Grunge When is Ugly Attractive? - Corel PhotoPaint

Can ugly be attractive at the same time? Working within the grunge genre one has to question this. Grunge is fascinating, the amazing textures the colors the implications. Take today's image for example.

Grunge green dominates the image. But if you look very close you see the street sign "Lovers Lane." A real street near Battle Creek, Michigan. Also looking closer you can make out the Gaussian blurred kiss in the center of the piece.

So is this piece too much Grunge or just enough to make it more interesting? Using PhotoPaint I merged 3 images to create this image. The Kiss from some marriage photographs, the floral grunge texture from Autumnights, and the photograph of "Lovers Lane."

Each image was manipulated prior to their merging into the single image you see here. I used a filter on the lovers lane photograph to simplify it. I used the Gaussian blur on the wedding kiss. And I used the object property Multiply on a piece of the floral grunge image.

What I see personally is a piece with depth. But even I wonder when is manipulation too much? I say it is when the images by themselves won't stand on their own, you manipulate till the image says something to you, as an artist. Then you stop.

Granted the image may not appeal to all who view it, but it will make a person look more closely at it to see the pieces put together. In part that is a successful image. If it holds their interest more than a cursory glance, you have accomplished something. That something is important to the artist. When the choice is made as to if one likes the image as it stands is very personal and should be allowed for every viewer. Like it or not, they have an opinion. That's the beauty in it.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Arlo Guthrie - City Of New Orleans
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Grunge Revisited - Corel PhotoPaint - Sweet Sensations

I spend quite a bit of time looking through photo-
graphs for my artworks. I am using Picasa 3 for keeping my images and photo-
graphs in order and easily found. I really recommend it for tracking images.

Today's image is a return to the Grunge image. I found a really good photograph by my son Keir M Gatzka. This was taken at a Ram's Horn Restaurant.

I opened it in PhotoPaint and used KPT's Collection Pyramid Paint filter on it. I chose the blue tints in Pyramid Paints selections. Then I ran the Thredgeholder filter on a copy of the image for details. This is superimposed on the image for a grungy appearance.

I opened a grunge texture made by Autumnights which is of an old floral wallpaper. I like the contrast of the blue with the red of the flowers. This I overlaid with the object property of Multiply for transparency.

I had a large file to begin with so I cropped it a bit losing some unwanted elements, and resized the finished image in PhotoPaint with a 25% reduction as a jpg for display here.

I like the typographical feel in this piece. "Sweet Sensations" from the paper placeholder on the restaurant table. And I like the angle at which it was taken.

While listening to music creating images I was surprised to find more than one song referring to photographs and love. I opened Notepad and wrote a lyric of my own:

Title: Photographs
Author: ©2009 Kirk Mathew Gatzka, all rights reserved.

Verse:
I listen to pieces
I hear songs about photographs
How they write paragraphs
About their love
About their love

Verse:
I pick up the pieces
Of my life as photographs
They are only pictographs
About my life
About my life

Chorus:
They don't define
What is really mine
They are only part
Of my daily art.

Verse:
I hold up the pieces
Scanning the photographs
They are like autographs
About my loves
About my loves

Chorus:
They don't define
What is really mine
They are only part
Of my daily art.

Bridge:
I take the pictures
I am never in
I am at the shutter
Taking it all in

Verse:
It's like a window
Frozen in time
More than hinges
About my life
About my life

Chorus:
They don't define
What is really mine
They are only part
Of my daily art.

Now to find a good chord progression and a melody and I'll have a new song to play.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Avril Lavigne - Keep Holding On
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David - Fun with Filters - Corel PhotoPaint

Occasion-
ally I like to experi-
ment with using differing filters on a Photo-
graph. Today's image shows David relaxing with a drink. I chose to use two programs.

In Paint.NET I used the Pencil Sketch filter and saved that file. I opened the original photograph in PhotoPaint and also opened the pencil sketch and copied it to the clipboard.

In PhotoPaint I used KPT's Collection Pyramid Paint filter on the photograph. It gave it a painterly appearance, then I pasted the pencil sketch onto it and used the object property Color Burn on it for transparency. I merged those objects.

Using the mask cutout tool I cut out David and used the filter Effects> Custom> Alchemy> for the background, leaving David the same. I inverted the mask and applied the Effects> Distort> Wet Paint> filter on David with it set very light for painterly dripping.

I used the Little Ink Pot's Thredgeholder to create another bit of detail and copied it to the clipboard, undid it and pasted it as an object. I used Color Burn again to make it transparent. The last application was the use of the Image> Adjust> Tone Curve and darkened the image a bit.

You see the results of my use of these various filters and cutting, masking and applying.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Metric - Come Back Baby
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Chevy - Pen and Ink /Watercolor - Painter 8

Just a short post today, very busy day. Here is an image that began as a photograph, opened in Painter 8. Using the Ballpoint Pen brush I sketched the car with few details. I switched to a Flat Ink pen for the coloring of the car. Then for the background and some added color I chose a watercolor camel brush.

Painter 8 is just great to use for such pen and ink and watercolor pieces. Using my Wacom tablet it is like very much like traditional pen and ink and watercolor painting.

The original photograph was taken by my son Keir M Gatzka.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
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Our House - Painter 8 Watercolor/Pencil

Detailed painting requires patience, the tiger lilies in our front and side garden required that as I painted today's image. It's another view of our house I used the watercolor clone brushes in Painter 8. I had run the original photograph through Paint.NET's Pencil Sketch filter and added that in PhotoPaint for some detail as well.

I enjoy the end result of the watercolors plus the pencil sketch together. Part of the piece is light and airy, part darker and full. That's why I enjoy them so much.

I also used the Tone Curve in PhotoPaint to lighten the colors a bit so the painting wasn't as dark as it started out. It allowed the pencil markings to show through and give it the detailed touch.

On the music front I finally bought an MP3 Player, it's only two gigabytes but it holds approximately 1000 songs. I am listening to some of my own songs right now using it. I got it for help with exercising. I have a treadmill that I can use in inclement weather, and of course can take it with me on walks around the neighborhood. I am too sedentary, I sit a lot before this computer doing art and blogging.

So it isn't helping right now as I listen to music on it while sitting. I need to move!

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Speedboat Waves
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