"Barn and Silo - Guitar and Banjo" Impressionistic - Corel - Plus

Barn, Silo - Guitarist, Banjo Player

Today I tried some digital painting using two different photographs. One of a Barn and Silo and the other of a Guitarist and Banjo Player jamming. I opened the first photograph in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and auto painted it with the Impressionistic feature. The second photograph was in Sepia tone. I auto painted that one as well.

On both I used the Soft Clone Brush to add back in details. Saving both of those images I opened from Picasa 3.9 with Corel PhotoPaint. First the Barn and Silo then I copied and pasted the Guitarist and Banjo Player onto that. Using the Erase tool I trimmed the Players to just the two individuals. I resized them, placing them on the canvas with 70% Opacity. I added my signature as well.

I merged them both together. I then took the Clone Brush at various sizes and added color from the Barn and Silo to the Players to bring them into the picture more distinctly. I saved the large iteration. After which I opened it with Corel PSP Pro X3 and used the Smart Photo Fix on it adjusting the brightness, shadows, midtones, and sharpness. I added the ornate frame using the Picture Frame feature in PSP. I saved the large file and then resized for display.

984th Post to gatzkART! 

I am working on a new song, "Wait Until Morning" but am uncertain of the chord progression and melody as of yet. I have one written down (chords) with a melody in mind, but am not sure I am done yet. Needs something, not certain what but it will come. I may do another slideshow of digital artworks with this as the soundtrack as I did with "Revel" DADGAD recently. It is posted to YouTube if you want to see it. Or check my posts to Google+ in my Profile (scroll down.) +Kirk Mathew Gatzka

"Ornate Firebird" Digital Collage - Corel PhotoPaint - Plus

Ornate Firebird

A short post today. I used Mayang's Texture for the background. I auto painted it using Detailed Watercolor in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4.

I browsed my Dover Clip Art and selected the pieces of color and the musical instruments. I created a composition of them and saved the large file. I did the Digital Collage work in Corel PhotoPaint.

I like the illusion of a Firebird that is the main focus of the piece. I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 and added the ornate frame, saving that iteration. Then I resized for display.

Listening --- Emerson, Lake and Palmer --- Lucky Man

49 West Ed & Patrick (Sparks & Raymond) - Painter 11 - Paint.NET - PhotoPaint

Click for Larger Image

My Musician friend Edward Sparks shared this photograph with me of a performance at 49 West in Annapolis. He and a friend performing here made for a great image. After I got permission from Edward I saved the photograph and opened with PhotoPaint to resample it to 96dpi which gave me a larger file to work with. I sharpened the image with a Directional Sharpen and saved the larger file.

I opened with Paint.NET and applied the Effects> Artistic> Ink Sketch> for a bit of pen and ink look and feel. I upped the color all the way and backed down the ink. Saving the image I opened with Painter 11 and created a quick clone with a white background. I began with the Straight Cloner brush and painted in Edward and Patrick only. Then I selected the Artist's Auto Van Gogh and with the lone button selected began painting in the background with that brush.

I then selected the Smeary Bristle Clone brush and added some color around the two of them and painted in the bass guitar and banjo. I added some details from the photographs background. The next brush I chose was one of Skip's Digital Watercolors and added a bit more detail allowing the Van Gogh brushwork to show through.

Selecting another digital watercolor brush from Skip's I used the eyedropper to select the blue color to add to the right hand sides large window. This was a finishing touch for this image, it really balanced the composition out color wise.

I saved the file again under a differing iteration. Opening In PhotoPaint I resampled the file for display online and added my signature.

I want to thank Edward for this opportunity to paint this image.

Listening --- Edward Sparks --- No Perfect People Allowed

Talking Records - Dover Clip Art - Vectored

Talking Records is a piece using CorelDRAW and CorelTRACE to vectorize some Dover Clip Art from Dover Public-
ations. I have samples of this clipart and one page includes a number of music related pieces. Here I found what appears to be two banjos and either a guitar or a ukulele.

I traced both the banjos and the Talking Records old time logo in CorelTRACE. Adding some color in CorelDRAW and copy and pasting into PhotoPaint. I ended up with a mosaic-like image.

I have the desire to do some more guitar work but the day has yet to lend itself to such. I am in search of a new chord progression. I have found that if I start with a good progression songwriting is much easier. But good ones are difficult to come by. I have a really good book entitled "How To Write Songs on Guitar" by Rikky Rooksby. This is a great resource for chord progressions used by many writers. Making them your own is a key to a successful song.

I'm examining the subtopic "The Five Chord Turnaround" for some ideas. He has plenty of examples of song progressions of five chords structures. One sited is "Hey Joe" and "A Day In the Life" (the middle eight.) Using such chords as C G D A E. It is up to the songwriter to use the progressions in a fresh way adding their melody and lyrics.

That is only one example, Rikky has many in this fine publication. I use it for inspiration and for encouragment. One doesn't write songs in a vacuum. Ideas come from many sources.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - I Want To Be With You
via FoxyTunes

Vector - Guitar and Banjo Players

Think 1980's. This photograph is an old scan from years ago. I have been reviewing some of my older work and photo-
graphs and thinking of ways to make them fresh images.

I opened the original scan and using PhotoPaint I altered the color. I like the green tones I ended with.

I copied the file to a Zip100 and pulled into Photoshop 7 on my Mac G4. I applied an Artistic filter which acts a bit like posterizing. Back to the PC I did some more work on it.

I used CorelTRACE on this old scanned photograph. After saving it in .cmx format for CorelDRAW I opened it in said program.

I ungrouped all the vectored pieces and moved some of them to provide white space. I added a yellow background and curved the corners. I added a beveled frame.

I am keeping with a guitar motif for a time as it comes under the Music discussion part of this blog. I am having a great time reviewing my older work and photographs and the inspiration comes. Thank you for reading and viewing my artwork!

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