"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!

"Steps To: Red Brick Wall, Door, and Bike" Corel

Red Brick Wall Door and Bike

Steps to do this and the Programs used:

• Picasa - HDR settings Strength=High Radius=Medium
• Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 settings Watercolor Sketch, Rough Paper, Colors=Intense, Dry Brush
• Corel PSP Pro X3 settings Smart Photo Fix=Brightened, Colorful, Sharpness Saturation=Vibrancy at 33
• Photograph from UNSplash Free Photos

Enjoy some of my Music in the CDBaby Kiosks below, just scroll down and listen to Full Previews! Listen before you Buy.

Check out my Art and Music For Sale Page for more information about buying a piece of my work!

"Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 - Anchorage, Alaska"

Anchorage AK Seascape

Anchorage AK Skyline

On Vacation and had some time to reflect on another vacation in Anchorage, Alaska. I selected two photographs taken with my Canon Rebel XTi. I am using our Laptop, and Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 to Auto-Paint

I used the settings for two Watercolor Sketchs Auto-Paint, with Rough Paper and tapered brushes. It is an easy exercise to do, with some pretty great results.

Both photographs were taken from the South East of Anchorage, Nice lines and color. One is a seascape. The other is a shot of the city's skyline.

Short Post as the Auto-Paint is done by the program, with little intervention on my part. But the Photographs were taken by me. I hope you enjoy my meager sharing. Click on the images for their larger views!

"Vector Women, Digital Collage - Dual Faces" Corel - Canon

Brown Hair Green Eyes Vector

Multi-Colored Hair Vector

Dual Faces Collage

Digging further into the detritus of my Art Garden of Journals I discovered some images I wanted to share. Both of the first two images are scans of printouts. They originally started out as Vector Images done in CorelDRAW, saved onto Iomega Zip100 disks I no longer have access to.

I used my Canon MP495 Printer All in One to scan them in and crop. I used Corel PhotoPaint to touch them up slightly with a touch of Tone Curve. I added my signature and saved large iterations and then resampled for display.

The Third Image is a Digital Collage of three scans. One is a Pen and Ink sketch of a German Immigrant Woman. Another is a Pencil sketch of a Sad Man. The last one is the base of color, which if I remember correctly, was a Painter 8 playful painting using varied brushes like Liquid Ink. I cropped and layered all three images, some Tone Curve adjustments and Saturation Vibrancy, as well. Again I added my signature and saved the large files and resampled for display.

"1,150th Post - Retrospective of my Digital Visual Artworks!"

Mr. E. Beatle

Laurie Eskimo

Perceive

Abstract Digital Visual Art

Freehand Circa 1995 Scanned 

These images will complete my Current Retrospective of Archived Digital Visual Artworks. I have shared from 1987 up to circa 1999 images from the archives I rediscovered recently.

All were done with some digital painting or manipulation of some sort. The processes used then are in most cases are not remembered. Some begin as photographs, some freehand drawings scanned in using various scanners.

I am certain I still use some of these processes, but with different programs and different computers come differing styles and images.

I hope that some of you have enjoyed the Retrospective of my Digital Visual Artworks!

Also this is my 1,150th Post to gatzkART! and we are rapidly approaching 121,000 plus Pageviews, a feat that brings excitement to my small offerings on the Internet.

"1994 - 1997 Salvaged Digital Archives" Amiga - Corel

Floral Vase with Fruit

Art Deco - Boatback

The Homestead Brightened Up

Freehand "Hank" scanned  into an Amiga

Continuing with my Retrospective I have more Salvaged Images from my archives. Done in 1994 through 1997, these images are colorful and varied.

"Floral Vase with Fruit," to my recollection was done with Corel Products on a PC. "Art Deco - Boatback," was also done with the same products. It began as a film photograph scanned in. I spent considerable time in Corel PSP Pro X3 adjusting the images for color and sharpness.

"The Homestead Brightened Up," is a freehand sketch of the house where I grew up. But the image was brightened considerably with Colors which the house never had.

Finally "Freehand 'Hank' scanned into an Amiga," was done in 1994 or earlier, finishing touches done by 1994. I also used PSP Pro X3 on this image to sharpen it's freehand drawing style.

As you can see I used freehand sketches and also photographs and scanned in designs for these images. I have remained quite productive over the years. Some of the archived images were quite small and needed upsizing in PSP Pro X3, along with adjustments to make them more presentable.

"Grunge Gibson Acoustic Guitar" Corel PhotoPaint - Plus

Grunge Gibson Acoustic Guitar

Browsing with Picasa 3.9 I came across this photograph of a "Gibson Acoustic Guitar." I opened with Corel PhotoPaint and applied the Local Equalization to it and adjusted the Tone Curve. Saving that file, I opened with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and auto painted it with the Gouache feature. Selecting Random brushstrokes, Hatch, set at 45%, the auto painting gave a very sketchy look and feel.

I then selected the Pen and Ink and added the hatching and line work by hand. I saved that file and reopened with Corel PSP Pro X3. There I used the Hue and Saturation Vibrancy to brighten the colors. I added my signature using the Visible Watermark feature. I added a Polaroid frame and then a Thin Black frame to finish it.

Listening --- Peace and Quiet

"Trio of Pretties" Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 - Corel PhotoPaint

Pink Lips

Red Hair

Brunette

Today I used Corel's Painter Photo Essentials 4 to create some images from three pretty ladies. I browsed in Picasa 3.9 to the faces folder and selected these. I opened with Painter Photo Essentials 4. There I applied the Auto Painting Gouache with High contrast color settings.

I then, with the finished image, I applied the Watercolor Sketch Auto Painting with saturated color over top the Gouache paintings on each. I saved each one in succession. I then used Corel PhotoPaint to add some sparkle to the eyes and add my signature. I saved the larger files then resampled for display here.

Listening --- Edward Sparks --- The Coat TEST BURN

"Competition - Plymouth" Paint.NET - Corel PhotoPaint - Corel PSP Pro X3

Competition - Plymouth

I have so many of these photographs from the 2012 AutoRama that it is hard to choose from them. Here is one I call, "Competition - Plymouth," because of the sign in the background. It is a Custom Plymouth.

I opened Picasa 3.9 and browsed to my Rust folder to open a texture in Corel PhotoPaint. I selected a close up of the textured rusty, scratched image and copied to the clipboard and made a new background with New from Clipboard. I set that image.

I then browsed to the Plymouth and opened with Paint.NET and used the Artistic; Ink Sketch on it without color, just the ink. I selected all and copied to the clipboard and pasted it into PhotoPaint upon the textured background.

I closed Paint.NET. Then in PhotoPaint I applied the property Color Burn for the ink sketch to allow for transparency. I merged them and saved the first iteration.

I opened that in Corel PSP Pro X3 and used the Fit to Screen for viewing. Then I added my signature using the Visible Watermark and my PNG file.

I applied the Saturation Vibrancy to the image for a little color punch. I added a 25 pixel border then the film like border using Picture Frames and added a second 25 pixel black border. I then added the gold frame.

I saved that large sized piece and resized for display here.

Listening --- Aimee Mann --- Its Not Going to Stop

"Watercolor Parrots" Corel Painter 11 - Corel PSP Pro X3

Watercolor Parrots

I did another digital painting of Watercolor Parrots in Corel Painter 11. I used the same techniques as yesterday. I used a Dover Publications image resized in Corel PSP Pro X3. I saved it and opened with Corel Painter 11.

I used various watercolor brushes at differing sizes and opacity. It was a large file so the painting took some time as some of the watercolor brushes were slow to respond on my older PC. I also used some Liquid Ink fine point for some outlining and the eyes. Also I toned down the area between the birds with a textured chalk brush.

I added the mat and frame in PSP again, then resized after adding my signature. I have placed both images, yesterday's and today's, as Posters on my Zazzle account (please see my Art For Sale Page for the link to my store.) And also more products which will be released within 24 hours per Zazzle's terms. When the new products post you should check them out!

The posters do not have the mat and frame as you can select real mats and frames on Zazzle as part of the purchase if you choose to.

Listening --- The Beatles --- Can't Buy Me Love

"Watercolor Plumage" Corel Painter 11 - Corel PSP Pro X3

Watercolor Plumage

Late post today, took some time to paint this image and finish it. I took a Dover Publication's Bird image and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3 and resized it, applying the Pencil feature to it for a color sketch. The file was about 11" x 9" and 300dpi. I saved this file and opened with Corel Painter 11. Thus, "Watercolor Plumage."

There I used various Watercolor Brushes at differing sizes and opacity and painted this image with high saturation colors. Each color selected had it's corresponding RGB setting set to 255.

I saved that file and reopened in PSP and added a mat and frame and visible watermark. I resized for display and saved that file.

Listening --- PBS --- Sharks

"Sweet Guitars" Digital Collage - Corel PhotoPaint

Sweet Guitars

I wanted to do another guitar based digital collage. I found this great sheet music with a light watercolor wash over it. I opened with Corel PhotoPaint and went to Picasa 3.9 to search for some guitar images. I located six of them at various angles and close ups as well as a full 12-string.

I resized them to fit as I wanted and used the property Exclusion on four of them for color and transparency. I applied Little Ink Pot's Thredgeholder, for the sketch appearance, to the other two guitar images and placed them with one near the center. I used the property Multiply on these for transparency.

I added my signature and saved the large file as well as resampled for display here.

Listening --- Madagascar's --- I Like To Move It

"Mother In Law as a Young Lady" Paint.NET - Corel Painter 11 - Digital Watercolors

Mother In Law as a Young Lady

This is an old photograph I scanned in with my Canon MP495. It is my Mother In Law as a young lady. I took the image and opened with Paint.NET and used the Effects; Artistic; Pencil Sketch on it to simplify the picture.

I cropped that to focus on her face and hair. Saving that file I opened with Painter 11 and used Skip Allen's Digital Watercolor brushes to paint it. I used the Flesh Tone palette and the Gray Range palette for the colors, with a couple of selections of my own for the reds.

I varied the brushes and the size and Opacity as I painted. I kept the image simple and painterly as I could. If you look closely you can see some of the noise of the original photograph left in the background. This gives it an elegance it might not have had if I had blurred or softened the photograph more.

My Mother In Law was an out-spoken and straight-forward person. Here I see her as a young lady who loved to dance and have fun. She is now deceased and missed. My wife helped me with this by being a by-stander as I painted.

Listening --- Sheryl Crow --- Mother Nature's Son

"Watercolor Portrait" Corel Painter 11

Portrait

Found in browsing with Picasa 3.9, a digital pencil sketch of a young woman. I opened Corel Painter 11 and was working on creating a new workspace. I created some new Texture papers using some textures from Flaming Pear saving them in a new library.

I opened a new 8" x 10" 300dpi canvas and using the Chalk brush I painted the entire canvas with textures in very light browns and yellows, ochre really. I saved that file and using copy and paste I opened the pencil sketch on it's own layer. I used the resizing tool to make her fit the large canvas and committed the transformation.

Using differing watercolor brushes I painted the young lady portrait. I altered opacity and selected each brush as I went along. I kept some of the sketch showing through for small details, especially in the eyes, where I used a Tint brush for the eye color.

I did use the Tint brushes quite a bit as well for the painting. If I remember correctly the pencil sketch was created digitally also in Paint.NET, quite a while ago.

My son and I have been discussing portraiture recently. He is going to try to develop his drawing skills with traditional pencil drawings and I, of course, will be working digitally. This is my first attempt within this discussion.

Listening --- Def Leppard --- Woman 

Digital Pen and Ink - Watercolor - Corel Painter - CorelTRACE - CorelDRAW

Click for Larger Image

I found another detailed sketch of a brick house that I drew. A house on Walbridge Dr. in East Lansing, Michigan. I scanned it in with my Canon All In One in 24-bit RGB format. I saved the file and opened PhotoPaint. There I converted to a 8 bit black and white image and did an iterative save.

I opened that black and white image in CorelTRACE and traced it into a cmx CorelDRAW file. Saving that iteration I opened it in CorelDRAW. I cleaned up some of the outlines I did not want. I selected the entire house and grounds and made the pen lines thicker for more impact. So I had a pen and ink style piece to work with. I saved that as a 24-bit RGB 300dpi tif file.

I opened it with Painter from Picasa 3's gatzkART3 folder. I selected watercolor brushes to paint it. I kept the colors simple and then I used the select tool to select the wood and used Apply Surface Texture> Simulated Wood Grain>. I used a different texture for the brick.

I saved it as a tif file and then I dropped all Layers and saved as a large jpg. This image I opened in PhotoPaint and placing a black border I added my signature and resampled for display here.

Listening --- Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young --- Our House

Grunge Guitars - Ink - Mayang's Texture - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

I took a photograph of some acoustic guitars taken at Motor City Guitars and worked up a grunge image. I opened in Paint.NET and applied the Ink Sketch tool with low color and a higher ink setting. Saving that file I opened in PhotoPaint.

There I cropped the image to focus on the bodies of the guitars. I browsed to my Mayang's Textures folder in Picasa 3 and selected a rust texture. This I also cropped in PhotoPaint.

I copied the guitars to the clipboard and pasted and resized them to fit the crop of the texture. I used the Tone Curve for depth and upped the saturation of the colors.

I wanted to add some interest so I browsed to my Dover Publications Clip Art folder in Picasa 3 and selected some clip art to add. I used the object property Color Burn to make the white backgrounds transparent and adjusted the size where necessary.

I duplicated one of the designs and placed them in a row. I added a border design to the left side and another design to the body of the second guitar.

The size of the cropped file was display ready so I saved the file with a Filter Forge film frame.

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Now playing: Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion
via FoxyTunes

Vintage Pen and Ink Drawing - Painter 11 - PhotoPaint

I have an interesting image in Pen and Ink that I drew. I started with a vintage photograph from Dover Publications of two young boys riding an old-fashioned tricycle. Opening it in PhotoPaint I resampled the photograph to 96dpi increasing it's size for use in Painter 11.

Saving that file I opened in Painter 11 and created a quick clone with an ocher background. Using the Pens I selected the Ballpoint pen and the Single Pixel pen in black and drew the young boys and their tricycle. I did not go for realism as I wanted a rough sketch of their features and the trike.

For the watercolor pen stroke I selected the Soft cloner to add shading to their clothing and to lightly add the background. I added using Filter Forge a film frame. It was tedious drawing the details but I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise.

In PhotoPaint I adjusted the Tone Curve to add depth to the image.


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Now playing: Kenny Loggins - Playing With The Boys
via FoxyTunes

Digital Visual Art Tutorial

I decided to use CamStudio, free version, Screen Casting software to create a Tutorial showing step by step digital manipulation. I scanned in an APS camera Panoramic size photograph of a tree with unusual bark at 300 dpi and 100%. Saved that file and as shown manipulated it.

Due to the timing going 4 minutes over the 15 minute limit for YouTube I did not show the finishing of the image. I'll explain that here.

I used Filter Forge's Freepack 3 for a film frame on the piece and also had recorded how I use my signature file, inverting it to black and white. Placing it as an object in PhotoPaint I used the object property of If Lighter to make the black transparent for a white signature.

I like using CamStudio for Screen Casting but in the future I will cut up my clips to fit the 15 minute guidelines. So I may have more than one in a series.

If you like the Tutorial feel free to let me know. One thing I've learned it is time consuming, Screen Casting, uploading quality video and it is also fun. I hope to make more as time allows.

Screen Casting with CamStudio - Vector to Painting - Ink Sketch - Paint.NET - PhotoPaint

As I look at online tutorials that show how to use different computer programs, I began to wonder. If I give explanations here as to my techniques in producing my images maybe I could make up such a tutorial or two.

I did a search on screen capture and found a number of helpful listings. One lead me to a program called CamStudio. It is a free program so I downloaded it and began experimenting.

In a short time I had made a test demo of creating an image. CamStudio is simple in interface and saves your tutorial as an AVI format, which with it's accompanying program SWF Producer can convert it to a Flash playable hi res screen casting. I had a little trouble with audio but I was able to work through that while doing my tests.

I would recommend CamStudio for those with limited budget who need to do some Screen Casting. [click here]

Today's image is an older one I updated. It began as a Vector drawing of a cat from a photograph I took of Misty, who has left us, frightened by a visiting dog. We haven't seen her since.

I opened the large file in PhotoPaint and resampled it to 1024 wide. Saving that I opened it in Paint.NET and applied a painterly filter to it, then I used the Ink Sketch filter on it. I boosted the color all the way up. Back in PhotoPaint I placed a border around the image for use with Filter Forge's Frames. I then applied a photograph frame adjusting the settings for a black mat and a narrower green frame.

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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Bo Diddley Fun
via FoxyTunes

Self-Portrait - Painter 8 - Paint.NET - PhotoPaint

I rarely do self-portraits but I like the smile in the eyes and mouth from this photograph taken by my wife. I opened it in PhotoPaint and cropped it to only myself, then I resampled it to 96dpi to increase the size of the working image.

From here I opened the saved file in Painter 8 and used the Wow! Book Oil brushes on Auto Clone for the muck up. I painted back in details using the Soft Clone brush. I added the impasto effect to the background. I saved this and opened in Paint.NET.

There I created a duplicate layer and applied Pencil Sketch to that layer and changed it's property to Multiply. Using Adjustments Curves I darkened and increased depth of the pencil sketch. I merged the layers and saved the file again.

Back in PhotoPaint I applied the Tone Curves yet again for additional depth and upped the color saturation by 15, boosting the colors. With Filter Forge's Frames I added the frame to finish the piece. I used the wand to select the frame and applied the Effects> Texture> Plastic> for a 3d look.