"Gypsy Woman Digital Collage and Linux Experiment" Corel - Plus

Gypsy Woman Digital Collage

Recently we received a Dell Latitude X300 throwaway laptop from the garbage. It's screen is broken with an "S" sized crack that blacks out part of the screen.

It had a password protected Bios and Windows 2000, also password protected. I was able to go to Linux as a way to break into the OS.

I made an Ubuntu boot disk, LinuxMint boot disk and a PuppyLinux boot disk and all failed with a PAE kernel failure. With some consultation with a friend I got SnowLinux Non-PAE E17 boot disk made and it booted and took a few hours but I finally made the laptop HDD bootable.

I also had been given a VGA flat screen monitor, that I plugged in and it worked so I could see all the screen. The only drawback is that the battery does not work and the AC adapter is from my wife's laptop, which has no battery! So I have to share that adapter!

I am still learning SnowLinux and it's capabilities. But It did take me away from creating for my blog.

Today I have time to create. I took two ladies faces, one a free Vintage Gypsy, and another a Steampunk image from Dover Publications Sampler. I merged both as the central focal point in Corel PhotoPaint. I added two dressed women, a flapper and well-dressed lady.

Also from Dover Clip Art I used a mandolin, matching the Gypsy aspect. And a butterfly and a corner Victorian sample to the upper corners.

In PhotoPaint I made it into a quadtone and then converted to an RGB image. I took KPT's Collection Pyramid Paint and painted the image with a blue tint.

Saving this image I opened it in Corel PSP Pro X3 to add the cloud and sky frame. I added my signature to the image using the Visible Watermark and a PNG file.

I saved the large iteration and resampled for display.

So after my adventures with Linux (which I am still learning) I had time to create this double faced woman's portrait for your enjoyment.

"The Old Days, Montage" Corel Quadtone

The Old Days

Another short post for this day as well. Here is a "The Old Days Montage," I created using Corel PhotoPaint. I took two old photos of Ortonville and applied the Quadtone tool to them. Then I superimposed them in Picasa 3.9 as a collage/montage. I used Blackladder ITC font for the name in the corner back in PhotoPaint. I changed this image to RGB mode and using Filter Forge's Frames I added a film frame to the piece.

I also was able to get out my 12-String Guitar the other afternoon and it was in DADGAD tuning so I explored some differing lead and chords on it. I have some chords memorized for that tuning, but I love discovering new fingerings for chords. So I enjoyed myself playing some improvised chords and leads. Coming out of a musical slump now and it feels good.

High Contrast Quadtone - Grunge - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

Another high contrast, vibrant, grunge, quadtone image for today. I took this photograph of a family member visiting from out of State during conversations.

I browsed in Picasa 3 and went to the dated folder, selecting this photograph. I opened with Paint.NET and applied the Ink Sketch tool to begin. Saving that I opened with PhotoPaint.

In PhotoPaint I applied the Local Equalization tool for the high contrast using the Tone Curve to add back in some depth. I then applied the Quadtone feature under Image to get the copper color for this piece.

I saved that file and used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Vibrance and the grunge frame to the image. I added my signature and saved the large file. I then resampled for display here.

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