"Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 - Anchorage, Alaska"

Anchorage AK Seascape

Anchorage AK Skyline

On Vacation and had some time to reflect on another vacation in Anchorage, Alaska. I selected two photographs taken with my Canon Rebel XTi. I am using our Laptop, and Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 to Auto-Paint

I used the settings for two Watercolor Sketchs Auto-Paint, with Rough Paper and tapered brushes. It is an easy exercise to do, with some pretty great results.

Both photographs were taken from the South East of Anchorage, Nice lines and color. One is a seascape. The other is a shot of the city's skyline.

Short Post as the Auto-Paint is done by the program, with little intervention on my part. But the Photographs were taken by me. I hope you enjoy my meager sharing. Click on the images for their larger views!

"Impressionistic Alaskan Mountain View" Corel - Plus

Alaskan Mountain View

A post from my laptop, a short statement. This "Impressionistic Alaskan Mountain View," comes from a photograph taken with my Canon Rebel XTi DSLR, a couple of years ago now. I browsed to the photograph in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and auto painted it using the Impressionist settings.

I saved the large digital painting and reopened with Corel PhotoPaint where I added the frame using Filter Forge's Frames. I added my name and copyright as my signature is not yet on this computer. I resampled for display here.

A simple image with lovely color and brushstroke detail as you click on it for the larger view on your screen.

"Missing Alaska Late Summer" Corel PSP Pro X3 - Plus

Alaska Road South From Anchorage

I browsed some photographs on my external HD and went to one of my Alaskan trip folders. I selected one of our road trips, South from Anchorage. I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3. I applied the Smart Photo Fix to it and the Digital Camera Noise Removal. I adjusted the Shadows and used the Saturation Vibrance as well.

I cropped the photograph and saved the large iteration. I opened with Corel PhotoPaint and cleaned up with the cloning Brush. I also blended the road with the Smear Brush. I cloned out some road markers (red ones.)

I was an overcast day that day with light rain but over all our visit to Alaska was amazing, we hope to go back someday. This was also when my Canon Rebel XTi was brand new. We took a massive amount of photographs. We used an online vendor to create a large size photographic book with many of the images, untouched by processing. It's a great remembrance of our visiting family and the beautiful area around Anchorage, Alaska.

I digress. I finished the image for display with the Visible Watermark of my signature. I resized to display size and saved the file. I did these in PSP.

982nd Post!

"Two Alaskan Landscapes" Corel PSP Pro X3 - Plus

Above the Clouds

Alaskan Forest

I searched some of my Alaskan photographs on my external drive. I liked this one "Above the Clouds." I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3. I first applied the Hue and Saturation tool Vibrancy, which gave me a bit more color.

Then I applied the Curves tool to lighten it a bit, as it was taken late in the day. I wanted a painterly look and feel so I used the Art Strokes tool set with the density at 33 and stroke length at 10.

I added the signature with the Visible Watermark tool. I looked for an appropriate framing in Picture Frame, selecting the rough edged Photo mount frame. I saved that iteration and resized for display.

I wanted to use Corel PSP Pro X3 as my program of choice for this photograph's enhancement. So I stayed in PSP using it's tools to complete my digital manipulation.

The Second image is also an "Alaskan Forest," landscape. I opened this with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. Selecting the Classical Oil Painting auto paint I applied the Random Sketchy Circle strokes set at 80% for size and 40% for Amount.

Saving the file I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 and added Vibrancy to the colors. The using Picture Frame I added the mat and gold frame. I saved that iteration. I added my signature in Corel PhotoPaint and resampled for display saving that file.


Listening to the Boats on the Lake and Grass Being Mown

"Alaskan Sunset" Impressionistic - Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 - Plus

Alaskan Sunset Impressionistic

Simple post from my laptop today. I opened from Picasa 3.9 this sunset and applied the HDR effect for color enhancement. Then I selected this photograph of an Alaskan Sunset and applied Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 Impressionist style with no changes to the setting. I deepened the colors using the Tone Curve in Corel PhotoPaint and added a watermark signature. Saving the large file I then resampled for display here.

Listening --- Peace and Quiet

Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 Fun Painting Photographs

Alaskan River

Bridge and Mountains

Trees and Mountains

Alaskan Restaurant

I was working on my laptop today on which I have Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. I was browsing some of my photographs taken on our Alaskan trip a few years back and selected these examples you see here.

I used the Auto Painting feature of the program to create these images from the photographs I chose. I would take the image and apply more than one painting style. For example on Trees and Mountains I used a Wet on Wet Watercolor then applied the Color Pencil feature.

Corel's Painter Photo Essentials 4 is a fun program to create painted scenes from your favorite photographs.

Listening --- JJ Cale and Eric Clapton --- Danger

"Fireplace and Living Room" Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4

Fireplace and Living Room

Short post today, filled the day with many things! I used my Corel's Painter Photo Essentials 4 program on a watercolor settings and then on the illustration setting. It began as a photograph of my brother's home in Alaska that I took with my Canon Rebel XTi DSLR. I am doing this from our laptop and Windows 7, so I am learning to use this program here.

I like the programs ways of making paintings out of photographs through the settings and it's auto paint facilities. I put it on the laptop instead of my desktop to give me an art program where I could paint and experiment with the styles selections, on the run so to speak.

Many are using portable or mobile tablets and smartphones to create art these days, so I thought I would try it on a laptop. I like the results thus far.

Not Listening to any music at the time of this post.

Alaskan Mountains Shrouded in Clouds - Painter 11

I took a couple of days off, so I hope that you still followed gatzkART! I was browsing through my Alaskan trip photographs and found many nice photographs to select from. This particular photograph was a very cloudy day and the mountains in the background were almost obscured by the cloud cover.

I opened with Painter 11 and did a quick clone with a slight yellow ocher background. I selected the Watercolor brushes and began to paint. I used varying sizes and opacity for each area of the painting. I added some detail back in with the Soft cloner.

I adjusted the Brightness of the piece and made sure the background mountains were faint. I added a little more color with the Digital Watercolor brushes. I saved the file and opened with PhotoPaint.

Here I added a watercolor frame from Filter Forge and adjusted the Tone Curve to lighten up the image, I saved the image and reopened in Painter 11 to add some texture, I selected the Apply Surface Texture> Image Luminance> to the entire piece.

I am adapting to using the watercolors, but still have a difficult time with the darkness of the brushes. Needless to say I am still learning Painter 11 and it's features.

What do you think? Does this watercolor image have too much dark color? Or are the background mountains too light? Your comments are welcome.

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Now playing: Blues Traveler - The Mountains Win Again
via FoxyTunes

Alaskan River - Acrylics - Painter 11 - PhotoPaint

Continuing with Alaskan landscapes I selected this photograph in Picasa 3 of a rocky river. I opened with Painter 11 and selected Acrylics brushes. I did a quick clone again to paint upon. I used various Acrylic brushes for the foliage and the Soft cloner to add back in some leafy detail.

I selected a wet acrylic brush for the water and rocks and painted those. I added some detail with a Crayon brush with the clone button selected. To blend I selected the Distortion brush Confusion. I saved the large file.

I opened with PhotoPaint and adjusted the Tone Curve and the color saturation set at seven. I added a 10 pixel white border and then a larger border in light blue. Using the wand I selected the light blue border and applied the Effects> Texture> Plastic> filter using another light blue color. Finishing it with a 10 pixel black border for larger viewing.

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Now playing: J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton - Ride The River
via FoxyTunes

Alaskan Mountains - Watercolor - Painter 11 - PhotoPaint

Here is an image that is done in Watercolor in Painter 11. I browsed our photographs from our Alaskan trip a couple of years ago and found many good mountain based ones. I browsed to this one in Picasa 3, and opened with Painter 11.

I did a quick clone and selected the watercolor brushes. Clicking on the clone button I adjusted the opacity and saturation for each layer of the foreground and subsequent mountain layers. I painted at first with the fine watercolor then the larger brushes. I was using the large photograph so the brushes moved slowly at times, as is the case with watercolor.

I also selected the Gouache brush for the sky, as in the photograph it was mostly white and very light blue. I added some blue with a Whitewater brush to the piece for added depth. I saved the file as a jpg for use in PhotoPaint.

Opening it in PhotoPaint I added Filter Forge's watercolor frame , narrowing it and changing the color to a sky blue. I also squared off the corners more, less rounded. Here I resampled the larger image for display on the internet. I also adjusted with the Tone Curve to lighten up the image.

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Now playing: Alan Parsons Project - Eye In The Sky
via FoxyTunes

Alaskan River Revisited - Painter - PhotoPaint

I have been busy with a new gadget a VHS to DVD Dazzle DCV100 with Pinnacle Studio 12. I have been digitizing older family VHS tapes to create DVDs from them.

I also am using Windows 7 - Windows DVD Maker to burn multiple copies for family members of the various activities I have on VHS tape. I like the Play Screens of DVD Maker and I also like the basic transitions of Pinnacle Studio.

I took some time today to revisit one of my favorite photographs from our trip to Alaska a couple of years ago. I used Picasa 3 to browse photographs and selected this one. I opened it in Painter and applied Posterize at 8 levels of color. Then I applied the Depth of Field to it. After I added a film frame using Filter Forge's Freepack 3 I saved the file and opened it in PhotoPaint.

Here I adjusted the Tone Curve and the color saturation. I created a signature file using the ballpoint pen brush in PhotoPaint and added the copyright 2011 to it for my first post of the year. I cut and pasted it into the image and used the object property Multiply to add it with transparency.

I am using our laptop for this post which is not what I usually use. but the Wacom tablet is connected due to using this newer computer for the VHS conversions and DVD burning. Not all of my photographic files are on this laptop so I did select from a limited number of files for this image.

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Now playing: The Beatles - Please Please Me
via FoxyTunes

Alaskan Mountains - Late Summer - Painter 8

Using Corel's Painter, Digital painting is very much fun. You start with a subject and you select your brushes, in this case Acrylic and Digital Watercolor, and you paint. Using the tracing paper function allows you to duplicate nicely the composition you have selected in your original photograph of the subject matter.

In Digital you can adjust so many things that you feel will add to your image and you can try them, but if they don't work, you have the undo feature which you don't have using traditional media.

I selected another photograph taken by myself of the Alaskan mountains North of Anchorage. There were predominately gray colors for the foreground which I altered, in PhotoPaint, using Image> Adjust> Hue / Saturation / Lightness. I increased the saturation by about nine. Now the colors are tinted and have more depth to them.

I try and vary my subject matter in my Digital Artworks for the blog to keep it fresh. I am also doing more Digital Painting for a change and this leads to pieces like today's.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Jeremy Fryc - if you put two v's close enough together they make a w
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Today I entered a competition based on the theme of "Water" online. This is one of three images I was allowed to enter. Each image was taken with my Canon XTi camera. I really like this version of Canon's Rebel line of cameras. It is a 10.1 megapixel camera. Which is more than sufficient for my needs.

This was taken on a road trip up to Hatcher Pass near Anchorage, Alaska. Our family up in Alaska generously allowed us to visit them and paid our way for us, if they had not we probably would not have been able to go.

I was able to get many photographs of the Alaskan landscape. We went on a couple of road trips and the scenery was very beautiful. Awe-inspiring vistas, rivers, mountains, and we got to see a young Moose by the roadside. Though bears are plentiful we did not have any run ins with them. We did see some salmon that were protecting their eggs after spawning, but did not come during the salmon runs which we were told about as amazing.

The South Central part of Alaska is a wonderful place to visit. We had a great time.