Pensive

I painted over a black and white photo using Procreate. Then I used iColorama to work on color and texture, and then I used Metabrush to add a loose glassy wet look. The result it very painterly, and no pixels from the original photo remain.

In Procreate I painted over a black and white photo. I imported the photo, and I reduced the opacity of the photo layer to about 35% so I would still be able to see it through my painting, but it would not be so dark that I wouldn’t be able to see what I was painting over it. I then created a new layer above the photo layer. On this new layer, I used the Wash brush in the Water brush category and painted her skin tones, shirt, and shadows, as well as the hair colors. Also on this layer I used a pencil brush under the Sketching brush category to paint the whites of her eyes. I used a pencil brush for this, because just as with real watercolors, you can’t paint a light wash over a wash of a darker color. I could have let the white paper show through here, but I wanted to paint my wash with a large brush so it would look smooth. I could have also used the eraser, but it can leave an unnatural edge that doesn’t look consistent with the wash. So I decided to use a white pencil for the whites of the eyes. (You’ll see I later put a pen mark on this layer by mistake. Sometimes I lose track of which layer I’m working on.) I try to get close to the colors I want, but I don’t stress over it too much since I will finesse the color later in iColorama. From time to time, as I paint, I turn off visibility of the photo layer, to make sure I am covering all the areas I intend to with my paint.

The image I show here is the Wash layer with the visibility of the underlying photo layer turned off.

I created another new layer above the wash layer I just painted. On this new layer I used the Gesinski Ink brush under the Inking brush category to draw outlines and the features of her face. I used white ink with the Gesinski Ink brush to add catchlights to her eyes. I also used a Round painting brush to add a highlight on her nose. To shade the whites of her eyes, I used a Wash brush.

The image I show here is the Ink layer over the Wash layer, with the visibility of the underlying photo layer turned off.

I created another new layer above the Ink layer and used a Round brush to paint strokes onto her hair.

The image I show here is the Hair layer over the Ink layer over the Wash layer, with the visibility of the underlying photo layer turned off.

Now I created another new layer below the Wash layer and above the photo layer. On this new layer I used a Wash brush to paint a color for the surface she is leaning on, and a lighter shade of the same color for background at the top of the image. By placing this background layer where I did, it was easy to brush the wash onto the canvas without it bleeding into the rest of the figure. Now I turned off visibility for the photo layer. I exported the image to my camera roll.

Here are my layers in Procreate.

I opened the image in iColorama. I used Adjust/Tonelab preset 4 at very low opacity for added depth. I used Tone to tweak the color. For a softer look, I used Style/Water preset 1 at medium opacity and adjusted the Edge slider. I used Effect/Raise at very low opacity for definition. I saved the image to my camera roll.

I opened the image in MetaBrush. I created a duplicate layer above the imported image and painted over it with Wets/Wet and then with Brushes/Tex1, varying the brush size and opacity as well as brush direction. I reduced the opacity of this layer to about 88%. Then I created a new layer (not a duplicate layer) over the other layers, and I used Brushes/Plain with a small brush to bring back her eyes. I reduced the opacity of this layer to 22%. Then I created another new layer (not a duplicate layer) over the other layers, and I used Brushes/Paint and a pale yellow color to paint new catchlights in the eyes. I exported the final image to my camera roll.

Here I show my layers in Metabrush.

Here is the final image.