"How This was Done - A Snowed in Cabin" PE5 Plus

A Snowed in Cabin

Even though we have had a mild Winter here in Michigan, we have a considerable bit of Snow coming our way this week. Thus, my selection for an image today. "A Snowed in Cabin," taken from a photograph from Morguefile. I opened in Corel Painter Essentials 5 (PE5).
 
I went to the Effects first. I Sharpened the image, adjusted the colors with the Original Luminance Saturation set to 72%. I saved the large file. In PE5, I clicked on Use Open Image to select the file for Digitally Painting.

I chose a Pastel Drawing set, Chalk, Pastels, Crayons Square Hard Pastel Brush to paint with. Next I hand painted back in some details: Trees, Windows, Log Ends. I used the Soft Cloner Photo Painting Brush. I saved this iteration.

I used Picasa3+ and applied the Museum Matte to frame the image, saving again. Then opening in Corel PhotoPaint, I created a Black 2016 Signature file and saved that with a white background. I copied that to the clipboard and pasted it as a layer into the open "Cabin," image. I merged the layers and saved once more.

I Resampled for display at 72dpi, 1220 X 938 pixels, Anti-alias and Maintained Aspect Ratio. I saved the new file with a different name at 75 Compression, and 25 Smoothing, as a JPG file.

If you enjoy my Digital Visual Artworks Comment, Plus, Like, Tweet your appreciation! All responses will be deeply appreciated! Do so now!

Do you Enjoy Indie Music? Look below to play some of my Original Songs while you view the Artwork.

"Inverted Snow and Trees - 2" Paint.NET Large

Inverted Snow and Trees - 2

Another Paint.NET image, I used the Ink Sketch Tool then Inverted the results. Very simple workflow. There are so many Snow images on the Interweb these days! I thought the Inverted would be a different way to share among the many, many pictures.

I added a Title and Copyright in Image Information with Corel PSP Pro X3. This was taken at the beginning of the great Polar Vortex Winter of 2013-2014.

Hope you all are warm and safe!

"Sledding Postponed" Corel PSP Pro X3

Sledding Postponed

One of my favorite winter photographs. I have presented it prior to this but I did a new workflow on it and decided to share again. I have entitled it "Sledding Postponed."

I used Picasa 3.9 to locate the original smaller photograph taken with an old digital handheld camera. I opened with Corel PSP Pro X3, first increasing the size to display size, and using the Digital Camera Noise Removal on it. Then I used the Saturation Vibrancy on the piece to boost color. I use the Picture Frame to add a jagged surround and applied the 3D Effect to the edges for an icy appearance.

I added my signature with the Image, Visible Watermark and then finished with a black border.

These old sleds are no longer there sitting in the yard, broken and unused. I believe they are gone for good. So I am happy I got this shot before they disappeared from the neighbors yard.

They are talking on the Weather Report that we may be in for some light snow with little accumulation. Not like past years as a child when we used to get piles of it in December. It is raining now, climate change anyone?

Waiting for Spring in Michigan - Paint.NET - Painter 8 - PhotoPaint

"Waiting for Spring," is based upon a photograph taken at a greenhouse called Wojo's here locally, last year. Here in Michigan we haven't' had very good spring weather, cold temperatures and mixed snow and rain interspersed with some sun, not enough sun though.

First I opened the photograph in Paint.NET and applied the Kuwahara Filter Modified, for a painted appearance. I also used the Ink Sketch filter with the color turned up and the ink down. I saved this large file.

I then opened this file in Painter 8, which has my plugins attached. I used Filter Forge's watercolor frame on it adjusting the width to a smaller size. I also applied the Surface Texture Image Luminance for the brush-stroked look.

After saving that I reopened in PhotoPaint and added a 20 pixel black border. I resampled the larger file for display here and saved it.

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Now playing: Bruce Springsteen - Secret Garden
via FoxyTunes

Alaskan Mountains Shrouded in Clouds - Painter 11

I took a couple of days off, so I hope that you still followed gatzkART! I was browsing through my Alaskan trip photographs and found many nice photographs to select from. This particular photograph was a very cloudy day and the mountains in the background were almost obscured by the cloud cover.

I opened with Painter 11 and did a quick clone with a slight yellow ocher background. I selected the Watercolor brushes and began to paint. I used varying sizes and opacity for each area of the painting. I added some detail back in with the Soft cloner.

I adjusted the Brightness of the piece and made sure the background mountains were faint. I added a little more color with the Digital Watercolor brushes. I saved the file and opened with PhotoPaint.

Here I added a watercolor frame from Filter Forge and adjusted the Tone Curve to lighten up the image, I saved the image and reopened in Painter 11 to add some texture, I selected the Apply Surface Texture> Image Luminance> to the entire piece.

I am adapting to using the watercolors, but still have a difficult time with the darkness of the brushes. Needless to say I am still learning Painter 11 and it's features.

What do you think? Does this watercolor image have too much dark color? Or are the background mountains too light? Your comments are welcome.

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Now playing: Blues Traveler - The Mountains Win Again
via FoxyTunes

Historic Fishtown - Painter Pen and Ink and Watercolor

Traverse City, Michigan area has many local spots that highlight older times. "Historic Fishtown," is one of those places. This photograph was taken by my son Keir M. Gatzka a number of winters ago.

I opened the photograph in Painter, cloned it and selected all, cleared the clone and turned on the tracing paper. I chose the Pens> Ballpoint> pen for drawing the basic outline of this historic building. This took some time because of the detail of the stairway and windows and door.

I then selected a watercolor layer and proceeded to paint with a Dry Bristle brush, doing this with the tracing paper turned off. I painted the building with the clone button selected, though the original photograph had little color in it, it made for a nice texture.

This also took some time as the brush was kept smaller for a slanted board appearance. I saved the large file and opened it in PhotoPaint. Here I added a 20 pixel black border for a frame, and resampled it for the web.

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Now playing: JJ Cale and Eric Clapton - Sporting Life Blues
via FoxyTunes

Every one is Talking Snow!

I had to share a nice Snow photo-
graph taken with our old point and shoot digital camera. I changed the photo-
graph to black and white and removed all the electrical lines from the image.

I only added a couple of borders to this image for framing. I did little else to adjust the image, just a bit of Tone Curve in PhotoPaint for more depth.

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Now playing: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Peaceful Tones
via FoxyTunes

Guitar Player Chording G

Here is a digital painting I did with Painter 8. I used the brushes Van Gogh and Acrylics with my choice of colors from the regular Painter palette.

It is based on a photograph. I want to attribute to the photographer but can't locate the information on Yahoo or Google searches. So If you recognize the image and know please email me so I can credit it properly. In the meantime Thank You for a good beginning image.

Winter is finally here, officially 4-6 inches of snowfall. I am looking our over the lake we live above and even it is building ice. I can still see patches of watery ice they are like little rivers on the white plane of the lake. Very beautiful.

I wrote a song about the white pure snow one day when it was snowing when the sun was shining. It was an extremely impressive day weather wise. That was very inspiring. So, a song!

We got snowed in as we live high on a steep hill and our driveway has to be shoveled and cleared before we can leave, because we can't get back up the hill if it has snow on it. Finally got it shoveled only to get more snow! Winter is great but we don't always like the shoveling. Or the treacherous driving. Like most people in that respect, I'm certain.