I started with this photo from the Sktchy app. Because Sktchy photos are small, I upsized it twice in BigPhoto.

I opened the image in the Metabrush app. On a new layer, in Brushes/Paint, using a round brush, I painted this hair in Metabrush. In brush settings, I used minimal spacing, and no positional variance, which is what gives you the long smooth tubular strokes. I experimented with different structure and shadow settings, as well as dynamics settings. The dynamics settings affect how the thickness of the stroke is affected by the speed at which you paint the stroke. Some size dynamics is good, but too high a setting is difficult to control. Since we are using a round brush, none of the rotation settings are relevant.

Because the hair is on its own layer, I can turn off the the visibility of the layer with the girl on it, and save just the layer with the hair. This is what it looks like. The white areas are actually transparent. That means when I use iColorama later to blend the hair onto the girl, I'm free to resize or reposition the hair over her, and I don't have to do any masking. Because I will also want to use the hair later to create a mask in iColorama, I also need to save a version of the hair over a solid color background,rather than a transparent background. So I created a solid black layer and dragged it underneath the hair layer, then saved. So now I have saved two images of the hair: one on a transparent background, and one on a solid background.

I used Effect/Blend to blend the hair over the girl, being sure to select the saved version of the hair that had the transparent background.

In iColorama, I blended the textured Metabrush image over the girl, using the Color blending mode, and I imported the brush mask we made previously. When you import the mask, be sure to choose the image with the solid background, not the one with the transparent background. The mask should confine the effect of the blend to only the girl's hair. If instead, the blend is showing up everywhere but the hair, then you need to invert the mask. I tried several blending modes, but I used the Color mode because its job is to take the color from the top image and add it to the bottom image. I tried different Opacity and Feature slider settings. The slider settings under Set don't have any effect in Color blend mode. As it turned out, the textured image I made to blend with was overkill, since all I really needed was the color. An easier way to color the hair might have been to use Preset/Gradient preset 1, in color mode, to paint on the color you want, as I did here. You will still need to use the mask.

I opened our work in progress in Metabrush. I used Brush/Paint mode, and I selected a Doodle brush. I used the cropped dress image as brush image. In brush settings I used a large spacing as well as rotational and positional variance. On a new layer, I painted over the dress. After painting over the dress, some of my strokes had strayed onto other areas of the image. I selected the eraser, which is just next to the brush icon, and then switched to a round brush with no spacing or variances or dynamics or extras, and erased the brush marks where they had strayed outside the dress. Then I adjusted the opacity of the new layer to get a result I liked, and I saved.

I opened the image in ArtSet, and I drew on the features, and smoothed the face, using a thin paint marker.

In iColorama, I lightened the image using Adjust/Levels, then I used Style/Painterly with an Oilify preset to get a paint-like texture for the image.

In iColorama, I used Effect/Denoise preset 4, to smooth any jaggy lines that resulted from the prior processing steps, in preparation for using Raise. Then I applied Effect/Raise at low opacity, for definition.

I used Tone/Duotone at low opacity in multiply mode, with a brush mask to protect the face and parts of the hair.

Since the neck ornament had been obscured in the Metabrush texture, I used Effect/Blend to blend an earlier version over the image, using an inverted brush mask to paint back the ornament.

I enlarged the eyes in the Elasticam app, setting Size and Strength relatively low in the "finger" setting.

I wanted a more interesting stance for the girl. I will use this unrestricted image from the New York Public Library digital collections.

To add color to the sleeves, I used Preset/Gradient in color mode, using the color picker to choose a blue from her dress, using a brush mask. I describe this process here.

Where the blend step still revealed her original arms, I used Brush/Clone to clean it up.

I used Adjust/Exposure and an inverted brush mask to lighten some dark areas on the left side of the image in the background area. I removed the mask. Finally, I painted back a button that had gotten lost in the blend step, by blending in the NYPL image over the girl in Effect/Blend, using an inverted brush mask. I tried several blending modes and slider settings. Then, with the mask still in place, I used Adjust/Levels and Effect/Raise to match the tone and texture to that of the rest of the image.