Vector Graphics - CorelTRACE - CorelDRAW - PhotoPaint

Vector work can add to an image clean lines and radial gradients, as well as other cool effects.

I used CorelTRACE on this photograph of a young lady to alter it to a vector graphic. I added some freehand drawn curves to her hair and radial gradients to the eyes and lips in CorelDRAW. I also exploded some of the vectored pieces and added a background and some solid color to the face.

In PhotoPaint I copied the image to a bitmapped format. I used the Effects> Artistic> Crayon on an early iteration of the bitmapped image. This was prior to adding the freehand curves and other vector pieces. I also used Painter 8 acrylics for color around the eyes as the lines made the eyes too black.

I did use the Little Inkpot's Thredgeholder for the black lines adding the copy of the image with the object property of Multiply. I finished the image with some filtering and adding a background of a plant's skin for interest, which I had gotten from PainterTalk's forums.

----------------
Listening to: 06popcast.mp3 - New York Times
null

Hemi - All Dressed Up - Paint.NET - Photoshop 7 - PhotoPaint

A photograph taken by my brother Kent M. Gatzka at the Franken-
muth Auto Fest is today's first subject.

I cropped this image to focus on the Hemi being displayed. I cloned out a date on the image and two figures at the top of the trunk in PhotoPaint. Saving that file I opened in Paint.NET 2.5.5 version.


Once there I used the Effects> Artistic> Ink Sketch filter with the color turned all the way up, which gave the white car a aqua tint and deepened the shadows. I saved it again and reopened it in PhotoPaint. Here I used the Tone Curves to add depth and increased the saturation by 7. I added a frame using Filter Forge's Freepack - Frames.



----------------
Listening to: After Midnight Cover - Kirk Mathew Gatzka
null

Grunge Guitar Collage - Songwriting Musings

Today I am sharing two new guitar based images complete with chord progres-
sions and lyric snippets and drippings. I created them using PhotoPaint and the available features that allow me to add each piece into the digital guitar collages.

I have been working on two new songs and I added some of the lyric snippets and chords from them cutting and pasting from MS Word documents. I place the Text tool into the image and paste the snippets and selecting them all I add font, color, angles and drippings.

I do most of my songwriting on the computer now, I don't keep a journal, I write lyrics in Notepad or MS Word. Sometimes the chord progressions comes first then a melody then lyrics, other times I write lyrics and the chords and melody come afterward.

I structure the song as I go, rhyming, verses, hopefully a bridge, and a good melody. I use various chord progression tools I have found online and printed out to help come up with a progression that works well together.

The two songs, "I'm Counting On You," and "I Need You My Friend," were written differently. I started with "I'm banking on you," first of all with the first song, changing it to "Counting" later as I worked on it.

The second song began as a poem written at my daughter's house, then I altered it as I added a chord progression from my tools I have adjusting the chords, lyrics, melody after the lyric was in written form.

Songwriting is a work of flow and concentration, coming as it does intuitively. It is funny how many revisions can take place during the process. For "Counting," I wrote and recorded about 5 different versions before I was satisfied with the song. "My Friend," took less time and was recorded only twice before I had what I think is a pretty good tune. And with that one I cut a chunk of lyric out to the beginning poem to make a manageable song.

Lately I have been encouraged to write and record using a simple, clean approach to my presentation of the song. Vocal and Guitar only, recorded without any leads or background vocals or drum beats. I think this simplification has helped as I had been too concerned about production technique that it was hurting the songwriting.

Musically I have been enjoying the process immensely as I work on new songs and chord progressions and look for the elusive "bridge."

Listening to ---- "I Need You My Friend" ---- Kirk Mathew Gatzka

Warm Guitar Complete with Blanket - Photoshop

I just got an extension cord for my Wacom Tablet that allows me to disconnect it from my PC and then connect it to my Mac G4. Why would I want to do that? Because I wanted to explore Photoshop version 7 better.

This photograph, taken by myself, was put through some paces in both PhotoPaint and in Photoshop 7. I made a quadtone of it in PhotoPaint and then saved it to my Zip 100 disk so I could port it to the Mac.

In Photoshop 7 I used some of the Artistic filters on it to give it some grain and paint daubs. I adjusted the Curves to deepen the shadows. I was using the jpg file format to move between the programs with ease of use.

The title is somewhat an oxymoron as Blue is not the warmest color there is, but it is a comment on the blanket in the photograph, draped around the guitar.

I brought is back into PhotoPaint and added Filter Forges Freepack - Frames watercolor frame to the piece. I resized it there for the web.

The second image is from Peter Frampton's, "Alive" cassette cover. I had scanned in the image and saved it in tiff format. Using the Zip 100 disk called Ferryboat2 I moved it over to the Mac G4 and used Photoshop on it for a painterly look and feel. The filters are different than what I have in other programs and I like the look of a variety of them. So I applied one here as well. It softened the image, I used Curves on it and adjusted the saturation of it in Photoshop.

Ferrying it back to the PC I added the watercolor frame to it in PhotoPaint.

The third image is one of a sketch I did of my son, when very young, sleeping on a pillow. I scanned in the sketch and using Painter 8 painted it with watercolor brushes.

I also Ferried this to Photoshop and added a Gaussian blur with some texture as well as doctoring up some of the lines of the sketch with a black 2pixel brush. I again used a watercolor frame for it with a 10pixel black frame to finish it off.

I am still learning how to use Photoshop 7 and would love to have CS5 but it is cost prohibitive at this time so I use what I have to the best of my current knowledge and abilities.

Three very different images all done using Photoshop 7 and PhotoPaint.

Listening to --- Move in Time --- by Kirk Mathew Gatzka

A Fuse Box - Grunge and Dynamic Auto-Painter Trial

Family emer-
gencies can keep one away from posting especially when you aren't anywhere where there is internet access. Let's just say that other things can become more important than a blog post.

This is an image I created on my laptop using Paint.NET, textures from CGTextures.com and some Paint.NET plugins.

It's a fuse box, a really old one I turned on it's side. I used Effects> Artistic> Ink Sketch on the image and also Curves to deepen the shadows. A bit of increased saturation brought out the rust and the yellow color and I added a layer of a red paint splash.

The original photograph was almost square and I did resize it for the web.

The second image is of a building photograph I used the Felt Tip filter on in MediaChance's Dynamic Auto-Painter Trial version (Click on the program name to go to their site.) The DAP automatically applies your chosen style to the Photograph and places a trial marking on it which I cropped out as it is very unsightly and spoils the effects you get from the auto painting features.

It was very interesting to watch the program auto paint using broad strokes and then moving into smaller strokes for details. You stop it where you like the results. It is not for everyone but the results are amazing as you can see.

While I was away I did have a chance to jam with a Nam Veteran. He played his 12-string and I accompanied him on his 6-string. He knew a lot of old tunes and said that I did a good job of "filling in the cracks" with my improvised leads. A lot of C G D songs and E A B7 songs too. It was obvious that he had seen a lot of action in Nam and had paid a price for his efforts. A very intense sort of guy with a lot of heart. The jam was good.

Listening to --- Blues Fun One by Kirk Mathew Gatzka