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I turned a photograph of my husband walking on the beach into a digital painting. I made one version of this image in Metabrush and iColorama, and a second version using Procreate and iColorama. You can compare the different types of effects that area available in these apps. For the first version, I used Metabrush for the painterly textured strokes. I used iColorama to enhance the texture and to create dramatic color for the image. For the second version, I used Procreate to paint with, and took advantage of some of its unique brushes for water and luminance. THen I used iColorama to dramatically enhance the color.
I started with this photo of mine, which I edited in Lightroom to lighten the shadows and increase the exposure.
I opened the photo in MetaBrush. On a duplicate layer I painted over the photo in Brushes/TEX1 with the default brush settings, the DryTwo 1 brush, small to medium brush size, and 100% stroke opacity. I made mostly long straight horizontal strokes, except for the figure and the cliff at the right, where I made more vertical or diagonal strokes. The aim was to create areas of color and remove the photographic feel.
On another duplicate layer, I painted over the image with Brushes/TEX2, the default brush settings, but lower stroke opacity. I varied the brush size. I used curving strokes to try to get a feeling of motion.
On another duplicate layer, I painted over the image in Brushes/CLR1, with the default settings but with a relatively small brush. I used short to medium length strokes in varying directions. I was trying for more of a feeling of motion.
I reduced the layer opacity of the CLR1 layer to soften its effect.
On another duplicate layer, I used Tools/Spread2 with the default settings, but with a small brush size and medium opacity, to smooth areas of the waves, using short light strokes and only sparsely covering the area.
On another duplicate layer, I painted with Brushes/ART2 on the figure and on the cliffs to the right, using medium to long diagonal strokes. I used the default brush settings.
On another duplicate layer, I used Brushes/Paint to paint highlights on the figure and on the cliff at the right. I used the default brush settings, and I used a small brush at medium opacity, varying the size and opacity somewhat as needed. For each area to be highlighted, I used the color picker to select a color (press on the part of the image with the color you want to highlight), then I touched the solid colored circle on the upper left side of the screen and chose a lighter version of the selected color to paint with. Thus each highlight that I added was simply a lighter shade of the color that was already there.
I used Tools/Spread2 to smudge the highlights that I painted in the previous step. I used the default brush settings with a small brush at low opacity. I brushed in several directions with soft strokes repeatedly over the same areas, trying for a smooth result.
On another duplicate layer, in Brushes/Paint, I used one of the Smoke brushes at medium to low opacity and smallish size, to paint some clouds in the sky. Then on another duplicate layer, I used Wets/Lines at low opacity to paint over the clouds to mute their texture. I adjusted the layer opacities of these two layers and then merged them down into the top-most non-cloud layer. (I did the merge so I would have a 100% opacity layer to make my next duplicate layer from.)
On another duplicate layer, I used Brushes/Paint to paint small rocks onto the foreground beach. I used a very small brush with less than full stroke opacity. I used a soft round Basic brush. I saved to my camera roll.
I opened the image in iColorama and applied Adjust/Tonelab preset 4 at low opacity for tonal separation.
I used Effect/Raise to bring out the brush strokes. I did this in several steps so that I could apply different amounts of Raise to different areas of the image: the water/sand, the sky, the figure, and the cliff. I used a brush mask for each step to confine the effect to the desired area.
I applied two different presets in Tone/Tint in Normal mode at very low opacity to warm the tone of the image. Using a brush mask and Adjust/Exposure, I lightened the clouds a bit. Keeping the brush mask in place, I then applied a very small amount of Tone/Tint to the clouds.
Now for the finishing touches. I applied Adjust/Tonelab preset 4 at low opacity. Then using an inverted brush mask, I used Effect/Blur preset 6 to give some motion blur to the clouds, as if smeared by the wind. I used the Direction slider to get a horizontal motion for the blur. Then I used Brush/Paint to paint some soft brown/gray shadows ok the underside of the clouds.
I decided to try to remake this painting in Procreate. I imported the image into Procreate, and on a duplicate layer, I painted with the Round brush under Painting brushes. For the clouds, I used the Clouds brush under Elements brushes.
On another duplicate layer, I painted with the Oceans brush under Elements brushes. At the top right of the screen, I selected the smudge icon (looks like an airbrush) and I selected the Round brush under Painting brushes, and smoothed areas of the painting.
I smoothed the sky, and then on a new layer I used the Bokeh Lights brush under Luminance brushes to paint sparkles over the water. I saved to my camera roll.
I opened the image in iColorama and applied Adjust/EQ at low opacity for tonal separation.
I used Tone/Enhance and Tone/Tint in normal mode, both at low to medium opacity, to add some warmth to the color.
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