"New Song: 'Art for Arts Sake' now available on CDBaby"

http://cdbaby.com/cd/kirkmathewgatzka5

CDBaby MP3 For Sale

I have a series of songs coming up in March. Each one as a single, that you can listen to the full song before considering buying. As for today, I just added the newest song here and on Facebook. You will find "Art for Arts Sake," to be an upbeat tune, just vocals and my 12-String. I call my genre Alternative Folk/Rock. Click and have a listen!

As always hope you like what you hear! Thank you for your looking into my Music as a Singer-Songwriter!

Young Lady and Her Cat - PSP Pro X3 - PhotoPaint

Young Lady and Her Cat

I found this 2" x 1.5" black and white scanned photograph in my folder of magazine cuttings. It is full of imperfections (read pixelations) as it was scanned long ago on an old black and white scanner. I really like the memories this image brought back and decided to play a bit with it. I re-scanned it with my Canon MP495 and got a 300 dpi scan to work on.

This new scan still had many imperfections so I opened it PSP Pro X3 and used every tool I could to produce a better representation of the subjects. In the end I have a passable softened halftone sepia photograph with a daguerreotype frame.

The subject is recognizable and it has the quality of an old style vintage photograph. I discovered that the old scan was from a Polaroid photograph from the 1970's. So it is dated material for a certainty.

I used PhotoPaint to resample the file for sharing here and add my signature.

Listening --- Chris Deburgh --- Lady in Red

"1992 Sketches Collage" - PhotoPaint - CorelDRAW - PSP Pro X3

1992 Sketches

Today I found two sketches of women's faces in one of my Journals from 1992. I scanned them in with my Canon MP495 All in One using PhotoPaint to begin with. I also found pieces of images I have had for years waiting for use in a collage. So I scanned in the red suspenders and the stone like images.

I copied them to the clipboard and opened CorelDRAW and pasted them into a 8.5x11 page size, eventually using up all the space. I used the suspenders as both right and left borders and the stone like torn pieces on the top and bottom. This placed the faces in the center.

I grouped the pieces together and copied to the clipboard. I opened in PhotoPaint again at 75% the original size for working on, adding my signature. I saved the large file and reopened in PSP Pro X3 and adjusted the image Vibrancy and added the classical ornate frame. Saving the larger image I resampled it in PhotoPaint for display here.

I had used the Tone Curve for depth and increased the saturation for a boost to the color.

The 1992 sketches were done freehand pencil and paper on Journal pages. If you look closely you can make out the second face as shading in the main portrait face.

Listening --- The Beatles --- Hide Your Love Away

"Deal With It!" - Is This Good Advice? - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint

Deal With It!

I thought that a change of pace from all the Custom Cars photographs I have been sharing was in order. So I opened up CorelDRAW and Picasa 3 and found a texture from Mayang's Textures and copied and pasted it into CorelDRAW.

I created the quote, "I Thought I was Insane So I Checked and I Am, Now What Do I Do?"  I used the font FFF Tusj, which is a Pencil Sketch font, for that phrase. Then I added the common come back to such a question, "Deal With It!" in a font called Basketcase.  Followed by asking, "Is this Good Advice?" in a font called Cooper Black.

I figured that using the font Basketcase for the untoward phrase, "Deal With It!" was apropos. Not good advice in my estimation for someone who is emotionally disturbed, and even mentally ill.

I grouped all the text and the textured background in CorelDRAW and copied it to the clipboard and opened PhotoPaint. I used File> New From Clipboard for the large file, and pasted it into PhotoPaint. I applied the Tone Curve for depth and upped the saturation to add a boost to the colors. I saved that large file and resampled for display online and saved that iteration.

Listening --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka --- I'm Raw

Kiddo Meets Cat - Painter 11 - PhotoPaint - Paint.NET

Finished Painting

Paint.NET pencil sketch detail

"Kiddo Meets Cat," is today's watercolor painting done in Painter 11. I opened the photograph taken by myself, with PhotoPaint and cropped to the focal points of my Grandson meeting our cat Linus. The cat is obviously cautious. My Grandson is obviously curious and tentative. Finger meets paw.

Saving that file I opened it in Paint.NET to get a pencil rendition of the image and saved that with a different name. Since both file were the same size I could open them in Painter 11 and use one as the clone source for colors the other for the pencil sketch.

I used the Splashing Water brushes to begin with and decided the source was too dark. So, I switched to that image and equalized it, lightening it up. I painted with the watercolors for a time and then switching layers to the pencil sketch I began to use Digital watercolor brushes. This deepened some of the colors and allowed for a more colorful watercolor piece.

I switched off the cloning and selected some colors from the swatch for boosting more color, still with the Digital watercolor brushes. I varied sizes and brushes.

Once finished in Painter 11 I dropped the layers and saved the file, reopened in PhotoPaint and added a black border to the finished painting.

----------------
Now playing: Crocodile Dundee - Mick Meets New York
via FoxyTunes

Who is That in the Mirror? - Paint.NET - PhotoPaint

I couldn't resist manipu-
lating this photo-
graph of my Grand-
son in his Giraffe costume. A follow up after yesterday's image.

Here he is gazing into the large mirror trying to figure out what he sees. He even reaches out to touch himself.

I did a slight manipulation on the original photograph taken by my Daughter. In PhotoPaint I cropped it to focus on the action and leave out uninteresting details. I saved the file after re-sampling it and opened it in Paint.NET.

There I applied the Ink Sketch filter highlighting the color and minimizing the ink. I saved it again and reopened in PhotoPaint.

Now I altered the Tone Curve to darken it and give some depth, also I upped the saturation for bolder color. I added a film frame in Filter Forge's Freepack3. Added a brown border and applied another film frame for a double frame.


----------------
Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - A Bm C#m D Run
via FoxyTunes

Grandson Zeke - Expression Value - Paint.NET - PhotoPaint

Does everyone really love baby pictures? Well I have really gotten interested in them since I became a Grandpa. I love the expressions you can capture when taking multiple photographs of your grandchild.

I used a very simple approach to this image as I wanted his expression say it all. Opening in Paint.NET I applied Effects> Artistic> Pencil Sketch> to the RGB 24-bit photograph. I upped the pencil tip to get a good likeness of a drawing.

Saving that I opened it in PhotoPaint and applied Image> Color Mode> Quadtone> to the image and then converted it back to RGB. I darkened the image a bit for shadows and highlights while making the quadtone.

I then added Filter Forge's Frames film frame to the image to complete it. Very straight forward steps to this piece. I love his expression! I resampled the image for display here.


----------------
Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Speedboat Waves 2
via FoxyTunes

Experimental Digital Visual Art - Vectors - Clip Art - Odd Animals

A trip to the book-
store always results in inspir-
ation. I viewed many design magazines and portfolios of Art. In them I discover a variety of topics and visual feasts.

I used multiple graphics programs for today's piece. CorelDRAW, CorelTRACE, Paint.NET, Picasa 3, and PhotoPaint to pull it all together.

The subject matter was gleaned from Dover Publications clip art, freehand drawn vector images, photographs by my son, Keir M. Gatzka.

What resulted was a busy image about NOISE and confusion. I had a lot of fun putting it together. Though I only drew parts of the piece, I had to adjust many of them to a black and white format to suit. So, much manipulation was done on the photographs, and the clip art.

I started with the idea in mind to create a being with characteristics of two different animals and ended up with a bird-giraffe and a fish-woman I used the Victrola as a fountain for the noise spewing out of the horn, turned upside down. The finding of the very interesting woman's faces with the tongue sticking out and the poutie face was a challenge to add them to the image. I liked the dragonfly, and of course the butterflies had to be added. Thus an experimental piece for your enjoyment.

----------------
Now playing: BB King - Three O'clock Blues
via FoxyTunes

Self-Portrait - circa 1969-1970 - Photoshop/PhotoPaint

We recently set up our Mac G4 with Photoshop 7 on it and I opened up an old photograph of myself playing my Harmony 6-string guitar. I moused around in Photoshop and used some filters and a Gaussian blur for the background.

I saved the file on a Zip 100 disk and moved it to my PC, opening it in PhotoPaint. I found a second photograph of myself taken at the same time and cut out pieces of that photograph, with the lasso tool, to add to the main one I began with.

I ended up with the digital collage you see here. I also added a frame to it using PhotoPaint's Image> Paper size> centered. I selected this border with the wand tool and used the Effects> 3d Effects> Bevel effect> for a 3d frame.

I selected the guitar using a lasso tool and resized the object and angled it, adding six guitars and my arm strumming to the lower part of the image to add some interest. I was fresh out of High School at the time these pictures were taken. So my appearance now is quite different. This was just when I was growing out my hair long and had a mustache and goatee. Seems like ages ago, in fact it was!

I was songwriting in those days as well. Most of the songs were not worthy of keeping so they are all lost now. Only one that I copyrighted titled "Hello Sunshine, Goodbye Moon." Which we recorded on a reel to reel tape recorder with guitar, flute, lead guitar, piano and back up vocals and I entered it into a song contest which I did not even get an honorable mention. I believe that my sister has a copy of that on reel to reel tape somewhere, that my Mom had kept. It was the Bad Old Days then.

I can't even remember that song now, except to a few words and the chorus, no chords and the melody escapes me. It is odd how time changes your viewpoint and your approach to songwriting. But at the time it was on of the highlights of my endeavor to write, sing, play and record. Funny how time and memories work.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Something Amazing
null

Grunge When is Ugly Attractive? - Corel PhotoPaint

Can ugly be attractive at the same time? Working within the grunge genre one has to question this. Grunge is fascinating, the amazing textures the colors the implications. Take today's image for example.

Grunge green dominates the image. But if you look very close you see the street sign "Lovers Lane." A real street near Battle Creek, Michigan. Also looking closer you can make out the Gaussian blurred kiss in the center of the piece.

So is this piece too much Grunge or just enough to make it more interesting? Using PhotoPaint I merged 3 images to create this image. The Kiss from some marriage photographs, the floral grunge texture from Autumnights, and the photograph of "Lovers Lane."

Each image was manipulated prior to their merging into the single image you see here. I used a filter on the lovers lane photograph to simplify it. I used the Gaussian blur on the wedding kiss. And I used the object property Multiply on a piece of the floral grunge image.

What I see personally is a piece with depth. But even I wonder when is manipulation too much? I say it is when the images by themselves won't stand on their own, you manipulate till the image says something to you, as an artist. Then you stop.

Granted the image may not appeal to all who view it, but it will make a person look more closely at it to see the pieces put together. In part that is a successful image. If it holds their interest more than a cursory glance, you have accomplished something. That something is important to the artist. When the choice is made as to if one likes the image as it stands is very personal and should be allowed for every viewer. Like it or not, they have an opinion. That's the beauty in it.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Arlo Guthrie - City Of New Orleans
null

Fictional Portraits VII - Vector Grunge

Still looking for comments as to whether "Grunge" design is continuing to be popular, it is a favorite of mine.

I especially like the distressed fonts and the grungy backgrounds for some reason. Today I am sharing "Malcom," for your examination. I used a fictional face from my sketchbook scanned into the computer as a basis for the composition.

Painter 8 provided the watercolor brushes for "Malcom". CorelDRAW was used to make the vectored graphics, the freehand drawing tool. I also used PhotoPaint to create the transparent guitars and flowers.

"Malcom" looks to be rather sad, it must have been a sad tune I was drawing to when I sketched him. I captured the sadness fairly well, in my humble opinion.

I had a surprise today. I have Google Alerts set for blogs about "Digital Art" and my previous blog posting showed up in my Alerts. I was very pleased to see it among the others. It helps me keep up on the Visual Arts in the Digital realm of blogging.

Listening to music as I work on this post, some "Collective Soul" tunes. Nice. I haven't done much musically my self recently. I have been pretty busy, and that makes me miss my guitar. but I always return to it when I have the time and the desire to create a new song.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Collective Soul - Perfect Day
null

Fictional Portraits III - Major Visual Inspiration

Got some major inspiration from an Article at instantShift today. 50 interviews with popular web designers and founders. Very good information. It took a while to load on dial up but I let it go so I could get the full impact of the article and it's related interviews. I still am going through the information there.

Visual Art is alive and well and these individuals are proof of that. Design for the internet is flourishing. While these professionals are moving and shaping, I do my little bit here on my blog, sharing some of my creative process and images.

This piece is entitled "Hope," which I think is in the expression on her face, a hopeful look. Also from my sketchbook and scanned in, with Painter 8 adding the water coloring. A simple and basic image. I am following my Fictional Faces motif as I had mentioned I would be doing.

I did write a song yesterday. It's entitled "The River," one of many titled the same I am certain. I used the River, Creation, Birdsong as metaphors for the flow of life while dealing with personal problems and seeking answers to them. I wrote it after a conversation I had about dealing with limitations and how modesty comes into play when we really are perplexed by such. I used a basic chord progression D open E, G C, A E, with a folk rock rhythm. It's not too bad if I say so myself. (Of course, I am going to be bias!)

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - GDEmAmD
null

Fictional Portraits - Freehand Sketching

Periodically I like to sketch in my sketchbooks, fictional faces, characters from my mind. Generally I do this while listening to music and I try to not force a piece, I take the music and sketch to it. Following the beat, rhythm, tempo, I attack the blank page with relish. I find that I can be quite creative in this way.

This fictional portrait is "Frank," a name chosen to save a file and not to describe the individual. But by naming the sketch I give personality to the face. Unintentionally giving it a life of it's own.

I scanned this full page image into the computer and used Painter 8 for the watercolor coloring of the piece. I really like the watercolor brushes, as I am certain, if you follow this blog you have seen.

The over sized eyes of "Frank," are the best feature of this image. They attract your view right away. Which was unplanned, all very flowing with the music I was listening to, an activity of discovery.

I have been very busy the last few days so I haven't been working on any new music but I am itching to get back to the guitar and do some creative activity with music.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Make Some Tracks
null

Loving Couple - Post Wedding Portrait

Thanks to David Benjamin Photo-
graphy I have a few lovely photo-
graphs - post wedding - of my Daughter and Son n law.

I have taken some liberties with one of the photographs and did some of my digital work on it. I have been using Paint.NET quite a bit lately for the filters. I used the Artistic> Oil Painting> filter first on the image, then used the Artistic> Pencil Sketch> filter to create a posterized version of the photograph with lines added.

I opened the resulting image in PhotoPaint and adjusted the Color Hue to a strong sepia like tone. Resizing it I added the Bevel frame to the image.

I have been practicing the song "When The Stars Go Blue" to do a cover of it for the next CD "The Roof". I have to adjust to the tempo, I can do the song but I tend to make it a faster tempo. I have to decide where to put my capo as well, Second or Third Fret. I can't help but add my stylized rhythm playing to it, I just do after years of playing alone. I need to practice more using my digital metronome!

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Tim McGraw - When the Stars Go Blue
null

Off the Beaten Path - Abandoned Vacuum

Ever felt abandoned? Well here is an image for you. Off the beaten path my son Keir M Gatzka found this and took a photograph. An abandoned vacuum cleaner.

It is funny how the tree appears to have grown around the handle, like it is going to try and use it. I did little to the original, upped the saturation quite a bit in PhotoPaint, I left the funny angle of the photo alone. I like it's off kilter feel. Kind of like one might feel if abandoned like this.

I'm still reading about "The Five-Chord Turnaround" in Rikky's book. It lists quite a few progressions. I am examining them and will soon test them out on the guitar. I did notice one I believe I have used before: C Em Am F G, I'm almost certain I've used this turnaround for a song but I can't pinpoint it at this moment.

Before I get to that I need to write some letters. Yes, that is correct, write letters. It's an old way of emailing but with paper and ink and a postage stamp. Remember?

Vector Enhanced - Round Windows

Ever have one of those days, you know the ones that don't start out right at all? I'm having one of those days today. It just started out wrong. Up late, missed an appointment, coffee even tasted funny. Couldn't wake up, took hours to get a grip on the day. What a day I'm having!

I am sharing a vector enhanced image today. It started out as a black and white photograph that I sepia toned in Corel's PhotoPaint.

I vectorized it in CorelTRACE and pulled it apart in CorelDRAW. It is a piece that was a round window built with stonework. It was taken at Jackson, Michigan's Stone Village South of Jackson. It is a very picturesque place with an atmosphere of it's own. It has many stone buildings and was once a cattle farm. They have a ceramics gallery and art gallery there, or at least they did the last time I was there, years ago now. It has a huge stone barn and a wonderful turret and tower of stone. I may share other photographs of it here.

The piece ended up with five round windows with the blue showing through the sepia browns, along with a bit of foiliage. Small windows fit my mood today. A narrow view through round windows. I need a bit of relaxation and this lends itself to that.

I have been working on a song, "Warm and Green", about spring coming. I haven't been successful in getting the chord progression right just yet, let alone the melody. It stems from one of the three poems I wrote the other night. I'm hitting a dry spell. But, I'll come around.

I did play around with Audacity and some trance music with a dance beat and some ambient sounds. I labeled it for the "JUNK" folder, experimental and not too good. But one can't always make a great sound each time one tries. So I'll keep on trying. I hope you do too when you are afflicted with a dry period. Point is don't give up!

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: MGMT - Electric Feel
via FoxyTunes

The Gossamer Veil and other Stories

Speaking about years ago, I found this image on a Zip100 disk and I promptly took it to my Mac G4 and Photoshop 7.

It is either 1969 or 1970 I was about 19/20 years old at the time. I used Photoshop's Artistic filters on it. Yes, that is my old Harmony 6-string and it looks like I'm playing a D chord. I also did the large artwork behind me, in blacklight paints no less. That piece was shown at the then called Pontiac Mall now called Summit Place Mall during a spring art show.

I learned acoustic and played electric using a Woody pickup even back then. I remember learning "House of the Rising Sun" as one of the first songs I played on a regular basis. Most of my songs I wrote then were love songs or imitations of songs like "Eve of Destruction" and Beatles\Dylan. I was really starstruck in those days, like many I wanted to make music my lifestyle. So I emulated the stars I liked. Although I could not play as good as "Jimi Hendrix" (Jimi Hendrix Experience) or "Eric Clapton" (Cream Disraeli Gears) I had dreams of being a singer songwriter.

As I look back I humbly admit that I probably did not have what it takes to make a star. Like so many I have continued to play and write but more for pleasure than anything. I am working on a song called "The Gossamer Veil" which the lyrics were written in the mid 1990's. It's a song about how difficult it is to communicate between persons in interpersonal relationships. The "Veil" hangs as a barrier to full understanding and feelings we personally have. Good Communication is a key to interpersonal relationships. But it is very difficult at times when our background and experiences are different, even cultural differences.

The chord progression is pretty basic. But it is an interesting set and great to work with. I have the song melody and chorus and some backup written and a raw recording. The lyrics needed quite a bit of cutting and correcting, but I am happy with the song so far. It still needs polishing. I may add a positive verse to it but it is already over the 4 minute length, I have been known to write 5 minute songs (or longer.) Not sure I can keep the listener's interest that long!

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Alison Krauss - Nothin'
via FoxyTunes

Nonrepresentational Abstracts Digital Collage - Picasa 3

As I mentioned in my previous post I have made another digital collage using Picasa 3.

This image shows 188 images piled upon one another, images of nonrepresentational abstractions. It should give you an idea of what type of abstracts I do digitally.

They include use of fractals, painting, cutting and pasting, use of filters and plugins to produce the individual pieces.

You can see a love of color and diversity in my work among these. Though each one is individually crafted and thoughtfully made, this collage makes for a great piece on it's own. I view this collage as emotionally charged with images and colors rampant.

I again recommend Picasa 3 for tracking and making collages of your own digital works. I have yet to make a video, which is also a feature of Picasa 3. I have selected some music for playing in the background I just need to select the images I wish to make into a slideshow. More fun on the way!