Custom Headlights - Guitar Chords - Lyrics -Grunge

Custom Headlights is another Grunge type digital collage that I have created. I used a grunge texture background from Grunge Textures and two photographs of the headlights taken by my son Keir M Gatzka. The headlights are from a custom Camaro and a Supra.

I used PhotoPaint to do the entire collage. I opened the texture background first - resized it and sharpened it. I copied each photograph of the headlights from Picasa 3 and pasted in PhotoPaint on the grunge background.

Using Little Ink Pot's Thredgeholder I created the line drawings from the photographs, individually. I used the object property Color Burn on them both for transparency and merged them with the textured background. I added the paint splatters and dripping using Effects> Distort> Wet Paint> filter on the objects before I merged them with the background.

I added a chord progression from my files:

D D C D

G G F G

A C G

C Em F C

And also added a cut of some lyrics from my song, "Got Your Clouds in My Sky." ©2009 Kirk Mathew Gatzka, all rights reserved.

Got your clouds in my sky
some cumulus and cirrus too
raining like tears from your eyes
Why am I tearing up too

The chord and the lyrics do not match up the chords are different than the song itself. Feel free to experiment with the guitar chords. The lyrics are copyrighted.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Got Your Clouds In My Sky
null

Custom Taillight - Guitar Chords - Lyrics - Smooth Grunge

Custom Taillight is a grunge based piece. I opened a photo-
graph, taken by my son Keir M Gatzka, and ran Paint.NET's Artistic> Ink Sketch> filter on it, portrait sized I cropped it to fit a landscape "tire track in the sand" grunge background / texture from Grunge Textures in PhotoPaint.

I used a few different grunge fonts for the text of the guitar chords and a bit of lyric from my song "Autumn Day." I added a trio of paint splatters using the WC Rhesus B Bta font of splatters.

The guitar chords I used for this song are as follows:

Drop D / Capo 3rd Fret

D A G5 A Repeat 6 times

F#m Bm G Asus Repeat twice

D A G5 A Repeat 6 times

F#m Bm G Asus Repeat twice

D A G5 A Repeat twice

Am7 Em Em7 Em Em7 Em Repeat three finish on A7 hold back to beginning

The song "Autumn Day" is ©2009 Kirk Mathew Gatzka, all rights reserved. So please do not copy this progression but experiment with it to come up with your own combination. It is recorded on my CD "Beginnings."

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Autumn Day
null

Digital Painting - Painter 8 - Acrylics / Blenders

Just recently I received a few photographs of my great-great nieces. They are lovely children so I decided to try my hand at painting them digitally. Using Painter 8 from Corel I used the Acrylic dry brushes and glazed brushes to paint the two of them in this pose. Using the Blenders I softened the faces and the hair. I used a Digital Watercolor brush on the glazed background and used the Blenders on it as well. I was using a Wacom tablet for painting also.

I am still new, even after a large number of attempts, at digital painting of portrait subject matter. I really enjoy Painter 8's versatility and the action of the different media brushes. I love my nieces and tried to do them justice with a good likeness.

I was torn between the darkness of the background, to lighten it or not, but I decided to leave it dark. I like the autumn colors and it seemed to recede enough to place the focal point on the portraits.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Southwest Statistic - Grey (Final EQ Test 15)
null

Red Supra Boot - How Do You Value Digital Art?

Recently the discussion came up, again, as to the value of Digital Visual Arts. Even after decades of the practice of making digital visual art it is still devalued by some, as it is not done with the more Traditional Media. Oils, Canvas, Acrylics, Watercolors, Pen and Ink, Pencil, etc.

I have been creating Digital Visual Art since the mid 1980's and the question is still being debated, as it was from the beginning. I believe that the issues of permanence and longevity are at the seat of such a debate. I for one do not doubt the validity of the creative visual art made with digital tools, and believe that they have intrinsic value.

Much of my work is accomplished by deliberate action and planning, it is not computer generated, but created by myself, an artist. I have the composition, the colors, the subject matter well in mind like any traditional artist does, as I do my act of creation of visual art. This is definitely part of a traditional approach to the visual arts.

Also, my music, my songwriting, and recording it on the computer is done with forethought and creativity. It is not computer generated music. It is done with traditional values based upon my musical roots.

I believe that Digital Visual Art is only a choice of tools of creativity, thoughtful, deliberate, and full of value. But I am not an art critic nor a judge at an exhibition of art. I am simply a creative person, an artist, that has chosen digital tools to work with.

The debate will continue as it did with each new art movement, shock, chagrin, disbelief, acceptance, value. As long as society has these digital tools art will be made, enhanced, planned, and executed by artists in the digital form. Much like traditional visual art is.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Can't Find My Way Home Cover
null

Zoomies Boot - Custom Car - Chord Progression

Tried Twitrratr (sp?) for my Twitter rating and received an A+ a 98/100 rating. Needless to say I was very pleased with that. My average tweets were low though so I guess I don't have that much to say on Twitter. But my content is good!

Today's image is a continuation of my classic custom car grunge series. It's titled "Zoomies Boot." The "Zoomies" comes from the license plate, and "boot" comes from what the English call the trunk of the car.

Once again I used Paint.NET's Artistic> Ink Sketch filter for the inked look. I applied, in PhotoPaint, a broken dryed mud texture from Grunge Textures. Added some text, the title and a guitar chord progression with a snippet of a poem. I used grunge fonts for the piece.

Yesterday I worked on a song called: "Crushing Me," about a stress filled situation. The title tells most of the story. I used the DADGAD tuning so it sounds very mournful and droning. It got out some of the stress and was helpful to sing and play and record it. It wasn't meant to be a happy theme.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Crushing Me
null