"Vintage Dodge Truck Digital Watercolor" Corel - Paint.NET

Vintage Dodge Truck

Since I had such an enjoyable time recently painting the Vintage Ford Truck I decided to digitally paint another Vintage Dodge Truck. I first located my folder of truck photographs taken with my Canon Rebel XTi and selected this closeup. I opened it in Paint.NET.

In Paint.NET I applied the Effect, Artistic, Ink Sketch for a Pen and Ink image. I saved that iteration and opened in Corel Painter 11.  Here I chose a basic palette and Watercolor Brushes for the digital painting.

After I saved the finished painting I opened in Corel PSP Pro X3. At this point I applied the Saturation Vibrancy for a boost to the colors. The original photograph was of a dirty, rusty brown color. With the  greater part of the background being foliage I used various greens for that area. I needed some punch to those duller colors. I did not clone paint this I did it Freehand.

I added a brown border and my white signature and with the Image Information added a Title, Copyright, and Camera, plus programs used to the Information.

I saved the large iteration and resized for display. Be sure to click on the image for the larger view!

"Old Dodge Truck" Corel PSP Pro X3

Old Dodge Truck

1,005th Post to gatzkART! with only a few days left for the 1,000TH POST CONTEST! It will end on Monday the 26th of November as I had allowed two week for the contest to continue. If you haven't entered visit my 1,000th Post for the Contest details and read the details there. ENTER You May Win!

I truly like this "Old Dodge Truck," motif so I am creating another image from one of many photographs. They were shot with my Canon Rebel XTi camera. There is something about old used equipment that has a romantic appeal about them. What kind of hauling did it do, the people who used it, what were they like? How did they benefit from it's use? How long was it productive?

I opened the photograph from my external drive, where I hold a lot of my older photographs. I used Corel PSP Pro X3 to crop the photograph. I then used the Smart Photo Fix on it making the colors and depth lighter. I applied the Saturation Vibrancy to it to punch up the colors. Then I used the Art Media Brushstrokes for a painterly look. I went to Sharpen and chose the Unsharp Mask, Sharp Focus setting.

This really set off the painterly look and feel. I used the Picture Frame Albumen for the jagged edges. Then I gave it a Border, green in color. I added my signature using the Visible Watermark tool. I saved this iteration.

I have to admit I am using PSP Pro X3 more to my advantage for my images. Doing more in fewer steps and with good results. I'd love to upgrade to the latest version but for now it is cost prohibitive. I Resized to a display size and saved that for you viewing Pleasure.

Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Experiment - Dodge Truck

I just won Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 in a contest, (@corelapps on Twitter hosted it) and downloaded the program today. It took a while to install and search for all my photographs and images, but I have quite a few on my PC. (All backed up on an external hard drive.)

I opened my pictures and chose a folder or two to see what I might play with. I found my Dodge Truck folder and opened one of the photographs.

I went to the editor and fooled around with some adjustments. This one a painterly brush stroke and used the default settings. I then applied a Light filter which made it look like the sun was shining. This was also in the default setting.

Next I tried out the cropping tool and narrowed the focus of the image to the Truck and sun flare. I saved that iteration.

I wanted to do a bit more so I opened that with PhotoPaint and applied Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrance with each setting set at 100%. This really enhanced the texture and the light, as well as deepen other colors in the image.

I added a twenty pixel black border and my signature to complete my experiment.

I must say I am impressed with Paintshop Photo Pro X3 and it's ease of use. I did not read any of the help files to begin using some of the features, which is my playful way of approaching new software. I would recommend this software to those who want great control over the photographic process.

Listening --- The Beatles --- She Loves You

Two Images Today - Grandson - Old Dodge Truck

I did two images for today's post one of my Grandson and the other of an old Dodge Truck.

The truck photograph was taken by myself and is a favorite motif of mine. I followed a Painter PDF tutorial by John Derry that I had saved quite awhile ago. It included Auto painting of the photograph.

I added the oil brushstrokes from the Painter 8 Wow! Book oil brushes. And by hand painted the rough edges, then added a border and a halftone frame from Filter Forge's Freepack 3 Frames.

The second image of my Grandson, Zeke I used Paint.NET. I applied the Effects> Artistic> Pencil Sketch> with the pencil tip turned all the way up. I saved that file and opened it in PhotoPaint where I also opened a copy of a Mayang's Texture of painted rust. I overlaid the picture of Zeke onto the texture and used the object property Multiply to make the white transparent so as to show the texture.

So here he is "Cute thanks to Mom and Dad." I did finish the image with Filter Forge's Frames using a film frame, adding a border and another file frame. I also used the Tone Curve on the image for depth and upped the saturation by 7 for boosting the colors of the rusted texture.

I hope you enjoy both of these images and explanations as much as I enjoy presenting them and telling a bit about how they were made.

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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Smooth Riding
via FoxyTunes

Up Close and Personal - Dodge Truck - Rust

A short post today. Here is an image of an old rusted out Dodge Truck, up close and personal. I have many photographs of this truck as it was in one piece and even though rusted it was so full of character that I took many shots of it.

I used Painter 8 Acrylic brushes to paint this a while ago. I like the way this old truck's personality showed through in its "face." Beat up but ready to serve if it only could.

I added the texture to it using Painters Apply Surface Texture> Image Luminance>. So as you look at the larger image you will see the brushstrokes and texture.

I added a film frame to it in Filter Forge and resized it for the web in PhotoPaint.

Listening --- I Walked Along the Lakes Song --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka

Trial 30 Days with Adobe Lightroom 2

I downloaded the trial copy of Adobe's Lightroom 2 yesterday and decided to give it a try. What can it hurt? 30 days of trial and error to play creatively with.

Only problem is I don't remember all the settings I changed doing this current vintage Dodge Truck photograph. I know I changed the Tone Curve, and I changed the contrast and saturation but don't ask me how I did it.

Anyway this photograph was taken some time ago and I have many versions of the truck. I like this one because of the light on the foreground. And the depth my changes in Lightroom made to it really takes the viewer there. It was a bright and sunny afternoon, so the truck was partially in shadow and in the light. I tried to enhance the effect in Lightroom. Take a look at the larger image in your browser and I think you'll agree.

I was also finding time for some recording again yesterday. I used my 12-string and the Toneport UX1 with Gearbox and Audacity. I did two instrumentals, one with a drum backbeat, uptempo, and another without. The second song I played is very light and soft for my playing. My wife liked it, so I guess it must be OK. She is my best critic, I am always hard on myself, I hear all the little mistakes. I truly am an amateur! But I enjoy it so much.

I did post a song for critique on The Acoustic Guitar Community I belong to. I don't know if you have to be a member to download the MP3 of "The Last Good Cowboy" or not. But here is a link to the discussion about the song and one of the comments has a link to the song's MP3. If you would like to hear it go HERE.

If you must join to share I don't have anywhere else to place the MP3'S at this time for storage online. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Listening to: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - The Last Good Cowboy
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More Rust - Some Green - ArtRage 2.5

I've done paintings of this Dodge Truck previously, this time I used ArtRage 2.5 Starter Edition. Using the Oils brush I painted a loose image of the truck. Using PhotoPaint I took a copy of the photograph I used for the painting and added back in some detail of the truck and the overgrown greenery surrounding it. I used the object property Multiply to make the photograph transparent so as to see the Oils brushstrokes.

I resized the image for the web and am sharing the results here. I continued to use the Rust color theme for this old truck is completely rust covered. The greens make for a nice contrast against the Rust colors. You can see the Oil brush especially in the front tire, wobbly and green.

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Listening to: Rusty Truck - Everytime
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Dodge Truck Collage

We found this old Dodge Truck on one of our drives last summer. I had just gotten my new Canon XTi and I took dozens of photographs of it.

Many of these I reworked as painterly images. I also had a few forest photographs as well. I did some manipulations on various ones and left some of them untouched.

Using Picasa 3 I created a large collage from these works. I resized it in PhotoPaint for display here.

Take a closer look by opening this image for the details. You will see the painted ones and manipulated pieces mingled with the untouched photographs. The Centerpiece being a painted image using Painter 8.

By the Way, Corel Corp is having it's 20th year anniversary and has a deal on an Intuos Wacom Tablet with their Graphics Suite X4. It is a great deal and I thought that it would be good to pass on. Click on my "Corel" listing below to go to the homepage to read about it.

I recommend Corel products though I am not employed or affiliated with them. It is my many years of experience using their products that are a great alternative to Adobe's price wise. I do own Photoshop 7 but it is on my Mac G4 without a tablet so I don't use it as often as I would if I had a Wacom tablet on the G4. Painting and doing graphics with a mouse is something I am not really good at.

I just added a list of sites that are my favorites. It is just a beginning list so feel free to take a look at the sites listed. I am not affilated with any of them, they all are useful for me in my digital visual artwork and music recording.