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Here are two very different versions of a girl in a window. Starting with a photo, I made the first version by softly painting her using MetaBrush. Then I continued working on her in iColorama, distorting her into something completely different.
I used this photo from Pixabay, a source of copyright-free images.
I opened the photo in iColorama and applied Style/Coherence preset 4. I saved the image to my camera roll.
Then I opened the image in MetaBrush. I painted with Wets brushes as well as the Tex and Art brushes under Brushes. I used the default brushes, and I varied the size and opacity of the brushes with the level of detail in the area I was painting over. I also tried to paint in the direction of the subject matter. I create a duplicate layer for each brush that I use, so that each layer adds more brushwork to the last. Later I can decide if I like one layer more than another, and I generally save several of the layers as separate files. When I am done painting, I generally use the Plane brush at a very small size and partial opacity to go back and restore a few details. In this image, I restored the eyes and the buttons on the coat. Note that brush size in MetaBrush is relative to the size of your file. If you are using a small file, such as one copied from low res sources online, you will want to upsize your photo first using an app like BigPhoto. Otherwise, you will have trouble getting a small enough brush size in MetaBrush. This image is the output from MetaBrush for the work I did so far. I saved it to my camera roll. Call this Result A.
On another new layer in MetaBrush, I decided to try the Tools/Swirl brush. I reduced the opacity of the layer and then saved the result to my camera roll. Call this Result B.
I opened Result B in iColorama. I used Effect/Blend to blend Result A onto Result B. I used my fingers to resize and reposition Result A to be larger than Result B, and I used a brush mask to keep the blend away from the face, hands, and some of the coat of the smaller figure. I used less than full opacity for the larger figure.
I used Adjust/Tonelab preset 4 at partial opacity, and Adjust/Levels, to enhance tone and contrast. I used Tone/Enhance to enhance color. I used Effect/Raise preset 1 and Effect/Sharpen preset 4, both at partial opacity, for definition. This is Version 1.
Now for Version 2. I returned to the original photo as enlarged in BigPhoto, and opened it in iColorama. I used Form/Warp to change her shape, and saved to my camera roll. I opened the image in Elasticam, and I made some smaller warps there. I saved the image to my camera roll.
I reused this file, which was one of my layers from my use of MetaBrush, above. Here I had used one or two of the Tex brushes, and then used the Eraser at various sizes and opacities to cut away portions, revealing another MetaBrush layer underneath. I will use this for blending in iColorama.
I blended the above MetaBrush output with our warped girl. I tried several blending modes and experimented with all the sliders, including the sliders under Set.
Still in iColorama, I further enhanced the tone and color by trying some of the very many color tools in iColorama.
I wanted to further distort the image. I found a particle painting on Pixabay, and I used Effect/Distort to distort our work in progress over it.
Before applying, I used my fingers to reposition and resize the figure over the underlying image for best effect. Then I used Form/Crop to crop the image.
I used Adjust/Levels and a brush mask to darken the background. Then I used Adjust/Levels with a brush mask, to increase the contrast on her face. I used Effect/Raise at low opacity for a bit more definition.
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