"Yamaha Portable Grand Piano" Corel - Plus

Yamaha Portable Grand Piano

I've been on a Sepia kick with some of my images lately. I browsed in Picasa 3.9 to photographs of my studio/office. I opened this one with my Son's Yamaha Portable Grand Piano in it. I used Corel PSP Pro X3 and created lineart with it. I played around with the Levels and added a Polaroid frame and a black border to it. I saved this large file.

I opened it with Corel PhotoPaint and used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Sepia with the darker tone. It darkened the framing as well. I like the look and feel of this image now. I added my signature in black before I adjusted the Sepia Tone. I resampled to display size in PhotoPaint.

This Piano is no longer in my studio and I miss having it, though I am not a keyboardist. I did enjoy playing on the Piano with all it's settings and helps with beats and chording. Such Fun!

"Seagulls Guitars and Birds" Sepia Tone Corel - Plus

Seagulls

I began this image with the idea of showing images of real Seagulls along with a Pencil version of my Seagull S12 Cedar 12-String Guitar. I browsed my Dover Clip Art folder in Picasa 3.9 and found my image of seagulls. I opened it in Corel PSP Pro X3 and resized it to a larger display size. I saved it and opened a photograph of my 12-String Guitar. I used the Pencil tool to create a pencil sketch of it. Saving that separately I reopened the seagulls in Corel PhotoPaint.

Once in PhotoPaint I opened the Pencil sketch of the Guitar and erased the surrounding area leaving the background white. I copied it and pasted onto the background. I resized it to fit the seagull background. Then I reproduced it, flipping it vertically, twice for a total of three guitars. I used the property Multiply for transparency so the seagulls would show through.

Using Filter Forge's Photo Effects I selected a Old photograph setting for the texture and framing. I applied a simple brownish Tritone to this for some tinting, using PhotoPaint.

I added my signature with copy and paste as new object, resized it for the corner and merged it with the image. To complete the image I used Filter Forge's Photo Effects Sepia Tone

"Songwriters Showcase HOA #5 w/ Sara Corbin" Corel - Plus

Songwriters Showcase #5

Today I am sharing a Digital Collage made in Picasa 3.9 from screen captures of the:

"Songwriters Showcase HOA #5 w/ Sara Corbin" On Google+:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ePB2k_8Fsow

Performing were +Jonathan Blackshire , +Cecilee Linke , +Matty James  and the Cutthroat Reef Irish group +Derek Pollak  with +Sara Corbin  finishing out the show. The patter was fun and the music was upbeat and everyone did some really good performances as directed by Jonathan.

This was streamed to YouTube and I did the captures there. I opened them with Corel PhotoPaint New From Clipboard and applied an old-fashioned photo effect with Filter Forge' Photo Effects. I also posted them on Jonathan Blackshire's Event Page one at a time.

I kept the captures relatively small for the Event Page. And decided to create the Collage in Picasa. I used the Mosaic style collage on an 8.5x11 background. Picasa fitted them into the Mosaic automatically. I then added a slight border in brown off setting the old fashioned Sepia Photo look and feel.

I resized the large collage file to a display size and added my signature in white using PhotoPaint's Resample, and Invert on the signature file using the property Add for transparency.

"Sam Batt 'In The Spotlight' Artists in the Plus" Corel Painter 11 - Plus

Singer Songwriter Sam Batt

I attended another Artist in the Plus "In the Spotlight" with Singer Songwriter +Sam Batt recently. I was able to get a fair screen capture of her during the Interview portion. She is a talented and tough performer as she sang and played guitar for us inspite of having a cold. She was Marvelous. Her Interview answers were full of interesting details as well. She Plays a Yamaha High-end Acoustic-Electric Guitar that sounded just great and fit her voice wonderfully. My painting made her look a little like the actor Angie Dickinson!

You can see the "In the Spotlight" Show at the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6AjhI85Ius

And here is Sam Batt's website:

http://www.sambatt.com/index.html

I opened the capture in Corel PhotoPaint with New from Clipboard. There I cropped the capture, I saved that iteration. I proceeded to open with Corel PSP Pro X3. There I used the Camera Noise Removal, the Skin Smoothing, Smart Photo Fix, and some other Noise removal settings. I resized that image and saved it as a third iteration.

From Picasa 3.9 I opened that with Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and auto painted it with the Modern setting using Rough Paper and Smooth Brush. I did touch up with the Soft Cloner Brush to add back in some details. I saved again.

I ventured more deeply into painting freehand I opened that file with Corel Painter 11 and using multiple differing Brushes I painted the image using a Clone of it. I added details to the eyes and the background. This gave it even a more painterly look and feel.

I finished the image with Filter Forge's Frames Grunge frame. Added my signature in white and saved the final image.

"Double Drop D Guitar Collage" Corel - Plus

Digital Collage - Double Drop D

For today's image I created a Guitar Digital Collage in Picasa 3.9. Using the recent photographs of my 12-string Seagull Guitar I selected the photographs and chose Create Collage in Picasa. I switched to the 8X10 portrait setting with a central photograph the Picasa made the large collage from my selections.

It auto saved the draft and I opened the finished collage in Corel PSP Pro X3. There I applied the Smart Photo Fix and loaded the image as another layer. To that the Smart Photo Fix was applied and I used the Pencil tool to create an overlay. I altered the colors to a Psychedelic look and feel. I merged the layers with the enhanced colors. I saved that iteration.

I reopened from Picasa with Corel PhotoPaint. there I used the Wand tool to select the white space and filled with a Stucco filling from their Sample palettes. I added the paint splatters to the image and changed their opacity and added drippings. This was for that Grunge effect.

I then scanned in some blank chord charts, four of them in a group, and added some Double Drop D chord markings. The first chord is played like an Am on the first fret then the second is the same form slid up to the third fret. The next chord is the A shape played on the fifth and seventh frets.

I used the property Multiply as I copied and pasted the chord form onto the guitar background, sizing it large enough to read and using black. I added the Double Drop D Tuning phrase and added the dripping using the Distort, Wet Paint, tool. I merged the chords and phrase into the background.

I saved the large iteration, then on the display size added my signature and saved that with a differing file name.

A Double Drop D song I have been working on. This is the first draft:

https://soundcloud.com/gatzka-music/does-anybody-know

I'd like some input on this first draft from +James Olmos +Tim Behrens If they would chime in. Contact by email +John Voshell has it and has my permission to share with you both. +Mark Ferrasci may want to listen as he helped in the creative process of this tune, his opinions are welcome too.

Comments and Pluses welcome!