Scattered
I started with a drawing I found on the Rijksmuseum website. I painted it with the Vector tool in Sketchclub, and then I use several special effects in iColorama to give it color, texture and movement.
I started with this photo from the Rijksmuseum website, which provides high-resolution images free to use and modify for any purpose, in their Rijksstudio.
I imported the photo into SketchClub. I reduced the opacity of the photo layer so I could still see it as I painted, but it would not be so dark that I couldn’t see what I was I was painting. I kept this layer as the top layer throughout the rest of the painting process, turning visibility on and off to check my work as I went along. In the end, we will turn off visibility for this photo layer, so that nothing of the photo remains in the final image. On a new layer below the photo layer, I started by making this shape using the Vector tool. This represents her veil.
On a new layer below the veil shape layer, I made a shape for her blouse, using the Vector tool.
On a new layer below the blouse shape layer, I made a shape for her face and neck, using the Vector tool.
On several new layers above the face shape layer, I used the Vector tool to make shapes for her pupils, nostril and lips. I used the Pen tool to draw her eyebrows and eyelashes.
On a new layer below the layers we just worked on, I used the Vector tool to make shapes for her irises. On another new layer above all the other face layers, I used the Pen tool to draw her outlines of her features.
On new layers above the face shape layer but below most of the features layers, I used a large soft round brush to paint highlights and shadows on the face and neck.
On a new layer above the other layers, I used the pen tool to draw outlines of her clothing.
On a new layer above the veil shape layer, I used a large soft round brush to paint shadows and highlights on her veil.
I filled the bottom-most layer with a color, using the paint can tool.
On the top-most layer, I used the B3 dots brush to paint some texture. I changed this layer to Overlay mode. I exported the image to my camera roll.
I opened the image in iColorama. I used Adjust/Tonelab and Adjust/Levels, both at very low opacity, to Adjust the tone and contrast a bit.
Now I will use this photo from Pixabay, which is a source of copyright-free images.
I used the Pixabay image in iColorama, as the secondary image in Style/Tensor Preset 6. I saved the image to my camera roll. Call this Image A.
I opened Image A in Metabrush. I used one of the Tex tools under Brushes to make this image. I used one of the Rough brushes as the brush, at a fairly large size and opacity. I saved it to my camera roll.
I blended the Metabrush image with Image A in iColorama using Effect/Blend. I tried all the blending modes and slider settings. I especially like to try the negative blending modes (Difference, Exclusion, Negative) with the Lightness slider set to the minimum setting, and trying different settings for the other sliders, including both ends of the Gray slider under Set. In retrospect, most of the Metabrush texture doess not survive into the final image, but you can still see a trace of it there. However, the color from the blending step survives.
In iColorama, I adjusted the tone using Adjust/Levels. Then I used Form/Ray 2 at low opacity, experimenting with all the slider settings.
I used Form/Warp, using medium opacity, and dragged her head to a larger shape. Because of the partial opacity, you can still see the original placement of the head. I also used a brush mask to preserve multiple additional small areas that would not be warped.
