"New Song on SoundCloud - Come With The Tide" Audacity

Go to this link below for the Song:

https://soundcloud.com/gatzka-music/come-with-the-tide

Come With The Tide

Come With the Tide
©2015 Kirk Mathew Gatzka

As we view the far, far horizon
We can't help but look and see
That the waters go on the wizened
And that's the way that it's gonna be.

The waters go on and on and on
The rivers, seas, flow to the ocean
Our knowledge is only so free
And our wisdom is only a notion

Come with the tide
The waters are a rising
Come to my side
As we run on to the shore sizing

We tumble down on the high beach
Laughter is loud with despair
We both want to know how to be reaching
For the time when all in all is repaired.

We look to the West sun a setting
We look to the dark waves of the sea
We see that the East sky is blackened
We wish to set sail, easy and free.

As the fire and storm is behind us
We find our great ship nestled at bay
Baggage loaded, sails are a thrusting
To the East not a bad wind is blowing
As we happily set sail away.

The waters go on and on and on
The rivers, seas flow to the ocean
Our knowledge is only so free
And our wisdom is only a notion

"New Milestone for 'gatzkART!'" - 160,000 Plus Pageviews - Thank You

160,000 Pageviews Milestone!

By the time this posts "gatzkART!" will have reached over 160,000 plus Pageviews. Another Milestone for this blog, its Digital Visual Art and its Music for everyone!

Without regular viewers along with new viewers we could not have reached this goal! Many Thanks for revisiting and coming by to listen to some Music and view some Digital Visual Artwork! You are all important to the success of "gatzkART!".

Visit and Tarry for a time,
All will come to see
Somethings sublime
And Music for subtlety.

Kirk Mathew Gatzka

"Step by Step Digital Impressionism" Corel

Tree and Foggy Trail

This began as a photograph from Unsplash Free Downloads. It was a Trail leading off into the fog, with a prominent Tree. I wanted a Watercolor look but an Impressionistic Style. I opened it in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. I selected the Impressionistic Style with a Watercolor Brush and applied a partial auto paint to it. I then used the Impressionistic Dry Brush to add to the Style of the image.

After that had completed I used the Hard Cloner Brush to paint in details to the Tree and the Trail. All this in Impressionistic Colors. I saved the large iteration as a TIFF file. I opened it in Corel PSP Pro X3.

Here I applied the Smart Photo Fix to the entire image, adding brightness and contrasts to it with a bit of sharpness. I added my signature as a layer and used the property Lighten for transparency. I merged all layers and saved that file.

As the image had its own fullness of color I did not change the Saturation at all. I resized the image for display in Image, Resize. This I saved as a JPEG.

Corel Painter Essentials 5 has been on sale for around $39.00 on various sales sites. I am tempted to buy it but am saving up for an 8.4" Samsung Tablet. So I am hanging onto my money for now.

I would recommend it to anyone who wants to turn photographs into paintings, or paint from scratch. It is a good program from the Corel Painter group.

"The Simple Sunrise" Canon - Corel

Simple Sunrise

I was up very early just the other day and the Sunrise was very pretty, I put on a light jacket and grabbed my Canon Rebel XTi. Out the door I went. We have new stairs down to our lower deck, I transversed them keeping an eye out for a good shot of this Sunrise.

I took a number of shots simply in Landscape mode and Auto Mode, as it was a bit chilly. I had included the lake, Bald Eagle Lake, in a couple, but it wasn't reflecting enough of the sun and clouds in the water.

I took this Simple Sunrise, composing the clouds and tree tops surrounding it.

Later I opened it in Corel PSP Pro X3 and upped the Saturation Vibrancy by 33. I saved that large iteration after I added my signature. I then Opened it in Corel PhotoPaint to use Filter Forge's Frames adding a Film frame to the image. I resampled to display size and saved in JPEG format.

I kept my approach simple to this image. I like it very much without more processing. I hope you do, too.

"How to - Horsing Around Digital Watercolors" Corel

Horse One

Horse Two

Here are two Digital Watercolors of Horses. I generally don't paint animals but my wife loves Horses, so I did these. The original photographs may have come from Morguefile Free Photos or StockVault Free Photos.

I began with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4, I used the Watercolor Sketch set with a Dry Brush, on both for the base images. I used the Soft Cloner Brush for retouching some details. I saved the large iterations as TIFF files.

I reopened with Corel Painter 11 and used the Digital Watercolor Brushes to paint some more by hand. Adding a few detail to each image. Also I applied the Liquid Ink Fine Tip Brush for details. I saved the large paintings again as TIFF files.

I opened them in Corel PhotoPaint and layered on my signature, to both. Again saving them. I had merged all layers before saving the paintings.

Using Corel PSP Pro X3 I resized the images to fit the blog posting. I saved these as JPEG files.

"How To - Beautiful Eyes and Lips Young Lady Portrait" Corel

Beautiful Eyes and Lips Young Lady Portrait

Here is another Young Lady's Portrait from Morguefiles Free Photographs. She has beautiful lips and eyes and a full face as well. I selected it from my downloaded portraits for creating a new image from the portrait.

I opened it with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and applied a number of painting styles, some layered over the original Watercolor. I used Pastel Coarse Brushes set to Fade in/Fade out. I set the color to Intense. I stopped the auto painting before it was completely done. Using the Hard Cloner Brush I retouched the eyes and lips a tad for detail.

I saved this larger iteration as a TIFF file. Opening it in Corel PhotoPaint I applied the Threshold tool for some white space. Adjusting the Threshold for more color less white space, I looked for a Paper texture to blend with it. I located this Book Edge Texture with Vintage paper colors. I used this to add to another layer. I sized to fit, and applied the Multiply property for transparency. I merged the layers. Added my signature and saved that iteration as a JPG file.

I imported the image into Corel PSP Pro X3 and upped the Saturation Vibrancy by 33 and saved the large file again. I resized the image for display and saved that file with a new name.

"How it was Done - Very Tired Young Driver Image" Corel

Very Tired Young Driver

Today I have reached the milestone of 1,330 blog posts! Thank you for sharing with your friends!

Unsplash sent me their most recent group of Free Hi-Res photographs today. I selected the photograph of a "Very Tired Young Driver." I immediately was drawn to this image, the individual, his hat and shirt, and the amount of light in the entire image.

I opened it in Corel PhotoPaint. Here I applied the Threshold tool for some more white space. I had in mind a Texture Blended image, so I searched for a texture that I already had, not used yet. I located this Concrete Texture. I opened it and copied to the clipboard. I pasted it as a new layer and used the Property Multiply for transparency.

Next I used the Tone Curve to lighten the colors with some depth. I added my signature and saved that iteration. I then opened the image in Corel PSP Pro X3 and applied the Smart Photo Fix, adjusting the Shadows. I added some Vibrancy with the Saturation tool, this brightened up the colors a bit more.

After all these steps I resized the image for display, still in PSP Pro X3, then saved that iteration with my other recent Textured Portraits.

Comments, Shares, Pluses and Purchases always are welcome. Consider purchasing some of my Artwork as a Poster, framed or otherwise through my Zazzle Store. Go to My Art and Music for Sale page and send me an email of your selection from the blog history, I will upload my largest file to Zazzle and send you the URL to the Poster Page. Then you select size, matte frame, paper type. You can purchase it as just a Poster if you would like. Investigate my Zazzle Store for products and other Artwork there.

While you are here on the blog page, scroll down to the Music Kiosks from CDBaby to listen to Full Previews of my Alternative Folk/Rock Tunes. Try before you Buy!

"Young Lady and Young Man Portrait" Corel

Young Lady and Young Man Portrait

"Young Lady and Young Man Portrait," from the Morguefile Free Photos. I liked the colors in this photograph, and the smiles on their faces. I selected it based upon these qualities. I opened it in Picasa 3.9 and utilized the HDRish tool, increasing the radius and value. Saving that file I opened it in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4.

Here I used the Pastel Drawing settings, Soft Pastel Tapered Brushes. Afterwards, I added back in detail with the Soft Brush in the eyes, and smiles, mouths. I save this file as a TIFF formatted file. I opened that file in Corel Painter 11 and began to paint digitally with my Wacom Tablet and Pen.

I began with the Tinting Brushes with low opacity. Then I switched to the Digital Watercolor Brushes, changing them as I went along. I also used some Blender Brushes, Conte Brushes to add some painterly effects. I saved that iteration as a TIFF file with a different name.

I then opened it in Corel PhotoPaint and added my signature, re-sampling for display, I saved as a JPG file with 75 for compression and 25 for smoothing.

With my Music I have been having some fun attempting to play some Joe Bonamassa songs; "Different Shades of Blue," and "Driving Towards the Daylight." Of course, I am not attempting to play his leads, only to reproduce the songs with Vocals and Chords, Lyrics, playing my 12-String Seagull S12 1990 Guitar. I must admit to mimic Joe is quite a challenge, I've been playing too long in my own style, it is hard to fit anothers.

I also have been working on a New Song, "Come with the Tide." It is a rambling tune with a short Chorus thus far. It may need a rewrite before I release it (probably on SoundCloud.)

"I Still Remain," is still with the Lead Player for his contribution. He has been on vacation, we will see what he comes up with soon. I hope to release that one as a CDBaby song for sale, if it turns out well. We will see.

"Blue Eyed Woman in Red with Book and Tea" Corel

Blue Eyed Woman in Red with Book and Tea

I found on the Internet, another free photograph site called Unsplash. I subscribed to their site and I selected a "Blue Eyed Woman in Red with Book and Tea," photograph to create today's image.

Being that it was a large image I cropped to focus upon the Woman and details. I did this in Corel PhotoPaint. I saved the cropped photograph. I wanted a Pastel look and feel to the piece.

I opened it in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and used the Pastel Drawing set, not changing any of the settings. I touched up the eyes with the Soft Edge Brush. I saved that large iteration.

Opening in Corel PSP Pro X3 I used the Smart Photo Fix tool, deepening the Midtones and increasing the color. I added more punch to the Red with the Saturation Vibrancy tool. I saved again, then added my signature, resized for display and saved the final image for posting.

"Painted Concrete and Young Woman" Corel

Painted Concrete and Young Woman

This image of a Young Woman started as a photograph from Morguefile Free Photos. I also used a Yellow Concrete Texture from Stockvaults Friday Freebies.

I opened the Texture in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 with the Modern Painting set. Saving that large iteration I opened it in Corel PhotoPaint. Once there I also opened the Young Woman Portrait and applied the Threshold tool to it. I adjusted for white space, leaving enough detail for face recognition.

I copied that to the Clipboard and Pasted as a layer over the Yellow Concrete. I sized to fit and used the property Multiply for transparency before I merged the two layers. I added my signature and saved as a TIFF file again.

Still in PhotoPaint I adjusted the Tone Curve for some punch to the colors. I then resampled for display. After I did that I decided to add a Film Frame using Filter Forge Frames.

If you haven't listened to any of my songs on CDBaby, scroll down to the lower portion of the blog. I have two kiosks for playing my songs. The first plays three songs in Full Preview and a Bonus track. The second kiosk you select the song you wish to hear by selecting the graphic below the current song being displayed. All should be Full Preview so you can listen before deciding to purchase. Comments are welcome.