Portrait 5

I created this image starting by blending a painting I did previously with a photo of my sister Diana. Then I repainted the result using SketchClub. I used Elasticam to alter the expression and the shape of the face, and I used iColorama for special effects.

Here is a photo my sister Diana sent me. She is wearing the necklace I bought her for her birthday. I thought this image would be a good basis for a digital painting in SketchClub using the Vector tool.

I opened the photo in iColorama, and brightened, rotated, and desaturated the image. This gives me a better foundation for painting, because it is closer to the actual skin tones, and I can better see the highlights and shadows.

I will use iColorama to blend the features of the woman’s face in this painting of mine onto the photo of Diana. I painted this using acrylics on pastel board, then photographed it and altered it a bit in Elasticam.

In iColorama, I blended the edited painting onto the edited image of my sister. I tried several blending modes and slider settings. After blending, there was a lot of messiness in the background. I used Texture/Paper to replace the background with a paper texture, using a very rough brush mask. I used Effect/Light to emphasize the highlights. I'm not concerned about getting it perfect, because I'm going to repaint it in SketchClub.

Here is the brush mask I used.

I decided I wanted to change the shape of the face for more of a caricature effect. I used Form/Deforms preset 5 to increase the size of the lower face. I tried all the slider settings.

I used Form/Crop to crop the image. Because the Deforms step changed the eyes, I used Effect/Blend to blend back the eyes from the painting, using an inverted brush mask. Then I used Effect/Blend to blend in the hair and earring from the painting onto the left side of the image, flipping the painting on the x-axis (Flip-X) and using an inverted brush mask. I saved the image to my camera roll.

I warped the image in Elasticam to slim down the face a bit, emphasize the smiling expression, and slim down and lengthen the neck. I saved to my camera roll.

I opened the image in SketchClub. I used the Vector tool to paint shapes on different layers for her face, neck sweater, blouse, eyes, lips, eyebrows, teeth, and necklace. I used additional layers for her hair, earrings, and the light and dark sections of her hair as well as for the stray hairs. I used additional layers for the shadows on her face and neck. I made additional layers for the highlights on her eyes, teeth and necklace, which I painted with a soft brush. I used additional layers to draw lines with the pen tool in her hair, face, lips, earrings and clothing. I saved the result to my camera roll.

I opened the image in iColorama, and I used Adjust/Tonelab and Preset/Colors in iColorama for contrast and color adjustments. I saved the result to my camera roll.

I opened the image in Elasticam and warped her further to emphasize her smiling expression. I saved the image to my camera roll.

I opened the image in iColorama. I used Style/Flat preset 18, trying all the slider settings, to get this softer, somewhat darkened image.

I used Effect/Raise preset 1 at low opacity and Effect/Sharpen preset 4 at low opacity, for emphasis. I used Adjust/Exposure to increase the brightness of the highlights in her eyes and teeth, using an inverted brush mask. Then I used Adjust/Exposure to increase the brightness in her necklace, using an inverted brush mask. I saved the image to my camera roll.

Here is the brush mask for her necklace.

I opened the image in Elasticam. I further warped the image to emphasize her smiling expression. I saved the image to my camera roll.

I opened the image in iColorama. I used Effect/Light with an inverted brush mask, to lighten the highlights in her hair.

I applied Style/Tensor preset 1.

I used Style/Tensor preset 6 using the previously saved Tensor 1 image as secondary image. I tried all the slider settings, to get this final image.