"Gal Playing Acoustic Guitar in a Field" PE5 Plus

"Gal Playing Acoustic Guitar in a Field"

I selected a large photograph of a "Gal Playing Acoustic Guitar in a Field," for today's post. It was very soft in lighting to begin with, but compelling. I opened it in Corel Painter Essentials 5 (PE5.) The first thing I did was apply the Equalize tool, setting the Black point to 25.1%, the White point I left at 100%, and the Gamma at 50%. This added more color depth.

I continued to Adjust the Colors using Uniform Color setting the Saturation to 31%. I saved the large file with a new name. In PE5, I used the photograph now adjusted to paint. Selecting the Watercolor Sketch settings I used a Digital Watercolor Dry Brush to paint.

Next, I used the Soft Cloner Brush to hand paint back in details to the Face, Arms, Hands and the Guitar. I decided I wanted to add more Texture to the image; I applied the Apply Surface Texture. Using the Paper setting, I checked Invert to change the light direction. I picked a Light Fleshtone color for the lighting, creating more warmth for the image and texture.

After applying that, I saved the image again.

I opened that large image in Paint.NET. Here I added my signature layer using the property Additive for transparency. I saved the image with 100% size and compression. Then I resized the image to 72 dpi, 1220 X 813, setting the compression to 75%. I saved that for posting with a new name.

I have been putting my new Martin DRS1 6-String Acoustic Electric through its paces, both Acoustically and along with some jam tracks from QuistJam on YouTube. Playing acoustically I used different tunings, Double Drop D, and DADGAD. I am enjoying this Martin Sapele Guitar! It has great tone and good action for both lead and rhythm playing. I haven't done any recording or songwriting other than some poetry/lyric work lately. I am trying out a new chord progression but have yet to add any melody (singing,) or lyrics for that.