"Crazy Warhol Like Portrait" PicsArt

Testing Mobile Blogger today.  This is an experiment posting from my Tablet. I created the image on mobile as well using PicsArt app. 

Bear with me and my test. 

"KMG Therapeutic Massage LOGOS" CorelDRAW - Plus

KMG Therapeutic Massage Logos

Between Hardware problems relating to my Video cards and working on these Logos for my Son's Massage Therapy business, I have been neglect full of posting here. We also have been joyfully watching our Grandson who is about to turn three years old, playing with him. So I have been busy.

I created the logos in CorelDRAW and these are the best ones as of today. I like the bottom left one, it is my favorite. You can leave messages as to your favorite if you would like. My Son is an excellent, Certified Massage Therapist and would appreciate any input. These logos are ©2013 by Kirk Mathew Gatzka and are not for unauthorized use or copying.

We are working on our own trifold brochure for him to use for In Office Chair Massage. Then we will create another one for his In Home Massage Therapy. All by appointment only. We are using an Avery 8324 brochure template, downloaded from Avery for MS Word. I have created other brochures in CorelDRAW so if we decide that the template is not to our liking we will make them in CorelDRAW. Now if I can remember how to make a text box, hmmm.

My travails with the video card has sent me backwards to my original OEM motherboards VGA connection which is much slower than the cards I tried to install. Both are Nvidia Geforce cards. I had one that I bought a DVI cable for and it never worked as VGA or DVI. I contacted Nvidia and they suggested it was a defective card.

Well, I recieved the card as a gift so I have no recourse to get a refund, how does one refund a gift? The other card was functioning for a time but had low speed just a tad faster than the OEM VGA connection. So I am now having trouble getting into SafeMode on my Windows PC to try and fix the problems.

The current VGA works fine, I was trying to improve the operation of the video. Looks like I have failed and possibly made some sort of other problems on this aging computer. As long as it works and is not failing I will not be forced to get a new PC.

Grunge Typography - Minimalism - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

VTKS ROCK GARAGE BAND FONT

VIVALDI FONT

20TH CENTURY POSTER 1 FONT

SLIPPY FONT

Reading on the web about minimalism typography and logos I decided to take my initials and create some basic designs. I chose a grunge look and feel for the minimal designs. I opened CorelDRAW and used it's vector capabilities to make up the images.

I grouped each object and piece of text and copied to the clipboard to paste into PhotoPaint with File> New From Clipboard>. I did this to add the grunge style to each image. Each font I chose is listed under the subsequent image. I kept the colors very basic and the whole project simple. I used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Grunge for the staining and framing.

Listening --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka --- Basic Dirt - DADGAD

Digital Art Academy - Digital Collage in Corel Painter - Lesson One

I'm taking a class at the Digital Art Academy on Digital Collage with Corel Painter. Here is the first lesson's results. I used a number of older photograph for the collage. Placing them at various levels and transparencies. I also used in the background three different fractal images that I blended and smoothed out.

I used an impasto brush for the texture of brushstrokes, but I won't share all of the techniques here. You'll have to take the class for the rest of them. So a shorter post for today.

Listening --- Ottmar Liebert --- Starry Night

High Contrast Kitty - Linus Our Cat - PhotoPaint

A change in subject matter, but still using High Contrast techniques. I took an out of focus photograph of Linus our cat and put it through my high contrast workflow, after sharpening it as much as possible. I used PhotoPaint to sharpen the photograph and then applied the workflow I have discussed here previously.

I used Filter Forge's film frame for a finishing touch. Linus has been a fairly good cat for us. With the usual kitty stuff that comes with the territory. Which is frustrating to clean up. Spring and Fall he, being a longer haired cat, sheds profusely. He is a Maine Coon halfbreed of some sort. We don't know the other type of parent he had but one must have been the Maine Coon as he has the five toes and the fur and coloring.

Recently we had friends over and two of them were young girls ages 11 and 14. They loved him and he got more than the usual attention. Afterward he expected the same from us, poor guy, he did not get that much attention from us. But he did not pout. Cats own us, we don't own cats.


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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Cats In The Cradle Cover
via FoxyTunes

Waiting for a Guitarist - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

"Waiting for a Guitarist," is another High Contrast image from a photograph taken at Motor City Guitar. At the store people are encouraged to try out the various instruments and well as encouraged to engage in learning how to play. Those that don't know what they are looking for in a guitar or other stringed instrument can browse and play and search out the best instrument for their needs.

I used PhotoPaint and Filter Forge again today for this piece of a single electric guitar, along with it's stool for sitting and amp for playing. I used many of the techniques recently described in other posts of high contrast images.

I am fascinated by this motif and I keep coming back to it as I do with the using of Mayang's Textures along with guitars. A grunge look and feel with detail.

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Now playing: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Wooden Ships
via FoxyTunes

Art Nouveau Digital Collage - A Custom Sedan

Art Nouveau is one of my favorite art periods. I have taken one of Mayang's Textures of peeling painted rust and used it as the background for this themed piece.

With PhotoPaint using Art Nouveau Clip Art from Dover Publications I added them to the image using the object property Multiply for most of them and Color Burn for others along with Invert. I placed them In such a way that the theme would be obvious.

Using the first two pieces of clip art I ran the image through Alien Skins Exposure trial - Technicolor Vibrant - which boosted the color dramatically. Then I place the other pieces to frame the larger ones. I finished with a film frame from Filter Forges' Freepack 3.

On the Custom Sedan I used Paint.NET for the Ink Sketch and applied a painterly filter as well. In PhotoPaint I applied the Technicolor Vibrant from Alien Skin trial. I added a LensFlare from KPT's Collection for an enhancement. Finished with a film frame from Filter Forge.






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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Where the Wind Blows
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.

Inspiration Striking - Dual Guitars

Last night I was playing my 12-string guitar and striving to work with a chord progression that used G D C D Em Em7 Em6 Am Am7 Am/G Am/F# back to G. I was able to come up with a workable base with these chords but no melody or lyric came to mind.

Sometimes the inspiration is there striking like a bolt of lightning other times it takes time for it to burst into a full-blown song. I like impulse driven inspiration the best, but it doesn't always happen. Sweat Equity comes to play, hard work and time. I'm not very patient to be honest, and like it when a song bursts into being.

That wasn't happening last night. So I did today's image - two guitars in black and white with a lightning bolt added to the piece. I used Alien Skins Exposure 3 trial to make the color photograph a black and white one with a bit of a border created in PhotoPaint.

I had an image of a lightning bolt that I added, it was made using KPT's Collection feature. It was just an experiment that today came in handy to illustrate the type of Inspiration I really enjoy. Not that I don't mind a good challenge mind you, I do. I feel that some songs just happen and creating them is a joy. Others are a challenge and are not as much fun, but still it's enjoyable to overcome with a decent finished song.

A little Sweat Equity never hurts.

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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - I Want It Today
via FoxyTunes

Red Colored Produce - Paint.NET - PhotoPaint

My misad-
venture with Filter Forge's Free-
pack 3 has been solved. I had saved the install program for instances like I had yesterday when it quit working for me. So today I reinstalled it. But I had to fight with my Anti-virus program to allow it's installation. I successfully reinstalled it and used it on this image.

I applied the same techniques I used on yesterdays produce image. Using both Paint.NET and PhotoPaint I adjusted this photograph taken by my son Keir M. Gatzka. I made this piece very red and did so with the framing as well.

The depth of color using these techniques are extremely satisfying in a straight forward handling of an image presentation. As I am creating such images sometimes the steps I take are ones that I have successfully used before. I tend to remember these steps and use them again and again for differing pieces. Thus I have a series of images that look similar and are in a similar motif.

Like the use of a formula of Verse, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Bridge, Chorus, that a songwriter may use for the forming of a song, I use these steps to produce digital visual art.

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Now playing: Ace of Base - The Sign
via FoxyTunes

Vector Graphics - Paisley Face - CorelDRAW

I really like Mayang's Textures and I used another one for this image. It began as a doodle in CorelDRAW creating some swirled objects that I extruded slightly and added bright blue to it.

I used duplicates to create the mirrored swirls to make the piece symmetrical. I added a paisley like object and when I duplicated it I saw an odd face.

So I added a nose and mouth to it to give it that facelike appearance. I imported one of Mayang's Textures into CorelDRAW and used it as the background. I grouped all the pieces together and copied to the clipboard. Then in PhotoPaint I opened it from the clipboard. It was a large 300 dpi file. I resized it for display here and I also added a film frame from Filter Forge's frames. I adjusted the Tone Curve for depth of color and upped the saturation a bit.

Another fun experiment with Vector graphics and texture.

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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - After Midnight Cover
via FoxyTunes

Discovery - Rolling Stone Widgets

Lute Player

I found this image in my collection of older paintings of the use of stringed instruments. A lute player with an amusing smile on his face. He really looks as though he is enjoying himself!

I did not keep track of what painter did this painting as I have quite a collection that I have used as a screen saver at times. The paintings range in styles and I tried to keep it within the string instruments genre but I did stray here and their.

The history goes back a long time. Wikipedia again helps us to understand some of this: "The origins of the lute are obscure, and organologists disagree about the very definition of a lute. The highly influential organologist Curt Sachs distinguished between the "long-necked lute" (Langhalslaute) and the short-necked variety: both referred to chordophones with a neck as distinguished from harps and psalteries. Smith and others argue that the long-necked variety should not be called lute at all, since it existed for at least a millennium before the appearance of the short-necked instrument that eventually evolved into what is now known as the lute, nor was it ever called a lute before the 20th century."

"Lutes are made almost entirely of wood. The soundboard is a teardrop-shaped thin flat plate of resonant wood (usually spruce). In all lutes the soundboard has a single (sometimes triple) decorated sound hole under the strings, called the rose. The sound hole is not open, but rather covered with a grille in the form of an intertwining vine or a decorative knot, carved directly out of the wood of the soundboard."

It is interesting to note that they are completely differentiated from harps and other stringed instruments. I have always viewed them as the ancestor of the guitar. But that is for experts to decide it is just an opinion of mine. I have never played a lute but would love to try one. but they are not in favor these days as the guitar has become so popularized as the instrument of choice. They are hard to find at the guitar stores, sort of an oxymoron I suppose I imagine you would find them at "Lute Stores."

By the way, if you recognize the painter of this image please let me know, I would appreciate it. I wonder if it is Caravaggio?

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Van Morrison - Little Village
via FoxyTunes

Lute Like Guitars - Rounded Backs

When I have visited various Guitar Stores I have been fascinated by the rounded back guitars that are almost lute like.

Ovation Guitars have such a rounded back to them and have a unique history behind them. I again turned to Wikipedia for more information on these guitars. To quote them:

"Ovation guitars are differentiated by their composite synthetic bowl, rather than the traditional wooden back and sides of the modern acoustic guitar as produced by luthiers starting in the late 18th century. Ovation has also produced solid body electric guitars and active basses.

Developed starting in 1966 and introduced as the 'Balladeer' in February, 1967, Ovations reached the height of their popularity in the 1980s, where they were more often than not seen during live performances by touring artists if acoustic guitars were being played. Ovation guitars' synthetic bowl and early use (1971) of preamps, onboard equalization and piezo pickups were particularly attractive to live acoustic musicians who constantly battled feedback problems from the high volumes needed in live venues."

The image I share today is reminiscent of the Ovation guitar style. It was a vector graphic model done in CorelDRAW a couple of years ago. I added some abstraction to it so it wasn't like plagiarism. It has more of an oval body than traditional guitars.

They have a 2009 Collectors Edition that is very nice. I have played a few Ovations but never have owned one. They are unique to say the least.

I worked on a song last night. "Time For Us To Grow" using the chord sequence of Am C G with the chorus being Am G. It lacks a bridge as of right now, but a bridge is not always mandatory for me in my songs. It is a positive song about looking at where one is (or we are) and making sure we aren't in the wrong places. But the main thrust is that we are in a position to continue to grow as a person and make goals to reach, striving to avoid a sort of dementia state of mind. Unlike a zombie personality, growth is an important part of life.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Time For Us To Grow
via FoxyTunes

Thinking Spring Despite the Weather

Wednesday afternoon was a beautiful time. Went for a long walk to visit neighbors and saw many of springs plants coming up. Just the tiny blossoms of the early flowers, many buds on the trees realy to pop out the leaves. It was sunny and warm, a bit windy but very nice.

Today there are whitecaps on the Lake, the wind is brisk and stern. The sky is overcast and gray. But I'm thinking Spring.

Here is a close up of some lilies that grew in our yard last season. I used Paint.NET and it's Artistic> Ink Sketch filter on the image after I cropped it close in PhotoPaint. We have theses waiting to bloom later in the season and I look forward to many nice days to come.

"Spring has Sprung
the grass has riz
I wonder where
the flowers iz?"

Said an old Archie comic. So we watch the lake curl it's whitecaps and the clouds obscure the sun, knowing that soon we will have beautiful flowers in our garden again this year. All we need is a little patience.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Seal - The Beginning
via FoxyTunes

A Simple Entry - Guitars

A short and simple entry. Here is a manip I did featuring two popular guitar brands Alvarez and Ibanez.

I put these two together in the image because of their similar body style and color. I really like the finish on both guitars.

I again used the Pyramid Paint filter from KPT's Collection for the image. I like this filter a lot. It gives a soft appearance that I enjoy viewing. I also used PhotoPaints Alchemy filter for the background adding the light brown and yellow coloring to pull together the image. Then I added the frame and the names of the brands.

Been listening to Tim McGraw's greatest hits, very good songwriting and arrangements. These songs are very good for educational purposes for any songwriter. I'm not a true country fan but I do like certain songwriters work. His is one.