Portrait 4

I made three versions of this portrait, all of them starting with an image I created previously in iColorama, then painted in Paintstorm Studio Pro. Then to create two of the versions, I used iColorama to blend the output from Paintstorm with two different paintings of flowers. For the third version, I simply made some finishing touches in iColorama.

I started with this image I created previously. You can see how I made it, here.

I opened the image in Paintstorm. I reduced the opacity of the photo to about 50%, so that I could see it to guide me as I painted new layers. On a new layer, using a bristly brush, I painted this texture. In brush settings, I checked Take Underlayer Color, and I set Color Amount to under 10%. Then I set the layer to the Soft Light blend mode. I kept this layer on the top of the layer stack in as I continued to add layers.

On another new layer just above the photo layer, I painted color, using a variety of brushes. In particular, for the hair, I used the Brush Hairy 2 brush.

On another new layer just above the color layer, I painted details in the eyes and lips.

Here is the image so far with visibility turned on for all the layers.

Now on the color layer I used a blending brush to smudge some of the rough areas of paint. I saved to my camera roll.

I opened the image in iColorama and used Adjust/Levels to brighten and add contrast to the image. Call this Image A.

In one of iColorama's Brush features (probably one of the Rebound presets), I painted her face and clothing.

I did further toning and then applied Effect/Raise to emphasize the brush strokes.

I applied Style/Tensor preset 5 at low opacity, using one of the built-in kernel presets. This softened some of the stark edges.

I used Effect/Blend to blend a painting of flowers over the image. I tried several blending modes and slider settings, including the lightness and gray sliders under Set.

This is the same blend with different slider settings.

I did some blends of the first blend result onto the second blend result to bring out some color and details in the lower part of the image. I also applied some local Adjust/Tonelab adjustments to the lower part of the image, using a brush mask.

I changed the eye and lip colors to match the color and tone of the rest of the image, using Adjust/Hue and Adjust/Levels, with an inverted brush mask. As a final touch I used Preset/Border preset 6 with a large radius and no blur. This is Version 1.

I decided to make another version. Going back to the blend step, I blended a different flower painting onto the woman. I tried several blending modes and slider settings, including the sliders under Set.

I cropped using Form/Crop.

I used a combination of blends (Effect/Blend of the image with itself, offset) and paint (Brush/Paint using the eye dropper to match the color) to restore the red flower on her forehead, that got lost in the blend step.

I used Effect/Blend and an inverted brush mask to paint the eyes and mouth the colors from Version 1. Then I used Adjust/Vibrance at low opacity to slightly punch up the reds.

I used Preset/Border Preset 6 or 7 with no blur and large radius to simplify the image by removing information from the edges. This is Version 2.

Now for another version. I opened Image A in iColorama. I used Adjust/Levels to increase contrast.

I used Preset/Border Preset 6 or 7 with no blur and large radius to simplify the image by removing information from the edges.

I used Effect/Blend and an inverted brush mask to paint the eyes and mouth the colors from Version 1.

I used Form/Warp to straighten the face. This is Version 3.