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I made three different digital paintings from my photo of a city square in Tokyo. In the first, I painted the image in Metabrush and made some minor tonal and texture modifications in iColorama. In the second, I continued painting on the first Metabrush output, and continued painting in iColorama, where I also made tonal and texture modifications. In the third, I used one of the intermediate steps from my first Metabrush painting and made a dramatic transformation of it in iColorama.
I started with this photo of mine, which I edited in Lightroom for shadows, exposure, and clarity.
I opened the photo in MetaBrush and on a duplicate layer I painted over it in Brushes/ART1 with the default brush settings, the DryTwo 1 brush, small to medium brush size, and 100% stroke opacity. I covered the photo in long straight 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/TEX1, all the same settings as above. This adds texture to the image.
On another duplicate layer, I painted over the image with Brushes/CLR1, all the same settings as above. I used short vertical and horizontal strokes, according to the lines in the image. Call this Image A; I will refer to it again later.
On another duplicate layer, I painted over the image with Wets/Lines, all the same settings as above, but with lower stroke opacity. I used medium to long vertical strokes and short horizontal strokes, according to the lines in the image.
Continuing to paint with Wets/Lines, I increased stroke opacity to 100%, and added some long horizontal strokes, according to the lines in the image.
On another duplicate layer, I painted over some areas of the image with Wets/Drips2, all the same settings as above, but lower stroke opacity. I saved to my camera roll. Call this Image B; I will refer to it later.
I opened the image in iColorama. I used Adjust/EQ preset 2 at medium opacity for tonal separation and enhanced color.
I used Adjust/Tonelab preset 3 at medium opacity for increased saturation.
I used Adjust/Tonelab 4 at low opacity for increased tonal separation and color contrast.
I used Style/Coherence at medium opacity to smooth the image in preparation for Raise, then I applied Effect/Raise. This is Version 1.
To make a second version, I went back to Metabrush, where I left off with Image B. On a duplicate layer, I painted over some areas of the image with Tools/Dilate to make lots of small circles that look like lights. I saved to my camera roll.
I opened the image in iColorama. I used Tone/Tint preset 1 in Normal mode at low to medium opacity, with a brush mask, to add dramatic color to the sky as well as the foreground.
Using Brush/Paint in iColorama, I painted with a big soft round Basic brush and pale yellow paint, to give the appearance of raking morning light pouring into the street. I reduced the opacity before saving.
I applied Adjust/EQ then Adjust/EQ2, both at low to medium opacity, for tonal separation. I experimented with several presets and settings.
I used Effect/Raise to emphasize the texture. I experimented with different Raise presets and settings. I love the puffy texture that Raise gave me as a result of the Metabrush dilate step that I applied previously. This is Version 2.
Now to make a third version. I opened Image A in iColorama. I used Effect/Blend and a brush mask to blend a texture into the sky, in Overlay or Soft Light mode. Then I used Effect/Blur to blur the sky a bit. Then I applied a preset in Texture/Leak in Screen mode, for dramatic color and lighting.
I used Style/Tensor preset 6 with the Amount set to around 90%. I used the "photo" button at the bottom right of the screen to select another version of the image as the secondary image. (I generally save a lot of my intermediate steps as I work. When I use Tensor 4, 5 or 6, I experiment with using some of these other versions as secondary image. Tensor 6 gives a unique transparent feel to the image. I find that it can work well on images where I've used Texture/Leak either before or after using Tensor 6.) Then I used Effect/Raise to emphasize the textures.
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