Beach Scene - Holland, Michigan - Painter 11 - Paint.NET

This project started as a photograph of the beach at Holland State Park in Holland, Michigan. I found it browsing in Picasa 3. I did some prep work on it using Paint.NET applying a filter that simplified the photograph into a painterly appearance.

I then took that saved file and opened with Painter 11, did a quick clone and selected the Oil brush. I was hoping for an impasto look and feel and this is what I got. I also used the Soft cloner and the straight clone to bring back some of the altered detail.

I grabbed the Distortion brush Confusion and diffused the sky. I left the rest of the image alone. Back in PhotoPaint I added a Painting frame in Filter Forge.

----------------
Now playing: Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris - Beachcombing
via FoxyTunes

Maxfield Parrish - Digital Collage - PhotoPaint

Again browsing in Picasa 3 I went to my Mayang's Textures folder and selected a flaking blue paint texture for my background. Using two images from Dover Publications, done by Maxfield Parrish I created a simple digital collage in PhotoPaint.

I liked the blues of both Parrish paintings, they went well with the blue texture. I had resized the image to 1200 then added a Navy blue 10 pixel border in PhotoPaint. I added his name to the collage like I did with the Alphonse Mucha collage I had done recently.

Doing a search on the artist I found many reference sites for him [click here] for one about his art and illustrations.

----------------
Now playing: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)
via FoxyTunes

Alaskan River - Acrylics - Painter 11 - PhotoPaint

Continuing with Alaskan landscapes I selected this photograph in Picasa 3 of a rocky river. I opened with Painter 11 and selected Acrylics brushes. I did a quick clone again to paint upon. I used various Acrylic brushes for the foliage and the Soft cloner to add back in some leafy detail.

I selected a wet acrylic brush for the water and rocks and painted those. I added some detail with a Crayon brush with the clone button selected. To blend I selected the Distortion brush Confusion. I saved the large file.

I opened with PhotoPaint and adjusted the Tone Curve and the color saturation set at seven. I added a 10 pixel white border and then a larger border in light blue. Using the wand I selected the light blue border and applied the Effects> Texture> Plastic> filter using another light blue color. Finishing it with a 10 pixel black border for larger viewing.

----------------
Now playing: J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton - Ride The River
via FoxyTunes

Alaskan Mountains - Watercolor - Painter 11 - PhotoPaint

Here is an image that is done in Watercolor in Painter 11. I browsed our photographs from our Alaskan trip a couple of years ago and found many good mountain based ones. I browsed to this one in Picasa 3, and opened with Painter 11.

I did a quick clone and selected the watercolor brushes. Clicking on the clone button I adjusted the opacity and saturation for each layer of the foreground and subsequent mountain layers. I painted at first with the fine watercolor then the larger brushes. I was using the large photograph so the brushes moved slowly at times, as is the case with watercolor.

I also selected the Gouache brush for the sky, as in the photograph it was mostly white and very light blue. I added some blue with a Whitewater brush to the piece for added depth. I saved the file as a jpg for use in PhotoPaint.

Opening it in PhotoPaint I added Filter Forge's watercolor frame , narrowing it and changing the color to a sky blue. I also squared off the corners more, less rounded. Here I resampled the larger image for display on the internet. I also adjusted with the Tone Curve to lighten up the image.

----------------
Now playing: Alan Parsons Project - Eye In The Sky
via FoxyTunes