"Freehand Woman Portrait with Jewelry" Corel

Freehand Woman Portrait with Jewelry

I scanned a Traditionally done Freehand Fictional Woman's Portrait with my Canon MP495. This was a Colored Pencil and Pastel piece I did a while ago. I had also done some Jewelry Drawings in Pen and Ink. I scanned in these as well. I was open in Corel PhotoPaint.

Here was where I added the digitally cut out Jewelry pieces, Earrings, Necklace, and Decorative Hair Bauble to the Portrait. I had used the Tone Curve on the Portrait to add color depth. I also used the Tune Blur Soften a couple of times to smooth out the blending of colored pencils and pastels.

I added my signature to the large iteration and merged the image layers together, saved it. I then resampled the image for display saving that iteration..

I purposely used contrasting colors, as it was not my intent to match all the Jewelry with the Portrait. I wanted the Jewelry to stand out with the bright colors I had used when designing them on paper. This made for a very colorful image to share with you.

"Amiga 80's Self Portrait" Corel

Updated Amiga 80's Selfie

As I stated yesterday I found some film (35mm) photographs of Screen Shots of works done on my Amiga 1000 in the 1980's. I had this Self-Portrait Video scanned into the Amiga and enhanced in Deluxe Paint. I took the older photograph and scanned it into my PC with my Canon MP495.

I opened in Corel PhotoPaint the 300dpi scan. I applied the Tone Curve and Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrancy for a boost to color. I also boosted the color Saturation in PhotoPaint. I used Filter Forge's Frames Grunge Frame for the grunge effect. Here I added my signature and resampled for display.

Notice the 80's glasses I am wearing in this image. Very large lenses and style for those days.

"Trio of Old Artworks - Woman - Guitars - Knight" Corel

Digital Collage Woman - Guitars - Knight

I browsed through my Folders on my External HDD. There I found one of my favorite images, layers of Guitars. I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 and resized the image. I then enhanced the colors with Curves, Saturation Vibrancy. I also added some canvas texture to it.

I had recently moved some of my older film photographs and I looked through them. I discovered screen shots of some Artworks done on my old Amiga 1000. I used my Canon MP495 and scanned two of them into PSP Pro X3. The trio of the Woman in Blue, and the Knight in a Town with Mountains in the background. These were probably done in the late 1980's on the Amiga, I had photographed them with a Pentax Film 35mm Camera.

I used PSP Pro X3 to enhance them and then decided to make a Collage of the three images. I opened Picasa 3.9 and grabbed all three and Created the Collage. I used an HDTV ratio setting, which made for a large file. I added the Museum Matte to the Collage. I saved the large image. I reopened in Corel PhotoPaint and copied and pasted my signature into the Collage.

I also used that file in PSP Pro X3 to add Image Information, Title, Copyright, programs used, etc. I here resized for display. Please click on the image for the large view, always better to do that to enjoy the thumbnail image close to the real size of the file.

"Art Deco Arched Panel with Woman and Man" - Corel

Art Deco Arched Panel with Woman and Man

I selected another Art Deco Panel this one with Arches and added a few pieces to create this Digital Collage. I scanned in the panel from Art Deco Interior and Panel Designs by Stephen Calloway.

I then researched my Dover Publications Samplers images for a Woman and Man, to which I added Florals. I did all this in Corel PhotoPaint, dropping in the images and erasing the surrounding backgrounds. I applied to the scan and the images the Tone Curve for depth to the colors. I placed a black design in the upper center of the piece for additional interest.

With the Florals I used the Tone Curve and then the property Multiply for transparency. For each piece used I had to resize to fit the large 7" x 11" scan appropriately. I saved the large iteration and resampled it to display size. I then used Filter Forge's Photo Effects for Vibrancy Saturation, to add punch to the colors. Then I added a thin Film Frame using Filter Forge's Frames. I added my signature and saved the display size image.

I really like the images in the Arches of the Woman being served wine, and the Woman dancing to the Guitar Player. This is what attracted me to this Panel for the Digital Collage, along with the coloring.

"Art Deco Panel with Women and Vase" Corel

Art Deco Panel with Women and Vase

I scanned in an Art Deco Panel from Art Deco Interiors And Panel Designs collection by Stephen Calloway. I used 300dpi and 8.5" x 11" size for the original Panel scan with my Canon MP495. I had also used some recent Samplers Clip Art from Dover Publications for this Digital Collage, thus the Women and Vase. I did get the upper most women and vase from the Free Vintage Digital Stamps site.

I assembled the Collage in Corel PhotoPaint. I used the Tone Curve on each piece and also the large iteration before saving. I used Filter Forge's Photo Effect to increase the color Saturation Vibrancy then added a Filter Forge Frame Film Frame to darken the edges of the piece.

I had to use Filter Forge's effects on the display size as I only have the Free versions of Photo Effects and Frames from them, the original iteration was just too large.

I truly enjoy Digital Visual Collage work and like working with Dover Publications and the Free Vintage Digital Stamps pieces when creating these pieces. I like to use the Vibrancy tool for the punch it gives to the colors, especially scanned in colors. These Art Deco Panels and designs, along with the Art Nouveau designs I use are among my favorite periods of Design.

"Old Times Two" Corel - Filter Forge

Old Times Two

As I had mentioned in my previous post I had found these "Old Times," photographs in my files. I expected to do at least two of these for "gatzkART!". These contain visages of my wife's family and friends.

Here is the second as promised. I opened with Corel PhotoPaint two photographs. I cropped the larger one and then copied and pasted the second (Mother with baby.) I erased around the Mother with baby to add only them to the Tug of War photograph. I merged them and used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Colors to create the blue image. I had adjusted the Tone Curve a bit as the Mother with baby stand out starkly against the larger photograph, with little success in matching them.

I really love these older photographs that I scanned in. They are Circa 1950's I believe. They have a certain character to them that makes them stand out. My simple approach to using the separate photographs to "build" an image in blue is not new, but a timeless one.

Please click on the image for the larger view, thank you.

"Old Times One" Corel - Picasa

Old Times One

I found some older Photograph scans I had saved to my external HDD of some of my wife's family. I cropped the beginning photograph in Corel PhotoPaint and saved the file.  I opened a secondary photograph of her father in the navy. I added it in Corel PhotoPaint by pasting and erasing around him. I saved that iteration.

I opened the crop in Picasa 3.9 and applied a Blue Tint to it. I also used the Lomograph effect to give it a slight vignetting. I saved that file and posted it here for your enjoyment. I have a few more of these that I now need to search for and create a background of her father with a placement of her mother to it.

I want to create "Old Times Two," using the same steps applied here. I love the look and fashion of these times, probably in the late 1940's early 1950's. So I will plan on doing so for the future.

I also inverted my signature and copyright and added that to the image. It is the original size pixels wise, click on the image for the larger view. Thank you.

"C12 Seagull Guitar in Case." Corel Painter - Irfanview

C12 Seagull Guitar in Case

I browsed my CD "Guitars & Stuff," and found a photograph of my "C12 Seagull Guitar in Case." I opened in Corel Painter 11.

Here I first Brightened the colors a tad. I then applied the Woodcut tool without black. I took that image an made it into a Sketch. At that point I enlarged the image on my screen to fit my workspace. I began to paint with a basic Color Palette. The browns, a bit darker as Watercolors than anticipated.

I used Various Watercolor Brushes and painted the piece. Yes, the wall was a Canary Yellow, and the inside of the Guitar Case was (is) a nice Red color. The background details were very sketchy so I painted them with a large brush size and kept them ambiguous.

I saved the large iteration and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3. I added some Vibrancy with the Saturation tool. I included a Title, Copyright, and Artist in the Image Information tool. Then I opened and copied and pasted as a new layer my Signature. I resized the signature and applied the Multiply property to it, I Merged (flattened) all layers. Adding a border of black I saved that iteration.

I closed PSP and opened the file in Irfanview to resize for display. I am experimenting with Irfanview, a great tool for batch processing image files and it's Freeware.

I added some yellow lines in Irfanview to lighten up the 12-String Guitar Body. I saved the file again.