"How To: Dead Branch and Abandoned House" PE5 Plus

Dead Branch and Abandoned House

Pretty much done with my Pathways Series, I perused Morguefile for some interesting photographs. This particular one caught my eye. "Dead Branch and Abandoned House," looked very intriguing. I downloaded it giving it a new name for my file searches. I created a New Folder for more of my new works, including this one.

I opened the large file in Painter Essentials 5 (PE5) and first I applied the Effects, Equalize to lighten some of the colorings, knowing that I would add depth later. I saved that iteration. I selected Use Open Image to select it for painting. My Choice was the Watercolor Sketch (one of my favorites in PE5.)

I went to the Photo Painting Brushes and selected the New Simple Water Brush, and auto painted the image. I then selected the Soft Cloner Photo Painting Brush to add back in some of the Dead Branch Details. I saved the large file again with a new name.

I used Corel PhotoPaint for a few adjustments. I applied the Image, Tone Curve lightening the depth of color. I opened my signature file copied it to the clipboard and layered it onto the main painting. I sized and placed the signature using the property Add for transparency. I saved the large file once again.

I used Resample to make the piece ready for display. 72dpi, 1220 X 813 pixels with Anti-alias and Maintain Aspect Ratio to keep the picture clear.

I decided to punch up the colors and add a frame like look to the piece. I selected the plugin Filter Forges Photo Effects. Here I used the Lomo effect lightly to add some interest to the final display image. This darkened the colors and added a vignette to the image.

"Sunglasses Woman's Portrait with Map" Corel

Sunglasses Woman's Portrait with Map

Today is another in a series of Texture Blended Portraits, using Maps as a background texture. I opened the Woman's Portrait in Corel PhotoPaint. Here I cropped the image.

I next applied the Threshold tool for white space. I left some color in her face, hair, and eyes. I then applied the Local Equalization for a very High Contrast textural look. I then went and looked for a suitable Map background.

I found one that had Maps, graphs, and measuring tools. I opened that in PhotoPaint. I rotated it 90 degrees to Portrait setting. Copying it to the clipboard and pasted as a layer over the Woman.

I applied a property for transparency, then merged the two together. I used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Lomography for a vignetting. Added my signature and saved that iteration.

I then compressed the file at 75 and 33 for smoothing the optimized JPG. Saving a second iteration for display here.

"Gilded Butterfly Woman Portrait Lomography" Corel

Gilded Butterfly Woman Portrait

I was listening to some unusual Blues Music from the New York Times article about Elvie Thomas. Great old and mysterious Blues.

I was drawn to this Vintage Paper Texture from StockVault and I added a Woman's Portrait in Corel PhotoPaint. I flipped and cropped the Woman to fit the Texture. I also used the Threshold tool on it for transparency.

I went to my Dover Publications Samplers and selected a Butterfly coloring page and added it. I fitted it to the portrait making it an oval instead of a circle.

I merged the three layers, and went to Filter Forge's Photo Effect Lomography settings and played around with the settings. I found one I liked and applied it to the full image. I added my signature in white and saved that large iteration.

I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 and upped the Saturation Vibrancy by 33. Then I added Image Information: Title, Programs used, Source, etc. Saving that I resized for display here.

"Seagull in the Center - Guitar Collage in Blue" Corel - Picasa

Seagull in the Center

Here is a reworked Digital Collage of Guitars (circa 2008.) I was browsing my folders on my external HDD and found a few versions of this Collage of Guitars. I selected the Black and White Portrait version. I opened it in Picasa and edited the Tint to a Blue and Black and White image.

I added the Lomography Effect to the image and the Museum Matte, where I changed matte color to a light blue. The "Seagull in the Center," is a photograph of my own 12-String C12 Guitar, the other guitars came from various source images.

I saved the large file and opened with Corel PhotoPaint. I added an Inverted Signature (white on black) with the Copyright. I saved the resampled file iteration and opened that in Corel PSP Pro X3 to add the Image Information: Title, Artist, Copyright, etc.

I had the pleasure, today, to be a guest on a Hangout On the Air on Google+ hosted by George Miller entitled "Let's Talk About It." We and a few other guests discussed the topic "Depend." It was a challenging topic but made for interesting conversation. If you would like to review the show here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8j-TKpepVc 

Since it was very cold here in Michigan I had on my hat and two sweaters to keep warm. I also had some sound problems where I had to reboot my PC and rejoin the show live online. It was a good show.

"Red Chair HDR Lomo" Picasa 3.9 - Corel

Red Chair

Scanning through my external archives I ran across this photograph of a Red Chair taken in a retail store. I opened it in Picasa 3.9 and close cropped it of extraneous information that added little to the composition. I liked the experimental angle the photograph was taken at.

I next applied Picasa's HDR feature, adjusting the strength and radius. I then added the Lomo feature for more depth and shadow play.

I took the image into Corel PSP Pro X3 to add Image Information and my signature. I did that and saved the large file. I then resized for display here.

Off the beaten path for my posts and images. But I am still enamored of the grain of wood, and this image does have that.

"Stones Dirt and Flowers" Picasa - Corel PSP Pro X3 - Plus

Stones Dirt and Flowers

Stones Dirt and Flowers, is the title of today's image. Another floral photograph from our garden. The purple flowers just planted themselves there and grew next to the Black-eyed Susans.

After I selected this shot I used Picasa 3.9 HDR tool and adjusted the radius a bit. Then I applied the Lomo effect in Picasa. I saved that and opened the photograph in Corel PSP Pro X3.

Here I adjusted the Curves for depth, and Saturation for Vibrancy (about a third.) It really brought out the purple flowers and subdued the yellow of the Black-eyed Susans.

I saved that iteration. I opened with Corel PhotoPaint to add my signature in White. I saved that and reopened in PSP Pro X3 to adjust the size for display and add some information to the EXIF data. I saved again.

The Guitar motif will have to wait until I get the bug again, which won't be long.

On an interesting note gatzkART! has surpassed 110,500 Pageviews this week! Thank you for your views and interest in the workflow.

"Grunge 12-String Guitar with Chords" Corel - Plus

Grunge 12-String Guitar with Chords

Back to the 12-String Guitar motif, with a Grunge touch. I opened one of my Mayang's Texture with blue and orange color in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4. There I applied an Impressionist setting with Rough Paper, and a Random brush setting. I auto painted the background. Saving that iteration I opened with Corel PhotoPaint. I rotated to a portrait view.

I took one of my recent photographs of my Seagull S12 Cedar from Picasa 3.9 folder and I copied to the Clipboard. I opened the New from Clipboard in PhotoPaint and cut out the guitar and case. I copied and pasted that onto the portrait textured background.

I adjusted the guitar to fit and used the property Overlay to place it with transparency. I merged that. I next applied the Orange text of guitar chords in a progression I recently have been playing with. I applied the Basketcase Font to the letters. And then applied the Distort, Wet Paint set at 48 for the dripping paint look.

I used the Font WC Rhesus B Bta for the paint splatters in orange and blue on the background and the guitar. I applied Filter Forge's Photo Effects Lomo for the final touch of framing and the darker grunge feel. Adding my signature in white (inverted) I saved that large iteration.

Then I resampled to a display size in PhotoPaint.

"Three Narrow Dress Ties" Photo-manipulation - Picasa 3.9 - Corel PSP X3

Narrow Ties 1

Narrow Ties 2

I wanted to play with photography today. I decided to take some photographs of some older narrow dress ties that I have in my closet. No, I can't remember the last time I wore these ties. The narrow tie is back in style, I think, so I thought I would work with them as subject matter.

I tied each one in a single Windsor knot style and hung them on a hanger using safety pins for the two on the outside, draping the center one from the hanger loop. I got my Canon Rebel XTi out, mounted the ties and hanger on the wall in my studio office and shot a few photographs with differing settings. I did use the flash, though the room is pretty bright.

After I took them I loaded them onto my computer and opened Picasa 3.9. I used that to browse the new folder of tie photographs.

The first photograph I selected is the one with the black signature. I opened it with Corel PhotoPaint and adjusted the saturation by 15 for more color punch. I used the Tone Curve just lightly for a bit of depth. I saved both the large file and a medium size file.

The second photograph I picked has the white signature. I used Picasa 3.9's Lomo on it and also saved the large file, resampling a medium file in PhotoPaint.

I brought the medium files into Corel PSP Pro X3 and added black borders of 25 pixels each. I played around with some of the Picture Frames but did not like the end result. I resized to 300 dpi and made to fit my blog.

Now I feel like wearing these narrow ties again. Go figure.

Listening to Acoustic Blues Guitar on Google+