Freehand
This is a freehand painting with no photo reference. I wanted to try painting a 3/4 view of a woman's face. I started with a quick sketch in SketchClub. Then I added paint layers for the different image elements, using the sketch as a guide. Finally, I removed the sketch layer. Then I processed the image in Metabrush to smooth out the rough spots. I used Elasticam to alter the expression of the face. I finished the painting in iColorama, adding pop through color and contrast improvements.
I opened the SketchClub app. I chose a blue color using the color picker, and I used the Fill tool to fill the bottom layer with this color. On a new layer, I made a quick sketch using the Pen tool.
On a new layer, I chose a peach color from the color picker, and I used the Brush tool and a large soft round brush to paint the skin areas. On another new layer, I used a hard round brush to paint a purple color onto her sweater.
On another new layer, I painted the hair, using the Procedural tool with the Bristles brush and the Dots brush, and several different colors to give the hair some depth. On another new layer, I used the Brush tool and a hard round brush to paint red lips. Then I used a soft round brush to paint shadows and highlights onto the lips.
On another new layer I used the Brush tool and soft and hard round brushes to paint the purple irises, the black pupils, the whites of the eyes, catchlights, and gray shadows in the corners of the eyes.
On another new layer, I used the Procedural tool with a Grass brush to paint eyebrows. I edited the Grass brush settings to turn on the Both Sides switch for painting the eyebrows. Then on another new layer, I painted eyelashes using the Vector tool, and I dragged that layer underneath the eyes layer so I could keep the eyes neat and unobscured. Then I went back to the eyes layer, and I used the Pen tool to paint thin black outlines around her eyes.
On the skin tone layer, I used the Brush tool and a big soft round brush to paint a pink color onto her cheeks.
On another new layer, I used the Brush tool and a soft brush to paint highlights and shadows onto her skin. On the same layer I used the Pen tool to paint a nostril and nose shadow line. I dragged this layer directly on top of the skin tones layer. Adjust the layer opacity as needed, to increase or decrease the strength of the shadows and highlights.
I turned off visibility for the sketch layer, since now I don't need it any longer. On a new layer, I used the Brush tool with a pencil brush to paint some outlines around her face. I dragged this layer to just above the skin shadows and highlights layer so that the outlines would not be obscured by the skin.
On a new layer, using the Brush tool and a big round soft brush, I painted some shadows around her figure. I dragged this layer to just above the background layer. Adjust the layer opacity as desired for the strength of the shadows.
On the same layer, I painted some lighter blue texture onto the background. I used the Brush tool with the Squiggle brush.
On the same layer, I painted an even lighter blue texture onto the background, again with the Squiggle brush.
On the sweater layer, I painted some highlights and shadows and collar texture onto her sweater, using the Brush tool and a soft round brush for the shadows and highlights, and the Pen tool for the collar texture. On a new layer, I painted highlights onto the hair using the Brush tool with the Squiggle brush, as well as some additional highlights on her nose, forehead and upper cheeks, also with the Squiggle brush. I dragged this layer to the top of the layer stack. I saved to my camera roll.
I opened the image in Metabrush. On a duplicate layer, I painted using Brushes/Artist3, Brushes/Noise, and Wets/Line to smooth out areas of the face, neck and hair. I saved to my camera roll.
I opened the image in iColorama and made some tonal adjustments using Adjust/EQ and Adjust/Tonelab. I made some color adjustments using Tone/Enhance, and I used Effect/Raise at low opacity to bring out the brush strokes.
In iColorama, I used Style/Coherence and an inverted brush mask to smooth the edges of the mouth, nose shadow, and eyelashes.
I used Effect/Blend and an inverted brush mask, offsetting the top image somewhat, to blend the image with itself to blend some hair onto the blurry spot in the upper left corner of the canvas.
I made more tonal and color adjustments. I reduced the lightness of the whites of the eyes using Adjust/Exposure and an inverted brush mask. I used Brush/Paint to paint shadows in the corners of the eyes (I had painted these shadows earlier, but they got lost in the tonal adjustments).
I used the Elasticam app to subtly alter her expression.
In iColorama, I used Effect/Blend with an inverted brush mask to blend back the background from an earlier version, since the whites had become blown out during some of the tonal adjustments. Then with the mask still in place, I used Adjust/HSLCurves to adjust the background Hue and to apply Effect/Raise at low opacity. I removed the mask, and I used Adjust/Exposure with an inverted brush mask to lighten the shadow under her left eye. I removed the mask, and applied a preset under Texture/Leak in Screen mode at low opacity, to bring in a little warm light from the right side of the canvas. Before applying, I resized and moved the Leak effect to get the warm light where I wanted it.
