“Gary Clark Jr.” HDR Picasa - Painter Essentials 5

Gary Clark Jr. - Numb

I opened a screen capture of "Gary Clark Jr.," in Picasa 3+. I adjusted the Contrast of the image for the lighter appearance. Next I applied the HDR tool with the Radius set to Medium and the Strength also Medium. This was a PNG file, but I saved it as a JPG to work with.

I now opened with Painter Essentials 5 and used the Watercolor Sketch set. I set the Brush to Simple Water Brush small size and digitally painted the piece. I then selected the Colored Pencil Drawing set and a Calk Charcoal Brush medium sized. I added just a few Pencil Strokes to the image.

Using the Soft Cloner Brush, I hand painted back in some details of his face, and the microphone. This lets the HDR appearance show the changes it made. I saved that iteration.

Completing the piece I opened in Paint.NET and added my signature file as a layer. I sized and placed it and applied the layer property Additive to it for transparency. I merged the layers to finish the piece. Then decided to use Curves set to RGB to lighten the depth of colors a small amount. This image has plenty of saturation of color so I did not alter that at all. I saved again.

Gary's song “Numb!” is a favorite of mine, he is another of my Blues Rock Singer-songwriter Guitarist I turn to for listening and watching Videos of him perform.

Thus, I have one more image to add to my Music Themed Visual Artworks.

All names, copyrights and, videos or trademarks belong to their prospective owners, I only own the right to my Artworks and explanations of my workflow. 

"Joe Bonamassa - Mountain Time" Picasa - Painter Essentials 5 Plus

Joe Bonamassa - Mountain Time

I use Pandora on my Smartphone and my Tablet to listen to Music. One of my Shuffle Artists to listen to is Joe Bonamassa, along with a few others. I also enjoy Videos of Bonamassa performing his Blues Rock Music. I have used Picasa for some screen captures of Joe playing his favorite Guitars.

I opened Picasa and selected one of those screen captures, “Joe Bonamassa – Mountain Time.” I increased the Highlights a bit and the Color Temperature as well. I applied the HDR tool in Picasa for that effect the Radius Medium and the Strength Medium settings. I saved that file.

I next opened in Painter Essentials 5 and used the Oil Painting set with a small Dry Brush. I used the Soft Cloner Brush to add back in details of his face, Guitar, and clothing. I created a new layer with the same unpainted image in it and applied the Colored Pencil set with another small brush. I dropped the layers together for one background and saved it with a new name.

I used Picasa's Border with only the outside border showing and added corner curves to that. Saving again I opened that file in PhotoPaint and added my signature layer, sizing it and placing it using the property Add for transparency. I saved that iteration.

I Resampled at 120dpi and increased the size of the image before resizing for display, saving again. Next I resized for display 120dpi, 75 compression, and 25 smoothing, saving as a JPG.

The “Joe Bonamassa,” name, and all song originals belong to their prospective owners and I do not own the rights to these.

"Bonamassa - Just Got Paid" HDR - Painter Essentials 5 Plus

Bonamassa - Just Got Paid

"Bonamassa - Just Got Paid," a screen capture from his performance was used for this piece. I am currently listening to quite a bit of Joe's Music and really like it. Bonamassa Website

I was in Picasa 3+ and I used the HDR tool on the capture. The Radius was medium and the strength was medium high. I also applied the Border tool for a Black and White Border. I saved this image with a new name.

I opened in Painter Essentials 5 and Digitally Painted it with the Oil Painting set, Digital Watercolor Dry Brushes. I then switched to the Illustration set and used the Chalk, Pastels, Crayons Soft Charcoal Brushes. I saved this under a new name.

I then used Paint.NET to add my Signature layer and resized , placed it with the property Additive. I merged the layers. Saving again as a JPG. I used the original bordered size of the piece for display.

All song names and the artist name are owned by Joe Bonamassa and his company. See the link above for more information about this Great Blues/Rock Singer/Songwriter/Performer. Thanks!