"Vintage Abandoned House" PicsArt Photo Studio Plus

Vintage Abandoned House

I opened this photograph of a "Vintage Abandoned House," in PicsArt Photo Studio on my computer. I applied a tool to make it a Sketch-like image. After that, I used the Draw tools to select a couple of different Brushes to hand paint the sketch in color. (I have a Wacom USB Tablet with stylus connected to my computer for painting.)

I used the Mask tools to add a Border to the piece. Not quite what I wanted I added a Photo of a Rusty Texture using the Screen property. Using the Text tool I added my name and the year. I saved that image to my computer.

I went to Paint.NET and adjusted the Saturation for additional color. The blue painted sky lost some of it's blue to an overcast look. I saved the large image again.

The steps were simple, except for the painting by hand which took some time. I used Paint.NET to resize to display size. 95dpi, 1220 X 813 pixels, with 85 Compression for a smaller image. I save it with a new name.

I have three differing views of this Abandoned House in photographs. I did one other prior to this one. I may do the other photograph in a similar way. I think that the decay displayed is of interest to many readers.

With this post, I reached the Milestone of over 175,000 Plus Pageviews! Thank you for your patronage!

"Young Lady and Young Man Portrait" Corel

Young Lady and Young Man Portrait

"Young Lady and Young Man Portrait," from the Morguefile Free Photos. I liked the colors in this photograph, and the smiles on their faces. I selected it based upon these qualities. I opened it in Picasa 3.9 and utilized the HDRish tool, increasing the radius and value. Saving that file I opened it in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4.

Here I used the Pastel Drawing settings, Soft Pastel Tapered Brushes. Afterwards, I added back in detail with the Soft Brush in the eyes, and smiles, mouths. I save this file as a TIFF formatted file. I opened that file in Corel Painter 11 and began to paint digitally with my Wacom Tablet and Pen.

I began with the Tinting Brushes with low opacity. Then I switched to the Digital Watercolor Brushes, changing them as I went along. I also used some Blender Brushes, Conte Brushes to add some painterly effects. I saved that iteration as a TIFF file with a different name.

I then opened it in Corel PhotoPaint and added my signature, re-sampling for display, I saved as a JPG file with 75 for compression and 25 for smoothing.

With my Music I have been having some fun attempting to play some Joe Bonamassa songs; "Different Shades of Blue," and "Driving Towards the Daylight." Of course, I am not attempting to play his leads, only to reproduce the songs with Vocals and Chords, Lyrics, playing my 12-String Seagull S12 1990 Guitar. I must admit to mimic Joe is quite a challenge, I've been playing too long in my own style, it is hard to fit anothers.

I also have been working on a New Song, "Come with the Tide." It is a rambling tune with a short Chorus thus far. It may need a rewrite before I release it (probably on SoundCloud.)

"I Still Remain," is still with the Lead Player for his contribution. He has been on vacation, we will see what he comes up with soon. I hope to release that one as a CDBaby song for sale, if it turns out well. We will see.

"Bright Eyes Womans Portrait" Corel Painter

Bright Eyes Womans Portrait

Continuing with my series of Digitally Painted Portraits I selected a Woman's Portrait. I first opened in Corel PSP Pro X3 and created an RGB Grayscale image. I saved that large file and opened it in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and auto painted it with the Watercolor Sketch settings.

After saving that I reopened it in Corel Painter 11 to Digitally Paint it using my Wacom tablet attached to my computer. I adjusted the Round Tinting Brush and began with some selected colors. I knew I wanted this to be a bright colorful painting, so I stuck with a palette that had just what I needed.

I spent much time on the face and eyes, keeping it bright. I did some blending with a blending tool. When I was satisfied with the face, eyes, and hair I painted the Background using a Chalk Brush. I used a form of Burnt Sienna for the base color. I also chose a light texture for the Chalk.

I switched to a Gouache Brush and an Indian Yellow, still using the texture, and painted around the Womans head. I narrowed the brush size and added some Indian Yellow to the Hair. Finishing with that I saved the large iteration with another name.

I opened it up in PSP Pro X3 again and layered my signature. Using the Effects Texture tool, I chose a paper texture for the entire image. Every layer was merged.

I had attempted to make the Eyes Hazel with blue, green, light brown, and yellow. I felt they looked just as I had wanted them, thus the "Bright Eyes Womans Portrait," Title.

"1990 Circa Digital Visual Art - Retrospective"

Foliage and Woman

Young Woman

I am still getting my PC back to health with an OS upgrade and driver compatibility issues. So I am sharing some of my earlier Circa 1990's Digital Visual Artworks.

"Foliage and Woman," is full of computer color. A beautiful face along with the surrounding florals and leaves. This was probably done with Corel PhotoPaint (an early version.)

"Young Woman," was also done in PhotoPaint with Tinting and softening. I remember taking this photograph of the young lady so long ago. A contemplative expression that I see as delightful. Her Mother was suffering from Cancer at the time and it shows in her countenance. Since then her Mother has been "in remission," up to this day, after surgery, chemo, and radiation. Last time I saw this gal she is a happy Mother herself now.

I am approaching the end of my sojourn through the OS upgrade and I will continue to share older works for a little longer. Please view it as a Retrospective of my early work. Thank You!

"Reviewing the Past in Digital Art - Circa 1990's"

Freehand Drawn - Computer Colored

Freehand Plus KPT Collection

Scanned in Dot Matrix Printout

Again I have displayed some "Vintage" circa 1990 and earlier Digital Artworks. I am Sharing these as I update my PC and OS. Less time for creating newer images.

All of these have some freehand drawing to them, fictional women in bright color or Dot Matrix printout form. Some come from Journals I kept and then scanned in to manipulate in computer programs.

Not much time today to explain workflow, most of which is forgotten anyway! I am pretty certain I used some version of Corel Products for the color images. That's about it.

When I get more time I will probably begin creating New Works for your enjoyment, until then Old times are rolling!

"2013 Woodward Dream Cruise, Various Cars I" Corel PSP Pro X3 - Paint.NET

1979 Monte Carlo

HDR Wine Coupe

Chevelle SS

I was able to attend the Detroit Woodward Dream Cruise for 2013 and garner some photographs of automobiles. I used our Canon Rebel XTi camera with a tripod for the photographs.

I will be sharing sets of these images, after my working on them for differing effects in my next number of posts. I will try to explain that workflow.

With this 1979 Monte Carlo, belonging to my Brother in Law, I used Corel PSP Pro X3 for some adjustments. I used the Digital Camera noise removal, and the Smart Photo fix. I also boosted the Saturation with the Vibrancy set at about a third.

The Wine Coupe I also did in PSP Pro X3. I used two exposures to create one HDR image. I also used the Noise Removal, Smart Photo Fix and the Sharpen High Pass on it.

The Carmel and Black Chevelle Super Sport I opened in Paint.NET and applied a light Ink Sketch to the image. I adjusted the Curves for depth and increased the Saturation a bit. I applied KPT Collection's Lens Flare for some color as well.

As I took quite a few photographs of the cars in my area I will be posting more Automobile images in my posts. I hope you enjoy them!

Long Time Friends - Painter 11 - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

Click for Larger Image

"Long Time Friends," is the title of today's image. We had the pleasure of visiting with some friends that we haven't spent time with for many years. This began as a photograph of my wife and our friend Jim. The photograph was taken with my Canon XTi Rebel DSLR.

I first opened with PhotoPaint and used the Local Equalization feature on it. Then I applied the Tone Curve to it to give it some depth of color. So I started with a High Contrast photographic image.

I save this large file and opened with Painter 11, did a Quick Clone and selected the Straight Cloner brush. I painted in the two figures that had the High Contrast look and feel. I did not want the details of the background to dominate the image so I selected the Suminagashi 2 Grainagashi brush and painted in the entire background with the clone button on.

I Applied a surface texture to the image and did an iterative save of the piece. I reopened it in PhotoPaint where I applied Filter Forge's Photo Effect Grunge for additional look and feel and a frame. I selected differing variants before I settled on  one.

I saved this iteration and then resampled for the web and saved the final with my signature.

Listening --- James Taylor --- You've Got A Friend

Painter 11 Portrait - Corel PhotoPaint - Picasa 3 - Filter Forge

Click for Larger Image

I recently spent some time with my Grandson and took a few Photographs of him. I browsed in Picasa 3 to the dated folder containing these and selected one closeup. I went to Create Picture Collage in Picasa 3 and created a large file of the closeup as a single image in the collage.

I opened the image in Painter 11 and did a Quick Clone to duplicate the image ready to paint. Using the Auto Van Gogh brush I applied it to the clone. Afterward I wanted to push the background to the back visually so I chose the Grainy Water Blender and painted the background with it.

I decided it need more grain so I selected a Suminagashi 2 Grainagashi brush and painted on the background with the clone tab selected.  I also applied the Soft Cloner Brush to the eyes and then used the Grainagashi brush around the eyes and mouth and nostrils.

To bring out more clarity in detail for the eyes I selected the Straight cloner brush and painted the iris and pupil.

I saved this very large file as a jpg format. I closed Painter 11 and using Picasa 3 went to the folder where I had saved it and opened with PhotoPaint. I resampled the image for the web. Using Filter Forge's frames I added a small frame variation with rounded corners and three colors, adjusting the width of each color. I saved that file as a jpg with my signature as an iterative save.

Listening --- Led Zeppelin --- The Rain Song

Fictional Portraits V - Stained Glass Look

Keeping it simple works to your advantage some of the time. Using your imagination and being inspired may cause cluttered artwork. But the simple image can be striking.

This "stained glass" image is a good example of this. I used Painter 8 and did the piece digitally, keeping the basics only and using few colors. The watercolor brushes were employed to create a digital sketch.

I really like the Wacom tablet I use, it makes digital more like natural media. Use of the pen strokes to paint is much better than using the mouse, at least for me it is. I can hardly imagine working with their Cintiq interface it's for the big boys and girls. But it would be marvelous to have one. I use a smaller one and find it adequate for my digital efforts. One can always dream.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Black Crows - Thorn In My Pride
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Unique Change - Painter Watercolor Portrait

Time for something unique. I was thinking that my readers might want something new. I've been stuck in the grunge/guitar motif for quite a few posts so I thought I would strike out in a different direction.

I've had this digital sketch of a man's face for some time, just black on white. I opened the sketch up in Painter 8 and decided to use the Watercolor brushes on it. This was all done freehand with a Wacom tablet and stylus.

Short forehead and squinty eyes a long nose made for a different portrait image. I also used the Liquid Ink ballpoint pen brush for the white highlights. But for the most part I stuck with the Watercolor brushes.

I love the watercolors of Painter 8. I know that they have updated the Corel Painter program to version 11 now but budget constraints prohibit an upgrade right now. I still am amazed at the versatility of Painter 8 and it's capabilities to imitate traditional media for painting.

He needs a name, any suggestions? Feel free to comment.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Alison Krauss - Rich Woman
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Wizz Jones - Bluesman

Concluding my series of Bluesmen from Blue Front Blues Room is a portrait of Wizz Jones. Photographic credit goes to John Anderson.

I am very happy with this series of images. I really enjoyed working on them and I am grateful to John for his kindness in letting me use his photographs to work with.

Each one has it's little quirks and style but pulled together they make a great Picasa 3 collage. I made one just yesterday and I have yet to print it out. All told I did 12 pieces based upon a different Blues person each time.

Digital Visual Art is great to work with. There are so many possibilities and tools and programs to work with. Along with my programs and plugins I use a Wacom tablet for digital pieces. It is like using a pencil/pen/brush/crayon to draw with and create such images. I revel in the creative process and the speed and variety at which I can work given the computer and such tools, and programs.

I hope you have enjoyed the series! Comments are welcome on any one of the images I create and post here. Or just mark your Reaction to a post, that is welcome as well. Please pass on to your Friends my blog URL, I would like to share with as many people as I can, Thank You!

We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming.