"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.

"Does Anybody Know?" ©2013 by Kirk Mathew Gatzka

My new song, I've been practicing it for a long time now. I wanted to present it to you today! Comments are welcome! I have a different version on SoundCloud with additional vocals and reverb. But this is a Bright and Clean recording. Hope you enjoy it!

"Double Drop D Guitar Collage" Corel - Plus

Digital Collage - Double Drop D

For today's image I created a Guitar Digital Collage in Picasa 3.9. Using the recent photographs of my 12-string Seagull Guitar I selected the photographs and chose Create Collage in Picasa. I switched to the 8X10 portrait setting with a central photograph the Picasa made the large collage from my selections.

It auto saved the draft and I opened the finished collage in Corel PSP Pro X3. There I applied the Smart Photo Fix and loaded the image as another layer. To that the Smart Photo Fix was applied and I used the Pencil tool to create an overlay. I altered the colors to a Psychedelic look and feel. I merged the layers with the enhanced colors. I saved that iteration.

I reopened from Picasa with Corel PhotoPaint. there I used the Wand tool to select the white space and filled with a Stucco filling from their Sample palettes. I added the paint splatters to the image and changed their opacity and added drippings. This was for that Grunge effect.

I then scanned in some blank chord charts, four of them in a group, and added some Double Drop D chord markings. The first chord is played like an Am on the first fret then the second is the same form slid up to the third fret. The next chord is the A shape played on the fifth and seventh frets.

I used the property Multiply as I copied and pasted the chord form onto the guitar background, sizing it large enough to read and using black. I added the Double Drop D Tuning phrase and added the dripping using the Distort, Wet Paint, tool. I merged the chords and phrase into the background.

I saved the large iteration, then on the display size added my signature and saved that with a differing file name.

A Double Drop D song I have been working on. This is the first draft:

https://soundcloud.com/gatzka-music/does-anybody-know

I'd like some input on this first draft from +James Olmos +Tim Behrens If they would chime in. Contact by email +John Voshell has it and has my permission to share with you both. +Mark Ferrasci may want to listen as he helped in the creative process of this tune, his opinions are welcome too.

Comments and Pluses welcome!

"Vintage Young Girl Playing Violin" Corel PhotoPaint - Dover Clip Art

Vintage Young Girl Playing Violin

I am keeping with a music motif with some Dover Clip Art from my Dover Publications Sampler folder in Picasa 3.9. I selected the "Vintage Young Girl Playing the Violin," and a background of Butterflies in black and green, and some sheet music. I opened them in Corel PhotoPaint and did my cutting, erasing, placing of the Girl on a bed of leaves (also Dover Clip Art) with a Bird accompanying her playing.

I used the Tone Curve to give the Girl and Bird and leaves some depth. I copied and pasted them onto the Butterflies background. On the background I did use Color Replace White to Green for the pleasant coloring. I added the sheet music from the Free Vintage Digital Art folks. which I promptly placed behind the Girl and Bird. I used the property Multiply on the music score.

I did all the work for this Digital Collage in PhotoPaint. I resampled to display size, adding my signature in white (again Inverting the black signature.) I saved the medium size iteration for display.

Musically I have been researching Chordings for Double Drop D Tuning and have found a couple of references with PDF files. Which I downloaded but then lost my page I was on so I can't share the Links.

I may use this tuning for a new song I am working on. The meter of the lyric is very different to what I usually use. So I am going to have to be really creative with the chords and melody and the chorus and verses and bridge. I am excited about it!

Feels great to be thinking and feeling musical again.

Pink Floral - Still Waiting for Spring - Painter 11 - Paint.NET - PhotoPaint

Pink Floral - Waiting for Spring to Come

It appears we are still waiting for Spring here in Michigan. It snowed last night, no accumulation but still Snow? So I browsed my folders in Picasa 3 for a bright floral photograph. I opened with Paint.NET and applied the Kuwahara Filter Modified for a painterly feel.

Saving that file I opened with Painter 11 and did a quick clone with an ocher background then applied the Auto Van Gogh cloning with the Auto Van Gogh brush selected. Saving that I opened in PhotoPaint to apply Filter Forge's watercolor frame, adjusting the width of the framing.

I saved that file and reopened in Painter 11 to add texture using the Image Luminance for showing the brushstrokes and texture of the watercolor framing.

In PhotoPaint I added a 40 pixel black border and my signature. I also resampled the image for display. I adjusted the Tone Curve for depth and the saturation for a color boost.

Listening --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka --- Silent Spring Instrumental Double Drop D

Song Lyrics and Chords -Selections and Gel Layering in Painter 11

I started this experiment with a floral grunge wallpaper background opened in Painter 11. I selected a portion of the background to work with and pasted it as a new image. I found some faces of some young ladies and opened the files in Painter and used the selection lasso to cut out and paste into new layers, each face.

One of the faces is by Da Vinci from my collection of his drawings - Leda. The others are from WetCanvas forums galleries of photographs. I placed each face where I wanted them and used the Gel layer setting to add them to the grunge piece.

I decided it needed some poetry or lyrics done in my hand printing so I scanned in, using TWAIN Acquire, two pages of my song, "One Time I Am Laughing." It's a song about having conflicting feelings and is done in a Double Drop D tuning. If you look closely I even have chord charts drawn out for this song. I used the Gel layer setting again to allow the words and chords to show but not too much of the paper.

I merged all layers, Applied Surface Texture> Paper> (Italian Watercolor Paper adjusted to a light texture) and saved to a jpg file for placing on the web here. I then opened it in PhotoPaint to add a Filter Forge film frame. Resampling it to a workable size I saved it anew with less compression than usual.

While you are here please check out my new Zazzle Panel of my artworks turned into cards and posters and products for you to purchase if you would like to own a piece of my digital visual art. It is towards the bottom of the page and it scrolls the products for you to look at with no obligation! Thank You! If you have a particular piece you don't see in my store at Zazzle, write me and I can add it for you to purchase.

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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - One time I Am Laughing
via FoxyTunes

Corel Painter - Painter 8 Wow! Book Acrylics - Autumn is Coming

Summer is cooling, Autumn is right around the corner. Time marches on, and we can't stop it. Here is a digital painting of a fiery tree done in Corel Painter using the Painter 8 Wow! Book's Acrylic brushes.

I have posted a larger version of the image than I usually post, for your enjoyment. The photograph was taken by me last fall at Kensington Metro Park, Michigan. Near their petting Zoo. It was a family outing and we had a great time and got some good photographs of the autumn colors.

I have this at an Art Trading Card size of 375x525 pixels for the purpose of trading if anyone is interested in a trade of cards. It is in an edition of 3 only, and will be signed by myself on the back, listing the location and the year printed. It is on Matte stock Photo paper.

In music I have been working on a Drop D tuning song for the last few nights. I love the drone of the dropped D (bass E in regular tuning) as it sounds amazing. I continue to experiment with new chord structures trying out new D chords and a few open chords to see if they fit the Drop D tuning well. It's great fun and I have really been enjoying it.

Here is a Blues Drop D tuning song video, but it's not me playing.

Tiles for Backgrounds - Fractals - Symbols

Change of Pace - Autumn Squash - Corel Painter 8 - Visit to MotorCity Guitar

Autumn is the time for pumpkins and squash. My wife had purchased some squash and I took a couple of photographs of them grouped together against the backdrop of our Corian counter and our red kitchen wall.

I thought it would make a nice simple painting. So I opened the photograph in Painter 8, cloned it and selected all and cleared the image the deselected it. I used the tracing paper for the image. I was using the Digital Watercolors brushes to rough in the painting.

After I roughed it in I added some soft cloning to bring back some of the details of the squash. I used the Texture Spray clone brush to add some texture to the squash. It was a very straight forward painting.

I visited Motor City Music store of Waterford, Michigan, the other day and played some fine guitars. I would like to add a 6-string as an additional guitar so I was looking for one. I first
picked up a Seagull 6-string and tried that one out and since I like my Seagull 12-string I really found this one to be easy to play and comfortable, too. It had a full sound with a good balance of bass and treble tones.

I played some Taylor's and Guilds, an Ovation and a Takamine 12-string. I truly enjoyed my visit and pricing guitars I found that the Seagull was the best priced and one of my favorites along with one of the Taylor's, which was more expensive.

I always test out the 6-string guitars with the Drop D tuning and Double Drop D and the DADGAD tuning. I use the standard tuning as well and they were impressive guitars all reasonably priced.

I jammed with another customer who played some lead to my rhythm guitar. We did a little blues and folk rock.

I would like to own a electric guitar too but I did not try any out that day, just the acoustic and acoustic electric guitars.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Photographs
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Our House - Painter 8 Watercolor/Pencil

Detailed painting requires patience, the tiger lilies in our front and side garden required that as I painted today's image. It's another view of our house I used the watercolor clone brushes in Painter 8. I had run the original photograph through Paint.NET's Pencil Sketch filter and added that in PhotoPaint for some detail as well.

I enjoy the end result of the watercolors plus the pencil sketch together. Part of the piece is light and airy, part darker and full. That's why I enjoy them so much.

I also used the Tone Curve in PhotoPaint to lighten the colors a bit so the painting wasn't as dark as it started out. It allowed the pencil markings to show through and give it the detailed touch.

On the music front I finally bought an MP3 Player, it's only two gigabytes but it holds approximately 1000 songs. I am listening to some of my own songs right now using it. I got it for help with exercising. I have a treadmill that I can use in inclement weather, and of course can take it with me on walks around the neighborhood. I am too sedentary, I sit a lot before this computer doing art and blogging.

So it isn't helping right now as I listen to music on it while sitting. I need to move!

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Speedboat Waves
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Grunge Design - Chord Progressions Embeded

"Drop D" and "Double Drop D" tunings are also great for making creative juices flow while playing guitar and experimenting with chord groupings. In my previous post I discussed the DADGAD tuning for the same reasons - creative playing.

Wikipedia has a listing of alternative tunings for guitar including the open tunings. Many songs have been written using these different tunings in Rock. Jimmy Page was known to use some of them for songs.

My Grunge designed image has many chord progressions in it as part of the whole and some chord charts with very basic chords for the standard guitar tuning. If you can make them out then feel free to try them.

I used PhotoPaint for most of the image, Thredgeholder filter and object property "Color Burn". I also used CorelDRAW to make the chord charts. On the two guitars in red I used Thredgeholder then I used Effects> Texture> Plastic> filter on them for a slight three dimensional appearance. There is an old rusty Ford tractor in the background as well, you may be able to readily see the headlight and grill of it.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Jeremy Fryc - Oh Jackie
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Old Arsenal of Film Cameras - Collage

I used to have two decent film cameras for photo-
graphing. The best 35mm I ever owned was a Pentax K1000 Student body SLR camera. It was my mainstay for many years. Here I am sharing a collage of this camera and the following.

They came out, pre-digital days, with the Advanced Photo System cameras. So I got an expensive Fuji Fujifilm Endeavor 4000SL for a princely sum. Now you have to buy the APS film on Ebay to find it.

Now I moved to the Digital SLR's and it's no looking back. Both my son and I like the Canon Rebel XTi that we have. And we sometimes have a disagreement as to is going to use it and when. But it's my camera so I have first choice.

Musically I have not had much time for any new songs. I need to do some practicing and just plain fun playing on the guitar. I've been reading about different tunings again and will probably be using the DADGAD tuning on the 12-string for some fun making up chords and general all round creativity. I also like to use the Double Drop D tuning as an alternative. I just love to let my creative juices flow with these alternative tunings. The drone you get with the 12-string is marvelous, sounding like a sitar at times.

That ought to prompt some thoughtful playing and perhaps a song or instrumental. It only remains to be seen.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - In A Bright Room
via FoxyTunes