Digital Collage
Folks have asked me how I made this image. I was doing a lot of experimenting and backtracking, but I’ll give you a simplified version in order to make a somewhat coherent tutorial.
I started with an acrylic painting of mine. I photographed it and edited it in iColorama and Elasticam. Then I opened the image in Paintstorm Studio. I made a new layer below this image and filled it with a golden color. Then I made a duplicate layer of the image of the woman. On one copy of the image I cut out the eyes and nose, and on the other I cut out the mouth. Now I have 3 layers: the background color, the eyes and nose, and the mouth.
On a new layer just above the background color layer, I created a shape and filled it with a skin tone color. Then I made a new layer just below this shape, and I used a rough white brush to paint torn edges all around it. Then I made another new layer just below the mouth layer, and I used a rough white brush to paint torn edges around the mouth shape. On a new layer above all the other layers, I used a furry brush to paint hair. On a new layer just below that layer, I used a big soft brush to paint the shadow of her hair on her forehead, and I changed the layer blending mode to Multiply. I added a new layer just above the background color layer, and I painted some purple background.
On a new layer just above the purple layer, I used various roller brushes to paint a textured set of strokes in different colors. On a new layer above the hair layer, I used a textured roller brush to paint over her hair. I went back to the layer with the flesh-toned shape on it and changed its color to pink. The, I created a new layer just above that layer and painted a shadow on part of the shape with a large soft brush. I changed the layer blending mode to Multiply. Then I went to the layers with the eyes, nose and mouth and I reduced the saturation on those layers. On the layer with the eyes, I used the Paintstorm Warp function to make drips under her eyes. Now I made a new layer above all the other layers, and I painted a border.
Next I created a new layer just above the roller background layer, and I painted a brown color to represent her neck. On two layers above that, I painted the left and right side of her kimono with a blue brush. Then I made new layers, one below each kimono layer, and I used an off-white brush to paint edges of her kimono. Then on a new layer above all the kimono layers, I used one of Paintstorm’s patterned brushes to paint a pattern over her kimono.
I used a golden pen to paint curves on her neck to represent bangles.
In iColorama, I modified the tone and color.
I used Form/Sort preset 1 with no displacement, and I used a brush mask to limit the effect to her hair and her kimono. I used Effect/Raise and Effect/Sharpen at low opacity.
