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I read the descriptions of the book Learning First in Black and White by Diane Solvang-Angell, and was inspired by this chart, specifically the Five Basic Removals, for managing negative/positive space. This image uses one of those five basic removals. The concept seemed so simple but it took me a long time to figure out how to do it in iColorama. I figured out how to use various masks to create the shapes I needed. I also figured out how to get an interesting background that matches the feel of the rest image. Finally, I used Metabrush to add some interest bubble paths for more visual interest.
I started with this photo from Pixabay, a source of copyright-free images. I like the blank slate of her face.
I transformed her into this image. You can see how I made this image here.
Because this image is a vertical, and I want to work in landscape mode, I searched in my camera roll for an image with a large canvas. I tested the size by simply importing it into iColorama. When I found one, I used the Brightness slider in Adjust/Exposure to make the canvas black. Then, using Effect/Blend, I blended the image I wanted to work on onto the black canvas, positioning it to the left side.
Now I want to make the piece to slide out from the right side of her head. In Effect/Blend, I blended my all-black image onto the image, positioned it with my fingers and rotated it with the Rotate slider, to make one side of a triangle.
Once again I blended my all-black image onto the image, positioning it and rotating it to make another side of the triangle. The edge of her face forms the third side of the triangle. I saved this for later use.
Using Style/Threshold, I made the triangle into a black and white image that I will use later as a mask. I used Brush/Paint with black and white paint to clean up the output from Style/Threshold. I saved.
Now I opened the image of the woman in iColorama. I touched the Brush Mask button on the left size of the screen to open the brush mask bar. I touched the Import button on the brush mask bar, to import the black and white image, so I could use it as a mask. I touched the Invert button on the brush mask bar to invert the mask. Now, using Effect/Blend, I imported the color image with the triangle. With the mask in place, I slid the triangle away from her face. I painted on the brush mask over the right edge of the triangle to reveal it. Now Apply, but don't remove the mask yet.
I left the mask in place while I imported a photo I took of a dahlia, using Effect/Blend in normal mode. I don't want the strong color of the dahlia to compete with the woman's face. So, with the mask still in place, before I Apply I use Tone/B&W at medium opacity to tone down the color of the flower. Apply, but don't yet remove the mask.
This is the dahlia image I used, my own photograph, processed in iColorama with a bit of flow.
Keeping the mask in place, I used the second preset under Form/Glass, and experimented with the sliders, to create a feeling that the woman is dissolving away on her broken right side. Some of the other Glass presets would also work nicely here. Now Apply. Remove the mask by touching Remove on the brush mask bar. Hide the brush mask bar by touching the red Brush Mask button on the left side of the screen.
Now I made some small adjustments in iColorama for color, tone, and sharpness.
I opened the image in Metabrush. I used two Metabrush brushes, leaking out of her opened head. For the two streams coming out of the pointy part of the gap left by the shifted triangle, I used a soft round Basic brush with spacing and rotational variance and positional variance, no shadow or structure. For the part disintegrating off her neck, I used a hard-edged hollow Gradient brush and the same settings. I used the same source image for both brushes, a light monochrome softly painted portrait of a girl, but you could use any light image.
I used this as the source image for the Metabrush brushes. It is an image I made previously in iColorama.
I made some finishing touches iColorama and cropped.
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