Spikey Hair
To create this image, I used vector painting in SketchClub, a texture created in Metabrush, and soft borders created in iColorama. The whole composition is tied together through the use of a neutral set of colors and tones.
I started with this photo. I has a nice muted color palette of browns and grays. It combines soft curves with spikey lines in the hair.
I imported the image into SketchClub and selected the Vector tool. I added a new layer above the photo layer and drew these large shapes on the lightest areas of her face and chest. I had the Gradient setting turned on for the Vector tool for drawing these shapes. This makes the shapes vary in transparency from fully opaque to fully transparent. For each shape, I used the color picker to choose a color from the photo.
I added another new layer above the other layers and continued to draw shapes with the Vector tool, this time focusing on features such as the eyes, cheek and lips, still with the Gradient setting turned on.
I added another layer on top of the others and continued drawing Vector shapes. These shapes were drawn with the Gradient setting turned on. I added shadow areas on her face and neck as well as shapes to form her ear, philtrum and nose.
On another new layer above the other layers, I used the Vector tool to draw a shape for her hair, with the Gradient setting turned off. With the Gradient setting turned off, the shape will be entirely opaque.
On another new layer above the other layers, I used the Vector tool to draw spiky shapes to mimic the hairstyle, continuing to choose colors that are in the photo or are lighter or more saturated shades of colors that are in the photo. For these shapes, the Gradient setting was turned off.
I turned off visibility for the photo layer. Then I added another new layer underneath all the other layers. On this new, bottom, layer, I used the Vector tool to draw two gray Gradient shapes to cover the background. I made the left shape by tracing around the left edge of her figure and along the edges of the canvas. I made the right shape similarly. The gray shapes do not extend underneath her head and figure, which means that any areas of her face and figure that were not covered with opaque areas of shapes or not covered by any shapes on the upper layers will have white showing through. I exported this image to my camera roll.
I made this image previously in MetaBrush, starting from a photo of cantaloupes. You can see how I made it here. I chose this pattern for its soft shapes and a neutral color palette similar to the image of the woman.
In iColorama, I used Effect/Blend to blend the cantaloupe pattern over the lower part of the figure. I used a brush mask painted with a large soft brush to make a soft transition at the edges of the mask. The brush mask confines the pattern to only the areas of the image that I intended it to cover.
To cover the top of the canvas and around the top of her head, I used Effect/Blend to blend an image of clouds onto the image. I used a brush mask painted with a large soft brush for a smooth blend. Then, with the mask still in place, I used Tone/B&W to desaturate the cloud image, and used Adjust/Exposure to darken the clouds to come close to matching the gray of the adjacent areas of the image. After all these effects were applied, I removed the brush mask. I used Preset/Border Preset 2 to create a vignette. I used a brush mask to ensure that I didn’t darken the face and the upper part of her chest. I applied and removed the brush mask. Next I created a shadow for her left side and the cast shadow onto the “wall” behind her. To do this, I used Adjust/Exposure to reduce the exposure, and I used an inverted brush mask painted with a large soft round brush to paint one long stroke along her left side. The stroke covered the left edge of the figure, shading it, as well as the nearby part of the “wall” behind her, creating a cast shadow. I applied, and removed the brush mask.
I did the same thing again, with a slightly darker exposure and a narrower brush for the inverted brush mask, to paint a slightly darker shadow along her left edge.
I used Preset/Border Preset 6 to make this nice oval shape, with the blur slider set to blur the edges.
I used Preset/Border to add an edge Border element and some soft grunge around the edges of the oval. For the color, I used the color picker to match one of the tones in her hair.
I used Preset/Border preset 2 and selected the same golden color I used above to create a slight vignette. I used a brush mask to make sure I didn’t tint the inside of the oval.
