"How This Was Done - Wooden Corduroy Bridge Impressionistic Style" Corel

Wooden Corduroy Bridge

Another Free Photograph I was given to use. A "Wooden Corduroy Bridge," in the forest. With Autumn here and the colors soon to change I selected this for today's theme. I opened the file in Corel PSP Pro X3 and applied the Smart Photo Fix, increasing the color and adding shadow and deepening the highlights. I used the Saturation Vibrancy tool on it. I saved that iteration.

I opened Picasa and selected the adjusted image. I applied the Ortonish tool to the image, and saved that. I then opened it in Corel Painter 11. There I did a Quick Clone, selected the Artist Brush Auto Van Gogh and auto painted the piece with smaller brush strokes.

Saving that file with a new name I reopened it in PSP Pro X3 and also opened the pre-painted image. I copied and layered that over the painted piece. I then played with properties (using the Overlay property) and opacity. This boosted the detail and depth of it. I added my Signature as a Layer and merged all to one layer (background.) I saved that iteration with a new name. Viewing it full screen in Picasa, I was satisfied with the final piece.

I then resized the image for display and your consideration.

I haven't been working too much on new songs lately. My Son got married, and my wife and I collaborated on a song for the Bride and Groom to sing at the reception for them. "Dream Has Come True," was my first real collaboration with my wife, we both really enjoyed it. It was well received at the reception and we were given a surprisingly enthusiastic round of applause. My Son and his new wife appreciated it and that was very important to us.

It is a simple tune with shared parts and the 12-String for accompaniment. I may share it on SoundCloud if I have enough room left to post. It is only 2:25 minutes long! Long enough to get the sentiment out.

"Young Woman Portrait with Wood Texture" Corel

Young Woman Wood Texture

I had another Free Portrait of a Young Woman from StockVault that I selected today. I opened the portrait in Corel PhotoPaint and adjusted the Threshold to get some white space. I then opened a Wood Texture from Free Friday Textures and applied the Tone Curve in PhotoPaint to lighten it a bit, leaving the Texture obvious.

I copied and pasted and fit the Portrait to the size of the large Wood Texture. I used the property Multiply for transparency. I added my signature in white, merged all layers and saved the large iteration.

I opened the file with Corel PSP Pro X3 and there increased the Saturation Vibrancy by 50 for a boost to the colors. I added Image Information like Title, Copyright, Programs used, etc. I then resized the image for display here.

I like the way these pieces have been turning out. Great Free Photographs and Textures are enjoyable to work with and the resulting images satisfying.