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I was inspired by looking at a lot of minimalist photography to try to make a sort of digital collage painting that was very minimalist in style. I painted this in SketchClub using the Vector tool for almost everything, and using actual brushstrokes only here and there for some shadows and highlights. For the sky I used the Vector tool with the Gradient switch turned on, to try to make a smooth gradation in color from the horizons to the top of the canvas. This turned out to be the most challenging part of the process.
I opened SketchClub and filled a layer with a deep blue color.
On a layer just above the previous layer, I used the Vector tool with the Gradient switch turned on to made a gradient shape. To better show what it looks like, here I show it with the visibility of the blue layer turned off. Because I generally use jpg images on my website for faster page loading, you will see some banding in these gradients that is not there in the png version of these images. I chose a gold color here because I’m seeking a gradient from warm to cool blue as the eye moves from the horizon to the top of the canvas. I had to try several times before I got a good gradient that didn’t vary from left to right but varied from top to bottom, with the solid tones at the bottom. I found that the trick was to position my stylus in the middle of an imaginary rectangle in the center near the bottom of where I wanted the color to go, then move it clockwise around the edges of the canvas and back to the starting point.
Here I show the image so far with the visibility of the blue layer turned back on. I’ve changed the layer blending mode of the gradient layer to Screen. I tried different blending modes to get an effect I liked.
On a new layer above the previous layer, I used the Vector tool with the Gradient switch turned on, to make a blue gradient shape, and I changed the layer blending mode to Multiply. In this case, since I was trying to darken the top of the canvas with a deep blue color, I wanted the solid part of the gradient to be at the top of the shape. Again, I had to try several times before I got a good gradient that didn’t vary from left to right but varied from top to bottom, this time with the solid tones at the top. I found that the trick was to position my stylus in the middle of an imaginary rectangle in the center of the top edge of the canvas, then move it clockwise around the edges of the canvas and back to the starting point. Again, I experimented with the layer blending modes and opacities.
On a new layer above the other layers, I used the Vector tool (first turning off the Gradient switch) to make a golden shape that will be a body of water reflecting the glowing dusk sky.
On a new layer above the other layers, I used the Vector tool to make a thin horizontal blue shape to represent the ocean at the horizon.
On a new layer just below the previous layer, I used a large soft round brush to make a glow at the horizon from the sun setting. The glow above the blue water shape is the glow in the sky. The glow below the blue water shape is the reflected glow in the golden body of water.
On a new layer just below the previous layer, I used a large soft round brush to make a light golden glow at the horizon from the sun setting. This is the golden color that is reflected in the body of water in the foreground. Reflected color is generally darker.
On a new layer just above the layer with the stripe of blue water, I used a soft round brush to paint a pale blue glow in the center area of the stripe. I changed the blending mode to On so that the glow is restricted to the stripe of water on the layer directly below.
On a new layer just above the layer with the golden body of water, I used a soft round brush to paint a glow with a lighter shade of gold. I changed the blending mode to On so that the glow is restricted to the golden shape on the layer directly below.
On a new layer above the other layers, I used the Vector tool to create a narrow black horizontal shape to represent the silhouette of the beach.
On a new layer above the other layers, I used a soft round brush to paint shadow areas on the golden body of water, using a darker shade of gold. The surface of the water closest to you is generally darker than the surface further away.
On a new layer above the other layers, I used the Vector tool to create shapes for two people walking on the sand.
I made a duplicate layer of the people layer. I used the Transform tool (the tool at the top of the screen that looks like a cross) to Flip Y and then move the inverted figured downwards so that they formed a reflection of the upright figures. Then I went back to the upper of these two layers and used Merge Down to merge these two layers into a single layer. Then I used the Transform tool to shrink and compress the figures and their reflections. Then I used the Smudge tool to slightly smudge the reflection of the figures.
On a new layer above the other layers, I used the Vector tool to create a black shape at the bottom of the canvas to represent a silhouette of a foreground land area.
On a new layer above the other layers, I used a small soft round brush to paint faint lines in the foreground body of water, to represent ripples. I used a golden color that is slightly lighter than that of the body of water.
On a new layer above the other layers, I created a crescent moon. I did this by fist using the Vector tool with the circle ⭕️ selected to draw a round moon. (To use the circle selector, touch the little squiggle at the top of the screen, and then select the circle. When you are done using the circle selector, put it back into freehand mode.) Then I used the Vector tool in erase mode, still with the circle ⭕️ selected, and I cut out a circular shape that formed the inner edge of the crescent moon. Then I created a new layer just above this layer and changed its blending mode to On. On this new layer I used a soft round brush to paint a shadow and highlight in the moon. The On blending mode restricts these brushstrokes to effect only the pixels that are on the layer directly below, thus avoiding having to carefully erase any color that strayed outside the crescent.
On a new layer above all the other layers, I used a large soft round off-white brush to paint a halo around the moon. I adjusted the layer opacity as needed. I saved the image to my camera roll.
I opened the image in iColorama. I couldn’t use many of the Adjust tools because they can introduce banding on smooth gradients like these. I wanted to do three things in iColorama: add contrast and deepen the colors, further blur and/or smudge the reflected figures, and add some subtle texture to add interest and obscure any banding I might introduce. I Adjust/Levels at low opacity to increase contrast and deepen the colors, and I used one of the Tone tools to slightly tweak the color. Then I used Style/Water preset 3 at low opacity and with distortion set to zero and texture reduced by half. Then I used Effect/Blur preset 1 with a brush mask to blur only the foreground body of water, including the reflected figures.
I added a texture under Texture/Noise at very low opacity in Soft Light mode, then I used Effect/Blend to blend in one of my own textures very slightly in the sky. I used Adjust/Exposure with an inverted brush mask to lighten the moon a bit. All done!
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