According to Wikipedia, Richard Gordon (Rik) Emmett (born July 10, 1953 in Toronto, Ontario) is a vocalist, guitarist, and founding member of the Canadian rock band Triumph. Emmett left Triumph in 1988 to pursue a solo career. His first solo album, Absolutely, was released in 1990 and became a moderate hit across North America thanks to the hits “When a Heart Breaks” and “Saved by Love”. He is also a writer for Guitar Player magazine and teaches song writing and music business at Humber College in Toronto. This is a tribute to his music.

I did this piece back in the 1990s as an original pencil sketch. The original was various lead pencils on heavy white paper. I actually ran a few effects that I liked, but the original needed some repair and therefore could not be shown in its original form.

I ran the following text and photo digital effects done entirely in GIMP 2.6:
-colour / curves tool to darken the scan, and bring out the darker colours
-colour / colour to alpha (on white) thereby eliminating white paper
-inverting this to white, removing all background layers
-locating this excellent photo on flickr
-opening a separate file using the photo as a source
-resizing the image to 4000 x 2000 approximately
-correcting as best i could for near black background
-fill the remaining space with near black colour
-adding in the white Rik Emmett lettering
-duplicate twice
-top duplicate run filters / decor / add bevel to make an edge
-bottom duplciate colors / invert to black, then filters / blur gaus blur @50px to give a shadowed effect
-finally I blurred out the fringes of the guitar picture by creating a new layer, then filling that new layer with a linear fill black to alpha with the alpha in the middle of the first string. Then i did an alpha to selection on the new layer, then I duplicated the picture and blurred it, then cut the image. This gave the effect of a sharp centre and blurry edges of the image.
-signed it using my standard template

[Hint: Showing text on photos — Remember that the eye likes to read black text on white paper. When showing text on a photo, it is best to add a contrasting background layer. White text using a black outline or background or visa versa. It makes it easier on the eye to read, and it looks cool]

I need to graciously thank the photographer at: flickr.com/photos/rittysdigiez/2178893519/. Many thanks for posting your image in a CC-SA format. I had fun doing this… Both the original back in the 1990s as well as the new digital version done in June of 2011. I remember seeing Rik play in Hamilton back in the 1990s, but I never did see Triumph.

Cheers Steve