying the brush and sizes. If you look closely you can see, in the left hand corner the tail of our Cat Linus, who was sneaking out of the photograph as I originally took it. A fun balance of color with the browns of the Guitar and the Plant Basket.

I used three Brushes for the Guitar body, the last being Salt, giving a blended appearance to that. I saved that iteration and opened in Corel PSP Pro X3.

Here I added a layer of my signature and placed that. I also placed a Black border around the image. Using the Image Information tool, I gave it a Title, Copyright, Artist information, along with the programs used to create this piece. I saved the large iteration and then resized it for display here.

"Burgundy Takamine Guitar on Chair" Paint.NET - Corel Painter

Burgundy Takamine Guitar on Chair

After visiting on "Let's Talk About It Hangout on Air" earlier today I searched for another Guitar photograph. I discovered this one on a CD with the written title Guitars and Stuff. I had to sift through a lot of stuff to find some photographs taken when I owned this Burgundy Takamine.

I opened the photograph in Paint.NET and created a black and white Pen and Ink Sketch. Saving that I reopened in Corel Painter 11 and using a variety of Watercolor Brushes I digitally painted the Pen and Ink image. I varied the sizes and brushes according to need and whim. I saved that iteration, opened it in Corel PSP Pro X3. 

There I added Image Information: Title Copyright, Programs used, etc. I also added, copied and pasted as new layer Inverted Signature with Copyright on it. Adding a border, I saved the large file and resized for display here at 1220 pixels wide. Click on the file for the larger view.

The Topic for Let's Talk About it was Regroup: How do you do it? 

re·group

verb \(ˌ)rē-ˈgrüp\

: to form into a group again

: to stop for a short time and prepare yourself before you continue doing something that is difficult : to stop and think, reorganize, etc., before continuing

Visit the Event Page on Google+ and listen in on our discussion, which included Cider and Doughnuts and Kiwi fruit.

"Seagull in the Center - Guitar Collage in Blue" Corel - Picasa

Seagull in the Center

Here is a reworked Digital Collage of Guitars (circa 2008.) I was browsing my folders on my external HDD and found a few versions of this Collage of Guitars. I selected the Black and White Portrait version. I opened it in Picasa and edited the Tint to a Blue and Black and White image.

I added the Lomography Effect to the image and the Museum Matte, where I changed matte color to a light blue. The "Seagull in the Center," is a photograph of my own 12-String C12 Guitar, the other guitars came from various source images.

I saved the large file and opened with Corel PhotoPaint. I added an Inverted Signature (white on black) with the Copyright. I saved the resampled file iteration and opened that in Corel PSP Pro X3 to add the Image Information: Title, Artist, Copyright, etc.

I had the pleasure, today, to be a guest on a Hangout On the Air on Google+ hosted by George Miller entitled "Let's Talk About It." We and a few other guests discussed the topic "Depend." It was a challenging topic but made for interesting conversation. If you would like to review the show here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8j-TKpepVc 

Since it was very cold here in Michigan I had on my hat and two sweaters to keep warm. I also had some sound problems where I had to reboot my PC and rejoin the show live online. It was a good show.

"Lauren and Guitars with Music Stand" Corel

Lauren and Guitars with Music Stand

I used some images I had done work on before to create this layered Digital Collage. I opened the background image of a Free Form Digital Painting done in Corel Painter with Corel PSP Pro X3. The next image was of a Young Woman that had been vector traced in CorelTRACE and converted to a bitmap image. The colors of the Young Woman were also altered before use in this piece.

I opened it as a layer and played with the properties to allow the painting to show through. I then opened a Guitar photograph of two Guitars and a Music Stand as another layer. This layer was altered in the properties as well, adjusting its Opacity.

I Merged all layers and increased the Vibrancy in the Saturation tool. I opened my Signature file and I copied it to the clipboard, pasted it into the image, used the Multiply property for transparency and also merged it into the finished artwork.

I used the Image Information tool to add a Title, Copyright, etc. I saved the large iteration, then resized for display here today.

"Art Deco Plus Art Nouveau Woman - Arch - Chair - Eyes" Corel

Woman - Arch - Chair - Eyes

I scanned in another Plate from Art Deco Designs / Edouard Benedictus' Book as background for this image. I used my Canon MP495 to scan it into Corel PhotoPaint. I browsed in my Dover Publications Sampler folder in Picasa 3.9 and used an Art Nouveau Mucha type Woman for this interior view with a window.

Also I used Dover Clip Art for the Eyes. I erased around this one Eye and applied the property Multiply to it. I then used the Tone Curve on it, duplicated it and flipped it, so I might have two eyes looking in the Window.

I next opened a photograph of a large style Armchair. I used the Scatter Effects tool on it. Then I decreased its color using the Tone Curve tool. I enlarged both the Eyes and Armchair and Woman to fit the interior background. This made them more prominent in the piece.

I merged them all, and added my signature and copyright, saving the large iteration. I resampled the image for display here.

So I ended up with an image which has many differing styles melded into one. A Digital Collage for this days post.

"Steampunk Art Deco Collage" Dover - Corel

Steampunk Art Deco 1

Something different for my post today. I decided to scan in an Art Deco plate from Art Deco Designs / Edouard Benedictus. I used my Canon MP495 to scan in the Art Deco plate. I selected from my Dover Publications Samplers two persons in Steampunk Underwear. I opened the scan in Corel PhotoPaint.

There I assembled the Collage. I copied and pasted the gal and guy and erased the background before merging them. I added Birds to the upper right corner also from Dover. I also searched for other unexpected pieces and found an old Building and Trees Landscape Pencil sketch in my Picasa 3.9 folders.

I copied and pasted that from Picasa and resized it to fit the entire image. I applied the property Multiply and altered the Opacity and added it to the collage. I added my signature to the piece and saved the large iteration. I resampled to a size for display here.

Art Deco - Steampunk - Dover - and a Freehand Pencil Sketch in Sepia tone, all combined in an unusual Digital Collage.

"Shadow Guitars" Paint.NET - Corel Painter

Shadow Guitars

I have been remiss in not posting, but I have been quite busy lately. I am now trying to get some new photographs of my Seagull S12 Guitar for new images. This began as a photograph of two guitars with deep Shadows.

I opened the photograph in Paint.NET and applied the Effect, Artistic, Ink Sketch to it without color resulting in a black and white image. I saved that large image. I then opened it in Corel Painter 11 and painted it with various watercolor brushes. I boosted the Saturation in Painter and saved that iteration.

I created a signature file for my copyright for 2014, in a PNG file format. I opened both in Corel PhotoPaint and added the halftone Frame in Filter Forge Frames with a greenish cast. I added the signature to it and saved that iteration.

I opened the file in Corel PSP Pro X3 and added Image Information, Title Artist name, Copyright, etc. I saved the resized file for display.

"Inverted Snow and Trees - 2" Paint.NET Large

Inverted Snow and Trees - 2

Another Paint.NET image, I used the Ink Sketch Tool then Inverted the results. Very simple workflow. There are so many Snow images on the Interweb these days! I thought the Inverted would be a different way to share among the many, many pictures.

I added a Title and Copyright in Image Information with Corel PSP Pro X3. This was taken at the beginning of the great Polar Vortex Winter of 2013-2014.

Hope you all are warm and safe!

"Inverted Snow and Trees" Paint.NET - Corel

Inverted Snow - Trees

I have these snow photographs and was discussing black and white versions of them with my oldest, my Daughter. We talked about taking one of the photographs opening it in Paint.NET and sketching it with the Ink Sketch Tool.

I downloaded the latest version of Paint.NET and did just that. As my Daughter is working on black paper with a White curved bridge, I suggested that I would send her White Trees for background work. I used Invert Tool in Paint.NET and altered it for White Trees and Seedum.

Her response was "Cool!" when I sent her a copy of the large file. I suggested she print out the image on Matte Photo Paper and cut it to fit her Bridge image. (Or I may print it out for her.)

I did open the image in Corel PSP Pro X3 and added Image Information: Title, Copyright, etc. I then saved the large file and resized it for display here.

We will see if she uses my suggestion.

"Playing With New Look for 2014" CorelDRAW

I have spent sometime adjusting the appearance of the blog for 2014 this afternoon. I changed the banner of gatzkART! to an angular one. I also adjusted the background of the site.

I may play some more with these types of changes before I settle on a form I really like - So sit back and enjoy the adjustments. Soon I'll have new photographs or images to share with you for 2014.

Thank you for your patronage in 2013!

Kirk Mathew Gatzka