"Digital Collage of Images Created with PicsArt App" Picasa

Collage of Images

While ill I created some images on my Tablet using the PicsArt App. I enjoyed using this App so much I got the Windows 10 version installed now along with AutoDesk's Sketchbook on my computer.

I did quite a bit of layering and using of PicsArt filters to create each image you see in the collage. I used polygon tools, mask layers, some clipart, some hand painting as well. Each piece will stand on its own, but I wanted to show the versatility of PicsArt.

I like the selection of tool for each thing you may want to do. I can "Enhance," a photograph, with a simple click, alter the strength of the changes with embedded tools. I can adjust Curves for RGB or the differing colors Red, Green, Blue individually.

I add layers directly and quickly by adding a photograph, with the selection of different properties, and adjust the opacity, too. Free clipart comes with the App as well as some great Fonts.

And the App will let you buy more Fonts and Collections for only about $00.99 each. I have not purchased any additional ones myself, and I am still finding many ways of creating great images without adding any yet.

PicsArt also has many #freetoedit photographs to offer to the user. I used some of them and some from Pixabay, and Unsplash. It also has multiple FX, Artistic, and other Filters to apply to your works.

I created the Digital Collage with Picasa 3+, which is no longer being supported, but still the current version works fine. After creating the Collage I saved it and opened it with Corel PhotoPaint. There I resampled from 120dpi to a 72dpi image, 1220 X 763. I saved it as an Optimized JPG 75 compression and 25 smoothing. I saved the display image with a new name.

As you share your works with the PicsArt Community, you can set it up to share with your other Social Media, too. I share with my Facebook timeline each time I post a new image to the Community. You can select how and where to share.

One other thing to mention is PicsArt App allows you to create Gif Animations of your creations in a step by step manner. Gif Animations are not accepted everywhere but are great fun to create.

"Windswept Woman and Blue" PicsArt App

I have been using free to edit pictures from PicsArt App, on my tablet. I layered the Woman using a Sketch filter set to Multiply over an enhanced Blue photo of a set of what appears to be shutters.

I'm continuing to work with my tablet for experimental art. I am using a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 tablet. I have a stylus for sketching, but did not use it for this post.

I have Autodesk Sketchbook, and PicsArt App. Also a interesting app called Motion Portrait for animating faces.

I am not sure about sizing the images on the Tablet yet. If you want to coach me let me know what I can do.

I will be receiving the Martin DRS1 for a gift. I have it now and I have found jam tracks on YouTube by QuistJam. Practicing scales by ear as I jam with it. I am using the Line 6 PodXT Live and my PC set up to do so. Enjoying the new guitar and the jams. Now I need a new guitar amp! It is always something.

"Digitally Painted Doors Digital Collage" Painter Essentials 5 - Picasa Plus

Digitally Painted Doors Collage

I created this collage from free photographs that I got from Unsplash. Some of them I had done earlier, and as I wanted to present a Digital Collage of a Series of Doors I did a few more.

The Aqua Door and Windows with the Ocher Wall I opened in Painter Essentials 5. I used the Artist Brushes set, with Impressionistic Blender Jitter brush. I also used the Photo Painting Brush - Soft Cloner for details.

In the upper right hand corner, the Brown Door and Shutters I opened in Painter Essentials 5. Here I applied the Watercolor Sketch set with Photo Painting Brush, Grainy Variable Pencil selected. I used Picasa to up the Shadows and in Paint.NET I added my signature layer with the property Multiply for transparency.

On the Burgundy Door with Foliage I used GIMP's Oil Paint and added Texture to the entire image. Very simple changes in color with Saturation and Curves for depth. (Lower right hand corner.)

The Green Door and Windows with the White Wall, I used Painter Essentials 5, Watercolor Sketch with Photo Painting Brush, Chalk Cloner. Then I added a touch of the Colored Pencil Drawing set using a Grainy Variable Brush. In Paint.NET, I again upped the Saturation and depth with Curves.

I grouped the images all in their own Folder named Doors. Opening Picasa 3+ I selected them all and chose Create Collage, Repositioned a couple of the images and made the large Digital Collage.

I used Irfranview to resize the JPG file for display at 72dpi.

I am now pretty satisfied with my slight penchant with a Doorway Series, as this Digital Collage served to create differing views of Doorways and Windows. I invite you to click on the image for the larger view, and to see more of the details of each Doorway and surrounds.

"Painter Essentials 5 Test Digital Collage" Corel - Picasa

Painter Essentials 5 Test Digital Collage

I received a Sale deal from Corel today. Their Painter Essentials 5 is 30% off. They have a 30 Day Trial, so I downloaded that. Though the Sale is only until the 22nd at Midnight I wanted to see the advantages of it over Painter Photo Essentials 4, a legacy program.

I opened the trial and began playing with different settings on a number of free photographs from Unsplash and Morguefile. Needless to say it gave me some really interesting Digital Paintings. Oil, Modern, Illustration, Detailed Watercolor, Watercolor Sketch and Colored Pencil Drawing. With Version 5 there are more choices for Brushes, Paper, and others. Each type of painting you pick you can select a Brush, and Paper for your pleasure and mood. The Styles are an array of wonderment.

I took the Digital Paintings I had experimented with and used Picasa 3+ to create a Digital Collage, which you see here. It was so much fun I did not keep track of all the settings I chose. I saved the Collage and opened it in Corel PSP Pro X3. There I adjusted the Saturation Vibrancy, added my signature and saved the large Collage. I resized for display.

I am pretty confident I am going to purchase Corel's Painter Essentials 5, and retire Painter Photo Essentials 4. After all it is priced for $34.99 Download version.

"How this was Done - Musicians Digital Collage" Corel - Picasa

Musicians Digital Collage

As a Musician I enjoy seeing them working their craft. I garnered a few photographs of Musicians from Morguefile and selected four of them to present as Digital Visual Art. The selected four of the photographs I had downloaded from the Free Photos on Morguefile. I decided to do something a little different with them. I chose a Fiddle Player, Banjo Player, Acoustic Guitar Player and an Electric Guitar player. I had a Band without drums, not unheard of for Folk Rock Bluegrass.

I opened each one separately in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and digitally painted them. The settings were the Watercolor Sketch, Rough Paper, Saturate Color, Dry Bristle Brush. I did each of the photographs with these settings for uniformity of execution.

After I saved each one I opened Picasa 3+ and selected them individually to use to create a Digital Collage of all four. I applied Picasa's Collage tool and set it as 8.5" X 11" format, Mosaic setting. I shuffled the photos until I had a balance of the four painted images. I generated the Digital Collage in Picasa. It was saved automatically as a large JPG image.

I opened that Collage in Corel PSP Pro X3. Here I applied the Smart Photo Fix tool, upping the color and the highlights just a bit, with a suggested brightening setting. I then used the Saturation Vibrancy tool on the Collage. I thought about applying the Curves to it but the colors were just right, so I did not. I added my signature as a layer and sized it and placed it with the Property of Lighten, merging the layers. I saved the large iteration.

As is my custom I next resized the piece for display in PSP Pro X3, 72dpi and full color.

So I am a Producer of Bands now! I created this group and they sound great! Well, if you could hear them like I do in my head, I am certain you would appreciate them.

"10 Minute Digital Collage - Textured Young Lady" Corel

Textured Young Lady Portrait

Another 10 minute Digital Collage is the subject today. I opened a Texture from Stockvault Friday Freebies of Yellow Painted Concrete in Corel PSP Pro X3. I also opened a portrait of a Young Lady from the Morguefile Free Photos in Paint.NET. In Paint.NET I changed the image to a Black and White photo, I applied the Artistic Ink Sketch, Coarse pen to that.

Saving that I opened it in PSP Pro X3 and placed it as a layer on the Texture. I adjusted the size of the Young Lady to fit the large Texture. Using the property Multiply I added transparency to the portrait. I added my signature and then upped the Saturation Vibrancy. I merged the layers and removed EXIF information from the image. I then simply resized for display. I adjusted the Curves to add depth to the piece and saved it.

All in all it took around 10 minutes and a tad to complete this Textured Digital Collage of the Young Lady.

"Digital Collage How To: Lighthouse with Slight Murmuration of Birds " Corel

Lighthouse with Slight Murmuration of Birds

I started this Digital Collage with three photographs from Unsplash Free Photos. I opened them one by one in Corel PSP Pro X3 and began the collage.

First I took the two photographs of Flying Birds and used the Crop tool on them to narrow in on the birds themselves. I applied the Threshold tool to each one, this made for black and white images to overlay. I placed the first one and sized to fit the Lighthouse Sky. I used the layer property Multiply and merged the layer. I did the same with the second birds image. This gave me a small murmuration of black birds. I merged the second layer of birds. I added my signature layer with the property Multiply as well, and merged all layers.

Still in PSP Pro X3 I applied the Smart Photo Fix with increased color, decreased shadows and highlights. I then applied the Saturation Vibrancy for a pop to the colors. I changed the image to a 16 bit RGB and Exported it as a JPG. I saved that large iteration with a light compression ratio. The higher I set the ratio the more pixelated the image became. So, I lowered it making for a larger file size. All this before re-sizing for display.

The download of the Lighthouse did not give it's location, and I am not certain where the original photograph was taken. Like many, I like Lighthouses as I live in the Great Lakes Area, and we have many of them throughout the State of Michigan.

"10 Minute Digital Collage - Woman and Wood" Corel

Digital Collage - Woman and Wood

A 10 minute "Digital Collage - Woman and Wood." I used Corel PSP Pro X3 in Windows 10 to create this Digital Collage. Two photographs, one from the Morguefile Free Photos and the other a Texture photograph from Stockvault Friday Freebies.

I opened the dark Woman's Portrait in PSP Pro X3 and used the Threshold tool set to Outline White for the face, hand and hair. I opened the Wood Texture and copied it to the clipboard. I pasted as a new layer into the Woman's Portrait.

I adjusted the large image to show it's interesting cut wood natural lines. Then I applied the Saturation Vibrancy to the wood. I also used the Curves tool to lighten the wood colors a tad. I placed it where I wanted it and merged the layer using the property Multiply. I added my signature as a layer and merged that then saved the large 300dpi image.

I then resized the image to display size for this post. It only took 10 or so minutes to create this piece. Two Photographs, One Program.

Took longer to describe my process and workflow!

"Azure Eyes Digital Collage" Corel

Azure Eyes Digital Collage

NOTE: I have made adjustments to the New Song: 'Wait Until Morning,' with CDBaby. It is currently unavailable for the Full preview listening or purchase. As soon as I can I will have this corrected with them. They operate on business days, so it may take some time, Please be patient.

Today's image is a Digital Collage with Texture Blended Photography. The Woman Portrait is from Stockvault Free images and the Texture from their Friday Freebies. I opened the Woman in Corel PhotoPaint and applied the Threshold with color, made slight adjustments and went from there. I opened the Blue Texture and copied it and layered it over the Portrait. I used the property Multiply with some Opacity alterations on the Texture.

I liked the Azure Eyes of the Woman and wanted to show them fairly clearly. I decided I to make this more of a Digital Collage, I searched my Dover Publications Sampler images. I found the Two Flappers and added the layer with the property Multiply, erasing a line which surrounded them. Now with the Flappers on the left hand side, I balanced out the composition with a Floral Corner Accent. I merged all of these. I added my signature, and resized for display. Oh, and I had opened the large iteration (a TIFF file,) in Corel PSP Pro X3 adding Saturation Vibrancy for the Azure and colors brilliance.

"Stone Textured Woman with Dogs - Horse" Digital Collage - Corel

Stone Textured Woman with Dogs - Horse

As I mentioned I would endeavor to create some new Digital Collage works. I had time to do so with today's offering for your viewing.

I started with a Stone Texture from StockVault, I opened it with Corel PSP Pro X3. There I used the Curves tool to lighten the Stone background. I then opened the Woman with the Dogs and Horse. I used the Curves tool again, this time to deepen the colors of this Dover Publications Clip Art. I also increased the Saturation Vibrancy by 33.

Using Corel PhotoPaint, I opened a page of Dover Clip Art with Art Nouveau Designs in black and white. I selected the Bottom Design and cut that out, saving as it's own file. Then I opened the Vines for the Top Design to add some framing to the Woman image.

I copied and pasted these as new layers in PSP, as well as a layer of my signature. I adjusted the size of each one, placed them in position and then Merged all the layers to one.

I saved the large iteration and resized for display in PSP. Saving that I opened it one more time in PhotoPaint. There I applied Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrancy one more time for a boost to the overall colors. I also compressed the file by 70, as it is a 300 dpi image, smoothing is set to 15 I saved the file once again with these settings.

I have many more pieces of Dover Clip Art Samplers on my external drive, to use for additional Digital Collage Artworks. Also StockVault and Mayang's Textures supply me with many types of backgrounds. Look for more of my Collage work in the near future.

"Grunge Golden Eyed Woman Portrait" Corel

Grunge Golden Eyed Woman Portrait

I started with a Free Texture background from the web and added two other images. From Stockvault's Free Images I took the Golden Eyes Woman's Portrait. In Corel PhotoPaint I overlay the Portrait as a layer. I adjusted the Local Equalization and the Tone Curve to create contrasting color values and more texture. I adjusted the Opacity of the Portrait to allow the beginning texture to show through.

Searching my Dover Publication' Samplers I found a Score of Music and copied and pasted and fit to size on the merged grayscale Texture and color Portrait. I then used Effects, Distort, Wire Mesh to make the Music Score to flow over the Portrait. I applied the property of Multiply to the Music for transparency. I saved that 300dpi iteration.

I opened in Corel PSP Pro X3 and used the Saturation Vibrancy tool to boost the colors. I added my signature as a black and white layer fit to size, then applied the property Lighten to hide the black, for transparency.

I added Image Information Title, Copyright, etc to the image, saved it again, then I resized for display with a black border.

I want to thank StockVault and the Free Texture blog, as well as Dover Publications, for the images used to create today's piece.

"Trio of Old Artworks - Woman - Guitars - Knight" Corel

Digital Collage Woman - Guitars - Knight

I browsed through my Folders on my External HDD. There I found one of my favorite images, layers of Guitars. I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 and resized the image. I then enhanced the colors with Curves, Saturation Vibrancy. I also added some canvas texture to it.

I had recently moved some of my older film photographs and I looked through them. I discovered screen shots of some Artworks done on my old Amiga 1000. I used my Canon MP495 and scanned two of them into PSP Pro X3. The trio of the Woman in Blue, and the Knight in a Town with Mountains in the background. These were probably done in the late 1980's on the Amiga, I had photographed them with a Pentax Film 35mm Camera.

I used PSP Pro X3 to enhance them and then decided to make a Collage of the three images. I opened Picasa 3.9 and grabbed all three and Created the Collage. I used an HDTV ratio setting, which made for a large file. I added the Museum Matte to the Collage. I saved the large image. I reopened in Corel PhotoPaint and copied and pasted my signature into the Collage.

I also used that file in PSP Pro X3 to add Image Information, Title, Copyright, programs used, etc. I here resized for display. Please click on the image for the large view, always better to do that to enjoy the thumbnail image close to the real size of the file.

"Art Nouveau Lady with Butterflies" Dover Publications - Corel

Art Nouveau Lady with Butterflies

"Art Nouveau Lady with Butterflies," is the Digital Collage for today. I used my Dover Publications Samplers files for the whole image. I opened the Background in Corel PhotoPaint.

There I applied the Local Equalization tool and the Tone Curve for depth to the floral background. I resampled it to a Medium sized file. I then browsed for more and found the Art Nouveau Butterflies Clip Art (coloring page.)

I opened that in PhotoPaint and also opened up the Art Nouveau Lady, also a Dover Clip Art piece, a model with a hat and dress separately like a paper doll and clothes. I placed the Lady on the new background with the floral and butterflies. I cut out the hat and placed it. Then I did the same with the dress. I grouped the Object (layer) with Create New Object. I then applied the Tone Curve to her for color depth.

I added my signature in blue and bright pink outline. I applied Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrancy to punch up the colors. I saved this iteration with a new name for the file. At this point the file was 24-bit color at 300 dpi.

I opened the file in Corel PSP Pro X3 to add Image Information: Title, Copyright, Artist, etc. I added the Ornate Frame to the image and applied Saturation Vibrancy to it one more time (set at 33.)

I saved this iteration with the same name. I resized it for display, saving with a different file name.

"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.

"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!

"Rusted Gal Digital Collage" Paint.NET - Corel

Rusted Gal

I began today's creative work by searching my external archives once again. I opened a photograph of a Young Lady in Paint.NET. There I applied the Artistic Ink Sketch without color for a black and white image.

I then searched in my Mayang's Textures folder for some colorful Rust and Paint textures. I found the texture and applied it as a new layer in Paint.NET, saving that image.

I opened with Corel PhotoPaint. Then I began a search through my Dover Publication's Sampler folder for some other collaging ideas. I found the clip art image of the cats and cut and pasted into the image, fit to the image size of the portrait and merged all.

I also found an Art Nouveau design which I placed and flipped vertically, used the Tone Curve to darken and the property Multiply adding that. I also found a group of jewelry pieces and selected a Cameo for an earring. I added that with cutting and pasting, and resized it a bit, placed it on the earlobe and merged.

I used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrance and a Film frame.

I added my signature in white by inverting the black and white PNG file. Saving the cropped image at a large size I then resampled to display size.

"Grunge Women Portraits Three Images" Corel PhotoPaint

Triple Play

Single Gal

Dual Flow

Shares and Comments and Pluses are welcome on all my "gatzkART!" Posts! Thank You! Always visit the blog for the images larger view.

I had a anxious day and could not sleep, so I did some Digital Visual Art. Searching my External HD I found some photographs of Women's Faces - portraits really.

I opened them in Corel PhotoPaint. Here I applied the Threshold tool to create black and white images. I adjusted the Threshold on each accordingly.

I have Guitars on my mind, as I listened to Blues on Pandora. So I took the White Spaces and holding down the Shift Key I selected as much of the white as I could.

I opened my window for selecting fills and chose differing wood fills for each face. I tripled the first, kept the middle one single and doubled the final one.

I used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Grunge on each image for texturing. I then saved each iteration as a large file and resampled for display size, after adding my signature in white.

A break from my Guitar motif, but with wood tones reminiscent of the solid backs of acoustic guitars.

Listening to Another Brick In The Wall, nice for creating different Digital Visual Art.

"Leftovers from the 2013 Dream Cruise" Collage - Picasa - Corel

Vintage Tidbits Collage

I had some more photographs left over from the 2013 Woodward Ave Dream Cruise, I opened Picasa 3.9 and selected four, two with headlights, two back ends, of some of the cars I had photographed.

I picked build Collage in Picasa, made some appropriate selections for the Digital Collage and had Picasa make it. Being that the overall collage was a large piece I opened Corel PhotoPaint and resampled to a workable size.

Once in PhotoPaint I applied the Adjust, Local Equalization tool for texture and an HDR look. Getting back color depth and punch I used the Tone Curve Luminosity curve and pulled it down in the center of the graph. Then I selected Effects, Filter Forge's Photo Effects, Vibrancy for additional punch to the colors.

I saved that iteration and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3. Here I applied the Sharpen High Pass Sharpen Overlay. Back in PhotoPaint I added my signature in white, and saved again with some compression for display.

"Thunderstorm and Internet Outage - Seagull C12 Digital Collage" Paint.NET - Corel

Digital Collage Seagull C12

Had another Thunderstorm and the power went out. I was offline and had powered down my system before that so I spared my equipment some electrical harassment. But after the storm passed - now - no Internet from my ISP! The travails of the current age.

So I drank a cup of coffee, half decaf and half regular and settled in at my workstation. I plugged in my External drive and browsed the folders in Thumbnail view looking for guitar photographs.

Finding some I made my selection, my Seagull C12 sideways (horizontally.) I opened the file with Paint.NET and applied the Ink Sketch with no color and a setting of 28 for the ink pen. I Then saved this large version to my local workstation.

I opened the file with Corel PhotoPaint and began creating some Masks that allowed some pasting of a skyline and a blue gradient into the piece. I also used a woodgrain fill for the guitar body mask. I played around with pieces of the guitar making an unusual looking instrument.

Selecting another photograph of my guitar I cut it out with the lasso tool and copied and pasted it into the collage. I applied curved feathering to the object selection and duplicated it in differing sizes for balancing out the composition.

I saved that iteration to my workstation and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3. Here I increased the Saturation using Vibrancy upping the color threshold. I applied my signature with the Visible Watermark tool. Then I selected the Picture Frame Cyanotype and framed the image.

I saved that iteration and resized for display in PSP Pro.

As I post this my Stereo Amp died a popping death! Now using old OEM Speakers, Can't use my Toneport for recording or playing back, it is unplugged. Bummer!

"Guitar Soundholes with Lutes" Corel - Plus

Guitar Soundholes with Lutes

Would you believe that I did this image of Guitar Soundholes with Lutes in so many steps I did not track them all! I used two Photographs taken with our Canon Rebel Xti of our guitars.

I worked on the image in these following programs, altering, cutting, pasting, and adding texture. But I can't remember all the steps I used, only the Programs:

• 1. Picasa 3.9
• 2. Corel PhotoPaint
• 3. Corel PSP Pro X3
• 4. KPT Collections
• 5. Dover ClipArt (Lute)

I usually share the process better than this and I must apologize for not keeping track of my workflow in this instance. I just created the image as it flowed out.

Sometimes the process of creating just goes that way.