"Butterflies with Woman Textured" Corel Digital Collage

Butterflies with Woman Textured

"Butterflies with Woman Textured," started with a background texture from Stockvault's Freebies, a Photograph of a Young Lady with a black background, and a piece of Dover Publications Sampler Clip Art.

I opened Corel PhotoPaint and loaded the Texture first. I added a layer of the Young Lady, which I trimmed off the corners from the photograph. I also applied the Threshold tool to add some white space for transparency (using the property Multiply.) I moved the Young Lady to the lower right hand corner and merged that layer.

I searched for a piece of clip art I could apply to the collage. I found one of Butterflies and Flowers. I opened that, copied it and pasted it from New from Clipboard. I scaled to fit the Texture. I merged that along with my signature and saved the large iteration.

I used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrancy to boost the colors. I saved again. I reopened it in Corel PSP Pro X3, there I boosted the Saturation Vibrancy for more punch to the color. I resampled for display.

Musically speaking, my Lead Guitarist is on vacation, so I haven't heard back from him as of yet. I am hoping that he can improvise a good lead line for "I Still Remain," my newest song. In the meantime I am looking at a Blues Dialect lyric I wrote recently, and endeavoring to put it to music with chords and melody. Stayed tuned for more information on the release of the new song.

"Violin in Case" Corel

Violin in Case

I selected this "Violin in Case," image from Stockvault's Freebies. The photograph is a very nice representation of a wonderful instrument.

I opened in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 as a large file, and Digitally Painted with the Simple Watercolor, Wash Brush, Rough Paper. It was very light and not too colorful. I next went to the Watercolor Sketch tool, with another Wash Brush and a Paper texture. I painted over the first iteration.

Some of the details were missing, and a painterly feel in the background was as well. I took the Retouch Brush, soft, and painted by hand some textures. The body of the Violin still lacked definition. I selected the Retouch Brush, hard, and cleaned up those with addition details, all by hand.

I saved that iteration and opened it in Corel PSP Pro X3 and applied the Smart Photo Fix tool. This added some color and increased the brightness. I saved that as well. Re-opening with Corel PhotoPaint, I added the signature and resampled for display size. I used 75 for compression and 25 for smoothing. It was a 300dpi image, now made smaller.

I recently shared my new song with a lead Guitarist ("I Still Remain.") He was to see if he could add a lead backup to my basic Vocals and 12-String recording. He has an iRig and an iPad with Garageband, So he was going to see what he was able to do for the lead. Then they went on vacation! We'll have to wait and see what results he comes up with.

"Bearded Homeless Man Smiling" PaintDotNET - Corel

Bearded Homeless Man Smiling

This Bearded Homeless Man Smiling was Digitally Painted in the program PaintDotNET, an Open Source Graphics Suite. It is the first time I have attempted to digitally paint with this program. I set the brush sizes as needed with the Properties of Multiply, 50% and 90% Opacity, with some variations.

I had at first tried the Tools, Artistic Ink and Oil and Pencil Sketch, but, did not like the results. So I opted to endeavor to paint it in PaintDotNET. I found it not as robust as Corel Painter 11 (or subsequent releases of Painter.)

I  saved the file at Full Size in JPG format. I opened in Corel PSP Pro X3 and applied the Smart Photo Fix, increasing the brightness and colors. Then for a greater punch I used the Saturation Vibrancy set at 25, boosting the colors even more. Saving that iteration, I opened in Corel PhotoPaint and resampled for display.

"Straight On Bearded Man Portrait" Corel

Straight On Bearded Man Portrait

I found another Homeless Man Portrait from Morguefile. I liked the way he is looking Straight On at the viewer.

Programs used to create this piece:

• Picasa 3.9 (HDRish Filter)
• Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 (Detailed Watercolor, Dry Brushes)
• Corel Painter 11 (Digital Painting using Digital Watercolor Brushes, Conte Brushes, Chalk Brushes and Blender Brushes saved large file as TIFF)
• Corel PhotoPaint (to add signature and save to display size for posting as a JPG file.)

If I find anymore Homeless Bearded Men photographs I may continue this series. If not I will do some Digital Collage work, which is always an enjoyable challenge.

I am not sure how many of you may feel but I am very curious about the backwards compatibility of the coming Windows 10 Update! I do not think that I will be able to upgrade my Graphics and Digital Painting Programs as it would be cost prohibitive.

So I am hoping that Windows 10 has all these Corel and other programs I use, compatible for me! I would like to upgrade to the newer OS and have been reading up on it quite a bit. It appears that some features are being dropped like Solitaire, which doesn't worry me at all. I just want my Digital Art Programs to be usable with the upgrade. How about you?

"Bearded Homeless Man Red Doorway" Corel

Bearded Homeless Man Red Doorway

Programs used to digitally paint this image:

• Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 (Watercolor Sketch Dry Brushes)
• Corel Painter 11 (Digital Watercolor Brushes, Conte Brushes)
• Corel PSP Pro X3 (Auto Smart Fix, added signature, resized for display)

I used a color photograph from Morguefile for this piece. I have just about exhausted the Homeless Men for digitally painting. I may create some more digital collage works, soon.

I am still working on the song, "I Still Remain," so it is not quite finished for sharing yet. Watch this space for its release!

"Bearded Mans Profile" Corel - Paint.NET

Bearded Mans Profile

I began this Bearded Mans Profile last night fairly late, finishing it about 10:30 PM. Rather late for a post so I will schedule it to post today, that is tomorrow, I think. If you see it is it posted!

The base photograph came from Morguefile and I opened it first in Paint.NET. I applied the Artistic, Ink tool to the piece, making sure the silhouette of the Profile showed clearly.

Saving that I opened it in Corel Painter 11 and used Digital Watercolors Brushes, Gouache Brushes and Conte Brushes for the image. I did not use the original color palette at all. I used my combination (appended) Flesh Tone, Plus palette. It gives me the flesh-tones I like and a multiple choice of colors for the Hat and Shirt. After I was finished painting I saved as a TIFF file.

I reopened in Corel PhotoPaint and added my signature layer. And added Saturation Vibrancy to it using Filter Forge's Photo Effects. Saving that as a TIFF file again. I resampled for display at 120dpi, saving as a JPG file with 75 compression and 25 smoothing.

"Impressionistic Digital Watercolor, Barn and Clouds" Corel

Impressionistic Digital Watercolor, Barn and Clouds

I started with a desire to do a bit of something different on this afternoon. I selected a Free Stockvault image of a Barn and Clouds. I opened in Picasa 3.9 and applied the HDR filter to it, raising the impact a bit. I saved that file iteration. I then imported into Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and used a Watercolor effect on it using the Impressionistic dry Brush, with Intense Color selected.

Saving that file as a TIFF file I opened in Corel PhotoPaint and used the Tone Curve to add depth to the colors. I also added my signature as a layer and merged them. I saved the large file and then Resampled to display size. I wanted the colors to Pop, so I applied the Filter Forges Vibrancy to the display size piece. Between the Tone Curve and the Vibrancy tools I got the punchy colors I wanted.

I have always enjoyed old Barns and Beautiful Skies in photographs. I enjoyed making an Impressionistic image today.

I am working on a new song titled, "I Still Remain," I don't have a lead for it just yet. I am an Improviser of leads and not a lead Guitar Player. Plus I am using different Tones for it playing on my Seagull 12-String Acoustic through software and the Line 6 POD XT Live for lead. Ever try to bend double the strings on playing a lead? It is very difficult I can assure you. So it remains to be seen what I come up with.

"Bearded Young Man Portrait" Corel

Bearded Young Man Portrait

Programs used to create this image:

• Corel Painter Photo Essential 4 (for Watercolor Sketch)
• Corel PSP Pro x3 (for grayscale image)
• Corel PhotoPaint (to put the two images together)
• Filter Forge Frames (for the film frame)

I had a bit of time to make this today. I have done many Homeless Men recently I liked this Young Mans Portrait found on Morguefile. I wanted to do a Young Man Bearded, so I accomplished that.