“Gary Clark Jr.” HDR Picasa - Painter Essentials 5

Gary Clark Jr. - Numb

I opened a screen capture of "Gary Clark Jr.," in Picasa 3+. I adjusted the Contrast of the image for the lighter appearance. Next I applied the HDR tool with the Radius set to Medium and the Strength also Medium. This was a PNG file, but I saved it as a JPG to work with.

I now opened with Painter Essentials 5 and used the Watercolor Sketch set. I set the Brush to Simple Water Brush small size and digitally painted the piece. I then selected the Colored Pencil Drawing set and a Calk Charcoal Brush medium sized. I added just a few Pencil Strokes to the image.

Using the Soft Cloner Brush, I hand painted back in some details of his face, and the microphone. This lets the HDR appearance show the changes it made. I saved that iteration.

Completing the piece I opened in Paint.NET and added my signature file as a layer. I sized and placed it and applied the layer property Additive to it for transparency. I merged the layers to finish the piece. Then decided to use Curves set to RGB to lighten the depth of colors a small amount. This image has plenty of saturation of color so I did not alter that at all. I saved again.

Gary's song “Numb!” is a favorite of mine, he is another of my Blues Rock Singer-songwriter Guitarist I turn to for listening and watching Videos of him perform.

Thus, I have one more image to add to my Music Themed Visual Artworks.

All names, copyrights and, videos or trademarks belong to their prospective owners, I only own the right to my Artworks and explanations of my workflow. 

"Joe Bonamassa - Mountain Time" Picasa - Painter Essentials 5 Plus

Joe Bonamassa - Mountain Time

I use Pandora on my Smartphone and my Tablet to listen to Music. One of my Shuffle Artists to listen to is Joe Bonamassa, along with a few others. I also enjoy Videos of Bonamassa performing his Blues Rock Music. I have used Picasa for some screen captures of Joe playing his favorite Guitars.

I opened Picasa and selected one of those screen captures, “Joe Bonamassa – Mountain Time.” I increased the Highlights a bit and the Color Temperature as well. I applied the HDR tool in Picasa for that effect the Radius Medium and the Strength Medium settings. I saved that file.

I next opened in Painter Essentials 5 and used the Oil Painting set with a small Dry Brush. I used the Soft Cloner Brush to add back in details of his face, Guitar, and clothing. I created a new layer with the same unpainted image in it and applied the Colored Pencil set with another small brush. I dropped the layers together for one background and saved it with a new name.

I used Picasa's Border with only the outside border showing and added corner curves to that. Saving again I opened that file in PhotoPaint and added my signature layer, sizing it and placing it using the property Add for transparency. I saved that iteration.

I Resampled at 120dpi and increased the size of the image before resizing for display, saving again. Next I resized for display 120dpi, 75 compression, and 25 smoothing, saving as a JPG.

The “Joe Bonamassa,” name, and all song originals belong to their prospective owners and I do not own the rights to these.

"Street Musicians Three" Painter Essentials 5 Plus

Street Musicians Three

“Street Musicians Three,” is one more of my Music Themed images. I first used Picasa 3+ HDR tool on the photograph, Radius Medium and Strength Medium High. I saved the beginning iteration.

I opened that in Painter Essentials 5 and used the Watercolor Sketch set with a Dry Wash brush. This gave me a good watercolor image. I hand painted with the Soft Cloner Brush and added back in the faces, instruments, clothing and the guitar case and bicycle details. I smoothed out some of the Clouds and blue Sky, I added some detail to the trees, and the Red Building in the background.

Saving that iteration, I used Picasa, which was still open to add a Black Border to the piece. Saving that I opened in PhotoPaint and added my signature layer. I merged the layers and increased the Saturation by 21 then saved again. I had about an 8.3MB file at 120dpi.

For display here I Resampled the file to 1220 X 861, 75 Compression and 25 Smoothing, still at 120dpi, an Optimized JPG file, with a new name.

Kirk Mathew Gatzka | Search for It | CD Baby Music Store

New Song on CDBaby for Full Preview and For Sale. Have a listen and comment or review the song, here or on CDBaby!

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kirkmathewgatzka11

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Kirk Mathew Gatzka | Search for It | CD Baby Music Store

"2016 Time to Re-String Your Guitar" Hand Painted Painter Essentials 5 Plus

2016 Time to Re-String Your Guitar

“2016 Time to Re-String Your Guitar,” began as a free to edit photograph I selected from my Guitar and Music Folder this morning. I began by using Paint.NET's Effects, Artistic, Ink tool and created a digital Pen and Ink image to work with. I saved the large file.

Next I opened the file in Painter Essentials 5 and using varying Digital Watercolor Brushes, I hand painted this piece. I varied from brush to brush changing sizes and strokes. I did not take notes today I just wanted to paint by hand without interruptions. I have an older Wacom Tablet that I use to paint digitally. Hand eye coordination is very important, plus a bit of artistic abandon is freeing.

I selected the colors from the basic palette from Essentials 5, and tried to make the image colorful but consistent. I did later pick a Dry Ink Brush for some details I wanted to add, with a distinctive color of my choice. I saved the large file again.

Then I opened the file in PhotoPaint and adjusted the Tone Curve and Saturation for punch and depth. I brought up my Signature file for 2015 and cloned out the copyright symbol and the date. I used an Arial font for the new copyright symbol and new 2016 date. I did this on my Black and White signature file, I still need to alter the inverted signature file.

I added the signature layer to the piece and sized and placed it, using the Property Add for transparency I merged the layers. I saved once again.

Picasa 3+ was opened so I used the Warmify tool for additional depth to the colors. I added a Black and Brown Border here as well. I uploaded the image from Picasa to my online Picasa Albums.

Back in PhotoPaint I Resampled the file at 120dpi with 75 compression and 25 smoothing, I saved that file for display with a new name.

I have a Seagull S12 Cedar 12-String Guitar, so it takes much time to re-string it when I do that. I love the full-bodied sound of the 12-String and really enjoy playing it. It was built in 1990 and is still going strong. It needs a bit of fret work to freshen the sound. We will see what the budget allows soon for that.

We also have a used Violin for my wife that needs work to bring it up to playing worthiness. That is in the new budget for this year as well.