"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.

"Applause" Digital Collage - Corel PhotoPaint - Art Deco

Applause

I decided to do a Digital Collage for my image today. I got out my "Art Deco Designs," by Edouard Benedictus and selected a page of designs, floral and colorful. I scanned that page in with my Canon MP495 at it's full size, Over 8" x 11".

I used Corel PhotoPaint for the collaging. I applied the Tone Curve to the Art Deco background for some color depth. I digitally cut and pasted the bits of words that I found in discarded magazines. I got the phrase, "Applause Serious Minds Fleeting Resistance."

I added a couple of bits of a warehouse image at the bottom. I added my signature, smaller that most often, and saved the very large file.  I resampled for display in PhotoPaint, adding a blue frame with Filter Forge's Frames, and saved that iteration.

"Milestone = 60,000 Plus Pageviews - Thank You!"

Many Thanks!

"And It Was Mine" - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

And It Was Mine

I browsed in Picasa 3 folders to my Dover Publications Clip Art and searched for an Art Nouveau piece. Copying that to the clipboard I then opened CorelDRAW and pasted it into DRAW. I resized the floral clip art and turned to my Journals for some phrase. "And It Was Mine," is what I found.

I incorporated that full phrase using Dauphin font as the typography, which has a pleasant feel to it. I center justified both text excerpts, placing them on the digital page. I added using the rectangle tool two layers of enhancing colors.

I opened PhotoPaint and copied and pasted using File New From Clipboard at 75% the original file size, at 300dpi. I applied Filter Forge's Photo Effect Vibrance on it and then switched to the Grunge effects and added stain and a light frame.

Listening --- Pearl Jam --- I Am Mine

"My New Heroes Are" - Art Nouveau - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint

Heroes

Again in my Journals I found this quote that was written by me in 1994. I opened CorelDRAW and using my Canon MP495 All in One, I scanned in a piece of Art Nouveau design, cropping it from other designs in the scan. The design came from the over-sized book Art Nouveau Patterns and Designs by R. Beauclair. I resized it to fit the page, and used NexusFont to find the Metro Nouveau font for the quote.

I centered the text phrase and added the date to the large file, I grouped the text and background and copied to the clipboard. Opening PhotoPaint I added my signature. I used the Tone Curve for some depth and increased the color saturation just a bit. I resampled for sharing here.

Listening --- Foo Fighters --- My Hero

"Self Worth" - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

Self Worth

I've been scouring some of my Journals of writings for Poetry to publish here as grunge posters. I ran across this one from March 24th, 1996 entitled "Self Worth." 

I opened CorelDRAW and NexusFont, a font finding program and found this one called Century Schoolbook Bold Italic. In my Journal the poem was written with the verses angling down the page. So I duplicated the style here with type.

I went and found a grunge background from my folders in Picasa 3 and copied and pasted it, then rotated it for a portrait display. I placed it behind the text.

Next I wanted a shadow behind the main text phrases so I grouped the text in it's angled state and duplicated it, using a yellow on brown. Grouping the background and the text I copied to the clipboard and opened with File New From Clipboard in PhotoPaint at 75% it's original size for working purposes.

I applied Filter Forge's Photo Effects Grunge to the image to make it stained and framed. I added my signature, saving the large file then resampling to display size.

Listening --- Archie Roach --- Life is Worth Living

"!Music Lives" - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge - PSP Pro X3

! Music Lives

I started to create an image today, a digital collage, about music and this is what I finished with. I had to search for some free music notation font files online and discovered two, MetDemo and MusiSync. I found a third that had guitar chord charts, Accord.

I took the font Abadi MT Condensed ExtraBold and used that for the phrase "Music Lives" and added an exclamation point from the font Basketcase. I found a photograph while browsing in Picasa 3 folders of a 12-string guitar so I used Little Ink Pot's Thredgeholder on it for line art and added a couple guitars to the piece.

Almost as an after thought I added an image of myself, unshaven, to add something more to it. I adjusted the image of me from a photograph in PSP Pro X3, making it a line art grunge image.

I also used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Grunge, altering some of the settings as before. This created a framed look, too.

Listening --- America --- This Is For All The Lonely People

"It Was Time I Decided" - Verse Perfect - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

COLLIDED

AWAY

I was in the program Verse Perfect which is great for songwriting and poetry, I would recommend it, and it is free online. I wrote some verse and thought I could incorporate some graphic design with it so I opened Picasa 3 and CorelDRAW and found some grunge backgrounds I had saved and copied and pasted them into DRAW. Each one I worked on separately. I copied the verses from Verse Perfect  and pasted them into DRAW.

I played around with small caps, full caps and justification. Then I did some fun tilting and altering of words. I grouped the objects and text and copied to the clipboard and opened PhotoPaint and used File> New From Clipboard>, reducing the size of the large file to 75%of the original.

I fit to screen and applied the Tone Curve, for depth,  as I worked the individual pieces. Using Filter Forge's Photo Effects Grunge I decreased the grunge slider and increased the stains slider, also decreasing the frame slider and applied the effect.

The poem is not a happy one, but one of unreconciled differences in a relationship. All to common, but not the state I'm in, just a fictitious relationship.

Listening --- Bob Seger --- Roll Me Away 

My Reply Was a Quick Thrust - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

Abadi MT Condensed Extra Bold Font

I browsed my Mayang's Textures folder in Picasa 3 and selected a texture image for this piece, I opened it in PhotoPaint and applied the Tone Curve for greater depth and upped the saturation for color. I copied to the clipboard and moved into CorelDRAW.

Then I went to Fillerati.com for some text to work with and selected, in English, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars and copied a snippet to the clipboard. In CorelDRAW I added the text and formatted it using small caps for the paragraph and all caps for the larger portion of the quote, which is a partial quote from the book. I also force justified the paragraph text and right justified the larger statement text.

I grouped the objects and text into one grouping and copied that to the clipboard. I pasted it into PhotoPaint at 75% the original. Using Filter Forge's Photo Effects Grunge I added the stains and more texture to the image. I saved the large file and resampled for display here adding my signature.

Listening --- Amanda Marshall --- Too Little, Too Late

Communication No Breakdown - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint

I was browsing my Dover Publications folder in Picasa 3 and came across this bit of clip art. It is two mailboxes with the phrase, "They Want to Know," in script. It also shows mail with postage going from one person to another.

It immediately made me think of all the ways we communicate  today, we talk and converse expressing ourselves. But, we also use the Internet for much of our communication.

Thus today's image. A simple one with few words and a single piece of clip art. I had planned on using a William Morris background but that appeared too busy. So I used more white space.

The fonts I used were Berlin Sans FB Demi (Bold) and Century Gothic Normal from my Corel Graphic Suite's collection of fonts and typefaces. I adjusted the character spacing on both the words, communication and express to fit. And enlarged the word TALK, as that is our major way of getting the message to another.

I right justified the words, Tweet, et al., to balance the piece.

I used PhotoPaint to cut and paste the clipart from there to CorelDRAW and did the rest of the image there.

Finished I saved the large image and then in PhotoPaint converted it to jpg format and resized it for display here.

Listening --- Alan Parson's Project --- Let's Talk About Me

Flea Market - Typography Portrait - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

A short post today, very busy time wise. Here is some eye candy for your viewing pleasure. I used CorelDRAW and PhotoPaint and Filter Forge's Photo Effects for these images.

Listening --- The Beatles --- Come Together

A Bird in the Hand - CorelDRAW - Painter 11 - PhotoPaint

This image began as a piece of Dover Publications Clip Art from their online sampler. The woodcarving of the birds in the bush image I opened in PhotoPaint and resampled to 120dpi to increase it's size to work on it. I used the Tone Curve to give it more depth.

With Filter Forge's Photo Effects I applied a dreamy effect to it and toned it down slightly.

Saving that file I opened in Painter 11 and used Digital Watercolor brushes for painting the color into the image.

I scanned in a image of hands into PhotoPaint, from North Light Clip Art Series, and erased the parts I did not want so I only had one black and white hand image. I inverted the mask I created with the wand and selected only the hand with a Mask Channel.

I copied that to the clipboard and pasted it into the now painted picture in CorelDRAW. Using the typeface Arial Black and Rounded, I used the phrase, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," and cut and adjusted the text.

I set that upon the hand as a group of text. Then grouped the whole image and copied it to the clipboard again. I opened with File New from Clipboard.

I resampled the large file in PhotoPaint and saved it with my signature.

Listening --- The Beatles --- Free as a Bird

Design - There is no Substitution for Hard Work - PhotoPaint - CorelDRAW

Click for Larger Image

Yesterday I was reading a number of articles on the web about design and typography and decided to create this image. I selected a worn yellow treadplate from Mayang's Textures, which I resized in PhotoPaint, and began with a small idea. The articles impressed me that Design and the use of Typography is no small feat. It takes hard work and imagination (not to mention some talent.) So the last part of the message was to "Imagine Hard."

As I did this image I did not keep track of the fonts or typefaces used, or I would include them here. I did create this in PhotoPaint and CorelDRAW. I set the type in CorelDRAW then grouped all the pieces together, copied to the clipboard and opened with File New from Clipboard in PhotoPaint. I used the Tone Curve to give depth and increased the saturation for the color.

Listening --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka --- A Thousand White Horses

Scarlet Ain't Anything But Red is Red - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

Click for Larger Image

I browsed to my Mayang's Textures folder in Picasa 3 and found a rough bark texture to use as a background for this image. I opened with PhotoPaint and adjusted the Tone Curve and saturation. I copied to the clipboard and opened CorelDRAW.

There I fitted to a landscape orientation and resized the texture. I went to my browser and opened up Fillerati.com and selected some text from Jack London's the Scarlet Plague,

I chose the typeface AntigoniBd for the phrase and the larger text as well. I used an off yellow and emphasized the words "scarlet and red" in red.

"Scarlet ain't anything but red is red," is the larger quote. I added black outlining to the typeface for some legibility and duplicated it, overlaying it. Then superimposed the larger quote over the smaller as small caps, increasing letter spacing by 33% and force justifying it.

I copied to the clipboard and pasted into PhotoPaint where I resized it after saving the larger file. I used Filter Forge's Grunge frame with a red tint. I also used the Tone Curve again and deepened the reds. I added my signature and completed the image for display.

Listening --- Chris Deburgh --- Lady In Red

Grunge Typography - Stained Typefaces - Digital Collage - CorelDRAW - Picasa 3 - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

Click for Larger Image

Grunge storytelling is the topic for the image of the day. I opened Picasa 3 and went to one of my folders containing some of my grunge backgrounds. Using the Ctrl key I selected seven grunge textures and made a large Collage of them. I saved that file and opened CorelDRAW.

I pasted the large image into CorelDRAW and made it fit an 8" x 10" size. I opened my web browser and went to Fillerati.com and selected some text from Edgar Rice Burroughs At the Earth's Core.

I added the text to the image, using for the background text paragraph the Bedini typeface, I force justified the yellow text. I liked the phrase at the end of the paragraph and copied that for the large text.

"His attitude was of one who waits for the miracle to come to him," I thought was an interesting phrase. I selected the typeface Abadi MT Condensed Extra Bold and enlarged it. I set it at force justify and small caps in black.

I duplicated the phrase and made it white and offset it from the black type. I saved the large file and resampled it to use online. To add the grunge look and feel as even more evident I used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Grunge and tested out varying effects. I selected to lessen the grunge increase the stains and applied it to the whole image.

As an aside topic, I got out my Seagull 12-String guitar the other night and tuned it to an open "G" tuning that I've never used before. G G D G B D is the string set up for this tuning. I did some improvising making up chords and using a couple I had found. After a long dry spell musically it was enjoyable to be playing again!



Listening to: Abra Moore - Four Leaf Clover

Overcoat - 223 - Firehose - Store Front - Book - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint

Click for Larger Image

Busy again tomorrow I have posted a second time today. I have been scavenging pieces of found art for collage work. I discovered these images torn from a large format LAN magazine from the late 1980's.

I opened PhotoPaint and scanned in five images using the built in Tone Curve to deepen the color of each scan. I copied to the clipboard and pasted into CorelDRAW and resized placed each one into a collage. I placed a black rectangle around them. Grouping them I copied to the clipboard again and opened as New from Clipboard into PhotoPaint.

I added the text naming each piece after it's subject matter with the exception of the "Open" image. I used the typefaces Orpheus Demo - Overcoat; Time New Yorker - 223; FuturaBlack BT - firehose; and DirtyUncle - book, adding each one to the finished piece.

I resized the image for display and added my signature to complete the collage.

Listening --- Kirk Mathew Gatzka --- After Midnight Cover

Cup Saucer and Silverware Freehand Design - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint

Click for Large Image

I found an old sketch I had done, from 1998 and I scanned it into PhotoPaint. Copying it to the clipboard I opened and pasted it into CorelDRAW.

Using the freehand tool I traced the objects, deleted the scanned sketch, and then filled them with gradients of varying color. I added the text using an AvantGarde Md BT typeface with the exception of the number sixty-six for which I used Adolescence.

I again used fillerati.com for the text in Deutsch from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. I force justified the text and sized it to fit the object. I added a black border and then a table top with the polyline tool.

After I placed all objects in order, I grouped them and copied to the clipboard.

Back in PhotoPaint I opened as New from Clipboard and saved the large file. I resampled for display and added my signature.

Listening --- Mike and the Mechanics --- Another Cup of Coffee

Vintage 1987 Foodland Advertisement - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

Click for Larger Image

Will be busy tomorrow so I am posting a new graphic image as a second one for this evening. We were cleaning house and getting ready to rid ourselves of some old frames. One frame we found, pasted to the back of a clued together puzzle, was a 1987 newspaper advertisement for Foodland Markets.

We had to break the puzzle into pieces, it was not worth saving and I took some of the smaller pieces and opened PhotoPaint and scanned them in with my Canon All in One.

I had to both use Sharpen on some pieces and Tune Blur on others. I saved each piece individually. I opened CorelDRAW and began to import the pieces and resize and place them on the framework.

I also imported one of Mayang's Textures and placed it behind the grouping. I grouped this all together. Then I copied to the clipboard and opened as New from Clipboard in PhotoPaint.

There I applied the Tove Curve to add depth and upped the saturation to boost the red of the advertisement. I used Filter Forge's frames for a film frame to finish the image with my signature.

Notice that 1) I recycled the old art puzzle and it's advertisement and 2) circled the year and the Every day Low Prices phrase.

This is not meant to be a pretty piece of digital art, but an effort at recycling and a statement about the high cost of living and how it has changed since 1987. I resized the image for display here.

Listening --- Pink Floyd --- Money

As Soft As the Stuff They Sailed Upon - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint - Filter Forge

Click for Larger Image

This image is entitled "as soft as the stuff they sailed upon." was created in CorelDRAW and adjusted in PhotoPaint. I followed the same basic steps as I had with yesterday's image.

I opened CorelDRAW and imported from my Mayang's Textures folder three differing texture photographs. I resized them and placed them.

I went online to fillerati.com and copied a partial quote from Edgar Rice Burroughs, and placed that on the imported textures. I used the typeface Abadi MT Condensed Extra Bold for the text phrase. I forced justified the full quote, using the color green.

I added a portion of the quote in large text and placed it on top the image, this time at an angle. I duplicated that quote in an orange color to offset from the light yellow. This was left justified.

I grouped the pieces together and copied to the clipboard. I opened PhotoPaint and pasted as New from Clipboard the large file, closing CorelDRAW. I then resampled the file for display. And from my Dover Clip Art folder I added a Vintage young lady image.

I went into Filter Forge's Photo Effects Grunge and selected a variant. I adjusted the stains and amount of texture for that grunge look and feel, without overpowering the image. This also placed a frame around the full piece.

I added my signature to complete the piece. I saved the image to share here.

Listening --- The Beatles --- Yellow Submarine

Rose Leaf Rag - Vintage Typography and Art Deco Design - PhotoPaint

Click for Larger Image

A simple Art Deco background with some Vintage Typography and a couple of scanned in drop caps is in today's image.

I took the background from my Dover Clip Art collection and added to it a front piece of Scott Joplin's Rose Leaf Rag sheet music. I added a couple in vintage clothing that appear to be dancing together.

I adjusted the color with the Tone Curve and upped the saturation. Then I added a border as a small mat and a frame using the wand to select the secondary border. I applied the 3D Bevel to the second border for the framing.

I saved the file for presentation here with my signature.

Listening --- The Alan Parson's Project --- Old And Wise