Still Life 2

Starting with an iPhone photo, I created a painterly image in two versions: one soft watercolor painting, and one more edgy but still impressionistic version.

I started with this photo I took with my iPhone in Portrait mode.

I opened the image in Paintstorm Studio Pro and reduced the layer opacity so that I could use the photo as a guide to my painting on new layers. Then, on a new layer, I used a dark gray pen to draw outlines. Then on another new layer, I painted with a dark red pencil to make the short dashed lines on the pink flowers.

On another new layer, I used a transparency brush to paint in shadows on the petals. The shadows I painted on the pink flowers will be overpainted later, but I will not overpaint the white flowers, so these shadows will survive into the final image. I used a transparency brush and 2 or 3 shades of gray/green/yellown on the white flower.

I increased the contrast of the shadows layer. Then on another new layer I painted a base color for the purple flowers, and on yet another layer I painted a couple of darker colors for the shadow areas of the purple flowers. On another new layer, I painted the green leaves and stems and the vase, using multiple shades of green. I did all the painting on these three layers with a transparency brush, but with more pressure on my Apple Pencil for less tranparent color.

Now I rearranged the order of the layers. I dragged the outlines layer and the red dashes layer to above the color layers. I blurred the purple shadows layer. I reduced the opacity of both purple layers (base color layer and shadow layer).

Now I made a duplicate layer of the photo layer, and made sure it was positioned just above the original photo layer. Then I blurred the duplicate layer. Then I used a blending brush to blend the background areas on that blurred layer. I changed the blending mode of the pen layer to Multiply. I changed the blending mode of the flowers base color layer to Darker Color. I moved the red dashes layer to the top and changed its blending mode to Darken. I painted with a light brush on a new layer. I turned off visibility of the unblurred photo layer by clicking on its "eyeball." I'm not unhappy with the image so far, but it's kind of flat, and there are too many colors, it feels busy. And the colors may be a bit off. It's way too hard to correct for all these things in Paintstorm; we will do that in iColorama.

Now I opened the image in iColorama. I used Adjust/EQ or EQ2 at low opacity for tonal separation. Already you can see more depth. I used Brush/Paint and Effect/Blur on the vase to improve its appearance.

Now I used Tone/Enhance, and Tone/Duotone in Multiply mode at low opacity, to modify the color and tone. The image is suddenly simpler and easier on the eye. I applied Effect/Sharpen at low opacity.

Using Adjust/Levels with a brush mask, I increased contrast on the white flower.

I applied Effect/Scrape at low opacity, to add a bit more painterly feeling to the lines. I experimented with all the sliders. Then I used Effect/Raise at low opacity to emphasize the brush strokes. I will call this Image A.

Now I opened the original photo in iColorama, and I used the last preset in Effect/Blur to blur the photo. Then I used Effect/Blend to blend the blurred photo over the image, at low opacity. I used a low opacity brush mask over the flowers to blend them less than the background.

Now increasing the mask to full opacity, I applied a Style/Water preset to the background. I set the distortion and texture to zero.

With the mask still in place, I applied a small amount of Effect/Raise and Effect/Sharpen to the flowers, for more definition. This is Version 1.

Now I want to make another version. Starting with Image A, I applied the last preset in Style/Water, using a partial opacity brush mask over the flowers, so that the effect is very muted on the flowers but strong on the background.

I used Adjust/Exposure and an inverted brush mask to darken the lower right corner.

To add more interest to the lower right area, I used Effect/Blend to blend the image with itself, flipping on the y axis, and using an inverted brush mask to paint the effect only in the gray area in the lower right. I reduced the opacity of the blend.

I used Form/Warp to increase the size and alter the shape of the flowers somewhat.

I used Form/Waves preset 4 for some distortion.

I applied a bit of blur. I actually used Style/ET-Flow for this.

I used Style/Tensor preset 1 and saved but did not apply.

I used Style/Tensor preset 5 with the Tensor 1 image as "Photo" input.

For a final touch, I applied Form/Glitch preset 15 and a touch of Effect/Sharpen. This is Version 2.