"How to: Open Gate Pathway Through Woods" Picasa HDR PE5 Watercolor

Open Gate Pathway Through Woods

I tried out some “Video How to views,” for you and am now returning to written steps formatting. I hope you enjoyed the Videos. Comments about the videos as an expession of my work are welcome. Did You like them or find them tedious? Let me know if you will.

I am working on a Pathways motif and today I have one I really enjoyed creating. I used various programs and tools as you will read about here.

I opened the “Open Gate Pathway,” in Picasa and began by applying an HDR effect with the Radius set to Medium and the Strength set Low. I saved the image. Still in Picasa I adjusted the Highlights and Midtones of the piece, saving again. Then I increased the Saturation slightly, saved.

Next I opened the large image in Corel Painter Essentials 5 (PE5). Selecting the Watercolor Sketch set with clone colors from the image picked. I chose the Pencils, Pens, and Markers Grainy Cover Pencil Brush and Digitally painted the piece in this style. After this completed I picked the Soft Cloner Brush to hand paint back in some details on the Gate and Pathway and Trees/Brush. I saved this iteration with a different name.

I opened the piece in PhotoPaint and used the Curves to lighten the depth of color. Next I increased the Saturation of the color by 13 (from 0). I opened my signature file and copied to the clipboard, closed it, adding it as a layer to the main image. I used the property Add for transparency. And I merged all layers. I saved the large file then Resampled for display, using a differing file name.

I listened to a listing of Joe Bonamassa Vids in the background while I worked on this image. I just bring up YouTube and select a list of songs and play them one after another. I especially enjoy his Acoustic versions of Blues/Rock tunes as I work. Nice to have a desktop PC that allows that to take place.

I have a new song coming out in February 2016. It is an Acoustic 12-String with vocals tune. I used little special effects and tried a lead track, but I did not like the result. So it is just myself playing live into the microphone and recording. Keeping it simple, the song's name is “I Still Remain.” Look for it's release!

"Joe Bonamassa - Mountain Time" Picasa - Painter Essentials 5 Plus

Joe Bonamassa - Mountain Time

I use Pandora on my Smartphone and my Tablet to listen to Music. One of my Shuffle Artists to listen to is Joe Bonamassa, along with a few others. I also enjoy Videos of Bonamassa performing his Blues Rock Music. I have used Picasa for some screen captures of Joe playing his favorite Guitars.

I opened Picasa and selected one of those screen captures, “Joe Bonamassa – Mountain Time.” I increased the Highlights a bit and the Color Temperature as well. I applied the HDR tool in Picasa for that effect the Radius Medium and the Strength Medium settings. I saved that file.

I next opened in Painter Essentials 5 and used the Oil Painting set with a small Dry Brush. I used the Soft Cloner Brush to add back in details of his face, Guitar, and clothing. I created a new layer with the same unpainted image in it and applied the Colored Pencil set with another small brush. I dropped the layers together for one background and saved it with a new name.

I used Picasa's Border with only the outside border showing and added corner curves to that. Saving again I opened that file in PhotoPaint and added my signature layer, sizing it and placing it using the property Add for transparency. I saved that iteration.

I Resampled at 120dpi and increased the size of the image before resizing for display, saving again. Next I resized for display 120dpi, 75 compression, and 25 smoothing, saving as a JPG.

The “Joe Bonamassa,” name, and all song originals belong to their prospective owners and I do not own the rights to these.