"New Song 'Wait Until Morning' Now Available" CDBaby

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kirkmathewgatzka10

"Wait Until Morning" is a love song. Two parties are trying to keep a relationship together, but are having difficulties. "You show me your answers, I'll show you mine," shows that they are discussing attitudes and thoughts about being together. The first party (the male singing,) wants to stay until morning. Hoping to express his commitment. But is he really committed to this relationship?

We don't really get to hear the other side of the situation, but, "if you don't mind," shows reluctance on her part to let him stay. The end of the matter is they don't stay together and the relationship is a bust. That's for another tune I suppose. Click on the link above for a Full Preview for your consideration. Thank you for listening!

Kirk Mathew Gatzka | Something Amazing | CD Baby Music Store

Kirk Mathew Gatzka | Something Amazing | CD Baby Music Store

Another Song - Hook, Line and Sinker - SoundCloud

Hook Line and Sinker by Gatzka Music

Two Young Ladies - Painter 8 Wow! Book Brushes

This painting is done in Painter 8 based on a work I did some time ago reworked in Painter. I titled it "Pucker" because the lips are slightly puckered.

I used Painter 8 Wow Book's acrylic brushes and grainy brushes for this piece. I took the eyes, eyebrows and lips from the original image using the soft cloner brush for details. As I also highlighted the buttons that frame the image with the soft cloner.

I wanted to do some more painting with Painter 8 so I approached this image from that perspective. I did used PhotoPaint to increase the dpi to 96 and sharpen the original. Then used the stamp tool with the selected brushes described above. It is more painterly than some of my other pieces of work, but that was the goal.

The second image is from a photograph taken by my son Keir M. Gatzka. I opened the image in Paint.NET to apply the oil painting filter for my underpainting. I saved it as a tif file format. And I applied the Curves to it to deepen the color and shadows.

I reopened it in Painter 8, using the Wow! Book brushes I painted the piece with another broad based underpainting and then added details with finer oil brushes. I love the realism in this image as I usually go for a looser feel. I really like the smile of this young lady.

I saved the tif file and opened it in PhotoPaint. I only added the grunge frame using Filter Forge's Freepack - Frames again along with my signature. Converting it to jpg for display here.

I worked on a song titled, "Pages Without Numbers" yesterday. I recorded a simple vocal and 12-string guitar with a background vocal as well in Audacity. I used two vocal settings for my PG58 Shure microphone in the Gearbox software from Line 6. One was a Detroit R&B vocal for the guitar and background, and the other one for the main vocal - Bright and Clean. I'm not truly satisfied with the recording as I listen to it today. It is kind of muddy sounding on the background vocal. I need to re-record it for clarity.

Listening --- Pages Without Numbers --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka

Guitar Series X - Concrete Grunge

Number ten in my Guitar Series uses a concrete grunge background from TextureLovers, and another of my own photographs. I took the photograph using my lightbox that is also used for Seasonal Affective Disorder in the winter. It projects bright outdoor light, thus the heavy shadows.

I used the chords and lyrics from a song, "Can You Please Love Me?" ©2009 Kirk Mathew Gatzka. It is the chorus of the song. I kept this image simpler than some of mine. The grunge background adds texture to it. I used Paint.Net for the ink sketch look, and PhotoPaint for all the other elements, using similar techniques I have described in other posts.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Can You Please Love Me?
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Self-Portrait - circa 1969-1970 - Photoshop/PhotoPaint

We recently set up our Mac G4 with Photoshop 7 on it and I opened up an old photograph of myself playing my Harmony 6-string guitar. I moused around in Photoshop and used some filters and a Gaussian blur for the background.

I saved the file on a Zip 100 disk and moved it to my PC, opening it in PhotoPaint. I found a second photograph of myself taken at the same time and cut out pieces of that photograph, with the lasso tool, to add to the main one I began with.

I ended up with the digital collage you see here. I also added a frame to it using PhotoPaint's Image> Paper size> centered. I selected this border with the wand tool and used the Effects> 3d Effects> Bevel effect> for a 3d frame.

I selected the guitar using a lasso tool and resized the object and angled it, adding six guitars and my arm strumming to the lower part of the image to add some interest. I was fresh out of High School at the time these pictures were taken. So my appearance now is quite different. This was just when I was growing out my hair long and had a mustache and goatee. Seems like ages ago, in fact it was!

I was songwriting in those days as well. Most of the songs were not worthy of keeping so they are all lost now. Only one that I copyrighted titled "Hello Sunshine, Goodbye Moon." Which we recorded on a reel to reel tape recorder with guitar, flute, lead guitar, piano and back up vocals and I entered it into a song contest which I did not even get an honorable mention. I believe that my sister has a copy of that on reel to reel tape somewhere, that my Mom had kept. It was the Bad Old Days then.

I can't even remember that song now, except to a few words and the chorus, no chords and the melody escapes me. It is odd how time changes your viewpoint and your approach to songwriting. But at the time it was on of the highlights of my endeavor to write, sing, play and record. Funny how time and memories work.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Something Amazing
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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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Floral - Guitar Chords - Vector Graphics

I've been working on using the freehand vector drawing tool in CorelDRAW for creating some swirls and floral graphics. I started with a photograph taken by my son Keir M Gatzka and opened that in Paint.NET. There I applied the Artistic> Ink Sketch> filter to the large floral saving the file.

I copied and pasted that into CorelDRAW and added the swirls and flowers drawn with the freehand tool. I grouped them together and copied to the clipboard. I then opened from the clipboard in PhotoPaint and added the frame.

I selected a chord progression I have been playing with, with modifications each time I used it. the E7sus4 not being a common chord I added the diagram of it and the arrow from CorelDRAW.

It is a simple open chord grouping and can be fun to alter the strumming and order of the chords, up the tempo, slow it down, flatpick it. It has yet to form a basis for a song but it is enjoyable to use for practicing these open chords.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Like I've Never Been Refused
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Fictional Portraits III - Major Visual Inspiration

Got some major inspiration from an Article at instantShift today. 50 interviews with popular web designers and founders. Very good information. It took a while to load on dial up but I let it go so I could get the full impact of the article and it's related interviews. I still am going through the information there.

Visual Art is alive and well and these individuals are proof of that. Design for the internet is flourishing. While these professionals are moving and shaping, I do my little bit here on my blog, sharing some of my creative process and images.

This piece is entitled "Hope," which I think is in the expression on her face, a hopeful look. Also from my sketchbook and scanned in, with Painter 8 adding the water coloring. A simple and basic image. I am following my Fictional Faces motif as I had mentioned I would be doing.

I did write a song yesterday. It's entitled "The River," one of many titled the same I am certain. I used the River, Creation, Birdsong as metaphors for the flow of life while dealing with personal problems and seeking answers to them. I wrote it after a conversation I had about dealing with limitations and how modesty comes into play when we really are perplexed by such. I used a basic chord progression D open E, G C, A E, with a folk rock rhythm. It's not too bad if I say so myself. (Of course, I am going to be bias!)

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - GDEmAmD
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Grunge and Rust

There is something about decay, rust, and grunge. This photograph is one I took with a 35mm film Pentax K1000, and scanned it in. There is also something about Stencil lettering, it has a primitive look and feel to it.

Grunge as music is another story. I don't think I ever identified with the movement, but it did influence many mainstream artists. I have to admit I don't know a lot about it. Wikipedia states of Grunge:

"The early grunge movement coalesced around Seattle independent record label Sub Pop in the late 1980s. Grunge became commercially successful in the first half of the 1990s, due mainly to the release of Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten. The success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of hard rock music at the time.^[1] However, many grunge bands were uncomfortable with this popularity. Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by the late 1990s, their influence continues to impact modern rock music."

Kurt Cobain became famous and was a martyr of the Grunge movement. I read parts of one of his notebooks that was published, at a book store, and was left with a depressed feeling. He did not seem to be very pleased with life in general.

I think that over all much of my early poetry and songwriting was depressed as well, young and disillusioned without much life experience can do that to a person. Now I like to write Folk Rock, and bluesy music that is more positive and upbeat in its outlook. I guess I am showing my age once again. Life experience can make one bitter and resentful or you learn how to cope better and you can adopt a more constructive viewpoint.

Even though "Eve of Destruction" was a favorite song in the past, "Ohio" by CSNY is also one I have played multiple times, my outlook is not bitter. For that I am thankful.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Summer 2008
via FoxyTunes