"How To - Impressionistic Lighthouse" Corel

Impressionistic Lighthouse

Today I wanted to work on a Landscape, particularly this Lighthouse from Morguefile's Free Photos. I opened the full color photograph in Corel Painter 11. There I Quick Cloned the image, selected the Artists Brushes Auto Van Gogh. Using a small Brush size I used Select Esoterica Auto Van Gogh to auto paint. This gave me a beginning point for an Impressionistic piece.

I changed to the Digital Watercolors Brushes, a Coarse Dry Mop brush. I used a Purple Lavender like color to add some shadowing to the Lighthouse and surrounding area. The image was still very much like the original photograph but with small brushstrokes and now the Lavender shading.

I wanted a more distinct Impressionist feel so I selected the Auto Van Gogh brush again and enlarged it's size. I applied the Auto Painting. I was pleasantly surprised to see how this moved the Lavender color into the Skyline. I adjusted the Exposure a touch in Painter 11 and then saved the large file.

This iteration I opened in Corel PSP Pro X3 and played with the Saturation Vibrancy (33,) and the Curves to add punch to the colors. I saved again and opened this in Picasa for a full screen view. Some of the coloring was too dark. I applied the Smart Photo Fix tool, in PSP Pro X3 adjusting the color, upping it a tad. This also Brightened the image. I added my signature as another layer, sized and fit it, used the property Lighten and merged the layers to one. I saved again to a JPG format 72dpi.

I added a painterly frame and the Ornate Gold Frame to the finished image. This lent it some elegance. I saved this iteration as an 16-bit TIF file and then Resized for display here, saving as an 8-bit JPG.

Be certain to click on the image to enjoy the large view of it. Please remember my Art and Music (10 songs on CDBaby) are For Sale as Posters simple or framed and matted at Zazzle. If you see an image you would like to purchase see My Art and Music For Sale Page for my email to request I post the image to Zazzle for you to buy.

I don't have all my images currently on Zazzle for purchasing, so write me and request the image you would like. Thank you.

"10 Minute Digital Collage - Woman and Wood" Corel

Digital Collage - Woman and Wood

A 10 minute "Digital Collage - Woman and Wood." I used Corel PSP Pro X3 in Windows 10 to create this Digital Collage. Two photographs, one from the Morguefile Free Photos and the other a Texture photograph from Stockvault Friday Freebies.

I opened the dark Woman's Portrait in PSP Pro X3 and used the Threshold tool set to Outline White for the face, hand and hair. I opened the Wood Texture and copied it to the clipboard. I pasted as a new layer into the Woman's Portrait.

I adjusted the large image to show it's interesting cut wood natural lines. Then I applied the Saturation Vibrancy to the wood. I also used the Curves tool to lighten the wood colors a tad. I placed it where I wanted it and merged the layer using the property Multiply. I added my signature as a layer and merged that then saved the large 300dpi image.

I then resized the image to display size for this post. It only took 10 or so minutes to create this piece. Two Photographs, One Program.

Took longer to describe my process and workflow!

"How I Created This - Woman Guitarist Portrait" Corel

Woman Guitarist Portrait

Today's color photograph is from UNSplash Free Photos. I downloaded it yesterday from my email notice I get from them with free photos to use. Out of about 10 images I selected this one, "Woman Guitarist Portrait."

To begin I opened the photograph in Corel PhotoPaint and altered it to a 16-bit Grayscale file, saved that image. Then using Picasa's HDR tool I upped the Strength and Radius for a grainy, HDR feel. I saved that as a separate iteration, this was a large file about 16.4 megs.

I opened it in Corel Painter 11, a Legacy Product, and began painting the Woman. I appended the Earth Tones Palette and the Flesh Tones Palette to the basic one. using the fleshtones I painted her face using the Digital Watercolors Broad Brush. before I switched to the Coarse Dry Brush I painted most of the Woman and Guitar, leaving the background for later.

I used a number of pastel colors for the first layer on the background, adding colors as they suited me, and trying for a balance in color composition. About the only color I chose from the color photograph I started with, was the Burgundy Red of the Epiphone Special SG Guitar. I added a splash of tones throughout the Woman's Portrait, and colored her eye gloss for effect.

I changed to the Liquid Ink Airbrush Brush to begin to bring the focus upon the Woman Guitarist. I utilized that for a bit and switched to another Ink Brush for more line making. I chose color tones that I had not yet used for this portion of my painting.

I saved the iteration as a 16-bit color JPG, in it's large format. It was still only 72dpi. I opened the file in Corel PSP Pro X3, another Legacy Corel Product. Here I added Saturation Vibrancy to the image for some brightening of the colors. I also added a layer for my signature and placed that, merging layers when done. I then used the Image Information and added a Title, My Name and Date. In Resize I altered the piece to 150dpi and sized it for display here.

If it loads more slowly than usual, please let me know and I will stick with 72dpi in the future. Don't forget to click on the image for a much larger view. (Use F11 in your browser to make it a bit larger, F11 back to the standard browser setting.)

Comments, Shares and Pluses (on Google+ or Comments here on the blog,) are welcome. "Plus One Me," as Daria sings it!

"How this was Done - Bearded Homeless Man" Corel

Another Bearded Homeless Man

I received this photograph of another "Homeless Bearded Man," from Morguefiles Free Photos. I opened it in Picasa and applied the HDR tool upping the Strength and Radius to give it a lot of grain.

Saving that, I opened it in Corel Painter 11 and used the Digital Watercolors Brushes to paint it. I varied the brushes from a Wash to a Dry brush, and used different sizes of brushes as I painted. I saved that large iteration to a JPEG format.

I opened it in Corel PSP Pro X3 and upped the Saturation Vibrancy by 33 for a punch to the colors. I added Image Information, Title, Artist, Date, Comments, and my signature as a layer, to the file and saved again.

I reopened in Corel PhotoPaint and resampled it to display size for this post.

I want to also mention I am CURRENTLY USING COREL PRODUCTS in Windows 10! I don't know what happened but Windows 10 began supporting my Legacy Corel Products! So I upgraded to Windows 10. I like it thus far, has many options for News and local weather and such. And most of my Apps (programs) are working fine in Windows 10.

I added VLC Media Player to my arsenal of Apps and listened to music the whole time I was creating todays piece. Not a glitch with the Apps I had opened at the same time.

Must say I am pleased that Microsoft and Corel were able to support Legacy Corel Products! Thanks to whom ever was listening to my posts!

"Two Sketches on My Tablet" Autodesk

Autodesk Sketchbook sketches on my Tablet. Really trying to learn more about this topic.

I will load a photo as one layer add a secondary one and sketch from the first. Then I will turn off the photo and add color. 

I will bring the PNG file into Nocrop, and select the square tool for creating the image as cropped.

I will continue to do more with a stylus in Sketchbook, and Nocrop. Hopefully I'll improve.

Nonetheless this is fun, trying to make Art on a Tablet.

"Visit to Elderly Instruments Lansing Michigan"

Yesterday we were in Lansing Michigan visiting the Music store Elderly Instruments. I took a few photos. Notice the Mystery Piano Harp and the Mural.

Had a great time playing the guitars and visiting the owner, Stan Werbin, whom I had not seen for many years.

Elderly is family owned and operated Est in 1972. Great place to play the guitars and shop. Highly recommended for every guitarist. Both Acoustic and Electric.

"Where We Live" PicsArt App Collage

I am not sleepy, yet. So playing with the new Tablet and the PicsÀrt App, I have created a collage.
It's probably too large for the blog. I'm still trying out the different Apps.

These photos are of our own yard, and  part of the neighbors yard,  too.

I altered the curves for some depth of the colors. I did not do much more.

"Sketchbook Autodesk Freehand"

New Tablet Art, forgive the crude sketch. I have an Android app from Autodesk called Sketchbook.

I'm not the best with it yet but I'm still learning how to use it.

I used an app called Nocrop for the framing, to allow adjustments to the image. I have a lot more to learn about Sketchbook.  Making art on a Tablet isn't easy.

How this was done - "You Cannot be Serious" Corel Painter 11

You Cannot be Serious

"You Cannot be Serious," is the image I created today. Using a portrait photograph from the Morguefile Free Photos I downloaded this afternoon, I Digitally Painted this piece.

My approach was fairly simple. I first opened it in Picasa (the update) and I heavily applied the HDRish tool to the portrait. I increased the Value and Radius, both. This highlighted the lines and pores of the face, as well as the shadows and highs.

I saved that iteration and opened in Corel Painter 11. There I used all Digital Watercolor Brushes, a Wash Brush and a Dry Bristle Brush to paint this very Serious Man's Portrait.  I Appended the Flesh Tone Palette and the Earth Tone Palette to the basic color starter one. I selected lighter values to begin with and built up the shadows and lines gradually with darker Flesh Tones.

I painted the small parts of his shirt a purple I had selected for some punch. I decided that I would mirror that color in the face around the shadowed areas. It tied the image in together nicely. I saved that iteration.

Next in Corel PSP Pro X3 I upped the Saturation Vibrancy by 33 and then added as another layer my signature with the property Lighten. I merged the layers. It was already a small display size download, so no adjustment was needed there.

"How to - with outdated Corel Products - Grunge Guitar Player" Corel

Grunge Guitar Player

I took this photograph at a Taylor Guitar Show at Motor City Guitar quite a while ago. I decided to work at this piece in a way I have not worked in quite a while. First I opened in Corel PhotoPaint 12 and used the Posterize tool set on 4 on it. This gave me plenty of color to work with for the next step.

I saved that file and opened it in CorelTRACE 12 and Traced it into a Vector file with the Advanced Outline tool. I saved this iteration as a native Corel CMX vector file. I then opened it in CorelDRAW 12, here I Ungrouped all the traced Vector elements of the image. I began to play with downsizing by eliminating some parts grabbing them with the selection tool and deleting them. I then selected some of them and changed the colors with the Gradient (using both Radial and Linear gradients) and Fill tools.

Taking the selection tool I grabbed what was left of the image and Grouped the entire Vectored pieces back into one Group. I Converted it into a Bitmapped file and copied it to the clipboard. I reopened PhotoPaint and opened the New File from the Clipboard, at 300 dpi. I then adjusted some of the other parts with the Wand tool to select, and the Fill tool for colors and textures. I applied myself to this until I was satisfied the image no longer looked much like the original photograph.

I used, next, Filter Forge's Frames for a Grunge look and feel to the image. I selected a setting after trying out different variants of a Grunge frame, settled on one and applied it. I saved the image with my signature added. I resampled for a display size.

My recent disappointment was to find out that the Corel Products I use to create much of my Digital Visual Artwork is NOT compatible with Windows 10, my reserved package of Windows 10 will not even download onto my computer. I checked and it indicated that it was my Corel Products that were stopping it. I did want to try Windows 10 later this year before the free version is turned off, but it won't download.

I even went to the point of uninstalling all my Corel Products, but with Windows 7 hiding someplace in the Programdata folders were pieces of Corel still there. Windows 10 would not download! I know this is the problem, it is not a hardware problem, it says I meet that standard easily.

Lets face it I am a Disabled Artist on a very tight budget. I am not able to upgrade my Corel Products at this time. So I am continuing to use Windows 7 Pro and my Corel arsenal of graphics programs.

So I suppose that sometime in the future I will have to find those remaining hidden files and folders, uninstall my prized Corel programs and maybe be able to download my copy of Windows 10!