Michael A. Lowry

If you have a file that demonstrates the crash, please submit it so that we can see what is causing the problem.

Here’s the latest revision, including lots of small changes, including a few based on feedback above. Thanks for the helpful tips.
@Jowday: I hope Dannebrogen is now a bit more correct in its proportions. (It’s actually quite different from other Nordic Cross flags.)
 

For anyone who’s interested, I updated this coat of arms to make it more like the 1893 original.
 

The coat of arms of my rowing club, Nordiska Roddföreningen i Zürich was hand drawn in 1893. A simplified version was later created at some time in the late 1990s or early 2000s.
I’ve redrawn the coat of arms from scratch in Affinity Designer.
The new CoA uses modern flags and a straightened shield, but otherwise hews pretty close to the 1893 design. ( I've included both earlier versions too for comparison.)
I’d love to get feedback and suggestions. I’m particularly interested in learning more about how to convincingly simulate:
Draped fabric (Current approach: shading overlays: shapes filled with elliptical semi-transparent gradients) Woodgrain (Current approach: brown color + 5% noise + shading overlays) Paper texture (Current approach: similar to wood) Thanks for your input!




 

I recently discovered a document in the club archives that has another version of the coat of arms. I presume this version was in use before the 1893 design. The later 1978 version is clearly based on this one, but this small blue reproduction is the only copy I’ve found.
My modern version has plain rather than colored oar blades, and incorporates an NRF monogram closer in style to the 1978 version.

For anyone who’s interested, I updated this coat of arms to make it more like the 1893 original.
 

Here’s another update. For the flags, I completely redrew the shading layers that simulate the draped folds using a new approach. Each of these shapes contains both a gradient and a gouache brush stroke. I think this adds a bit more of a sense of physical realism. I also added a sort of undulating gradient to the each flag, subtly implying gradual waves perpendicular to the more prominent folds.

For anyone who’s interested, I updated this coat of arms to make it more like the 1893 original.
 

The coat of arms of my rowing club, Nordiska Roddföreningen i Zürich was hand drawn in 1893. A simplified version was later created at some time in the late 1990s or early 2000s.
I’ve redrawn the coat of arms from scratch in Affinity Designer.
The new CoA uses modern flags and a straightened shield, but otherwise hews pretty close to the 1893 design. ( I've included both earlier versions too for comparison.)
I’d love to get feedback and suggestions. I’m particularly interested in learning more about how to convincingly simulate:
Draped fabric (Current approach: shading overlays: shapes filled with elliptical semi-transparent gradients) Woodgrain (Current approach: brown color + 5% noise + shading overlays) Paper texture (Current approach: similar to wood) Thanks for your input!




 

Here’s the latest revision, including lots of small changes, including a few based on feedback above. Thanks for the helpful tips.
@Jowday: I hope Dannebrogen is now a bit more correct in its proportions. (It’s actually quite different from other Nordic Cross flags.)
 

@VectorVonDoom: Re: the letters, I don’t think separate shapes would deliver what I’m looking for. I want a continuous embossed effect.
@Jowday: Thanks for the feedback. I had been meaning to revisit the shield at some point, because I agree it’s a special part of the original.
Here’s my initial attempt at a shield that hews more closely to the original. I couldn’t resist putting a subtle embossing effect on the shield and rivets. I think it makes the shield look more real, and it helps it to stand out a bit from the flags. Now that it’s done, I really like the white border. And with the added details, I think it doesn’t look too generic or sterile.
I would really like to find a way to use symbols in compound shapes. It would greatly simplify the process of making these sorts of complex symmetrical shapes while keeping their constituent components editable.
I widened the rope stroke of the flags. I don’t have the time or patience to draw the fringes by hand, so I have to find a more efficient solution.
I’d also like to work on making the folds of the draped flags look a bit more realistic. For the drapery shadows, I’m using shapes with highly eccentric elliptical gradients. I ‘d like to find a more flexible solution that’s adapted to more irregular fold geometries.

For anyone who’s interested, I updated this coat of arms to make it more like the 1893 original.
 

The coat of arms of my rowing club, Nordiska Roddföreningen i Zürich was hand drawn in 1893. A simplified version was later created at some time in the late 1990s or early 2000s.
I’ve redrawn the coat of arms from scratch in Affinity Designer.
The new CoA uses modern flags and a straightened shield, but otherwise hews pretty close to the 1893 design. ( I've included both earlier versions too for comparison.)
I’d love to get feedback and suggestions. I’m particularly interested in learning more about how to convincingly simulate:
Draped fabric (Current approach: shading overlays: shapes filled with elliptical semi-transparent gradients) Woodgrain (Current approach: brown color + 5% noise + shading overlays) Paper texture (Current approach: similar to wood) Thanks for your input!




 

The coat of arms of my rowing club, Nordiska Roddföreningen i Zürich was hand drawn in 1893. A simplified version was later created at some time in the late 1990s or early 2000s.
I’ve redrawn the coat of arms from scratch in Affinity Designer.
The new CoA uses modern flags and a straightened shield, but otherwise hews pretty close to the 1893 design. ( I've included both earlier versions too for comparison.)
I’d love to get feedback and suggestions. I’m particularly interested in learning more about how to convincingly simulate:
Draped fabric (Current approach: shading overlays: shapes filled with elliptical semi-transparent gradients) Woodgrain (Current approach: brown color + 5% noise + shading overlays) Paper texture (Current approach: similar to wood) Thanks for your input!




 

Autosave only updates the sandbox version. To update the afdesign file you need to do a manual Save from the hamburger menu or from the Document Save menu (though some people have posted about the latter method intermittently failing).
It’s easy to demonstrate. Just draw a red coloured rectangle return to Home Screen and Save a copy to default save location. Tap the icon  (showing a red rectangle) to reopen the file and now change the colour to green. Wait 35 secs and press Ipad home button and swipe up to close affinity (without saving). Reopen affinity and the project icon should now display the green icon (auto save working).  Now use Files app and navigate to the default affinity folder and the saved afdesign file. Note the file icon shows a red rectangle. Autosave did not update the afdesign file, only the sandbox copy. Back to Designer, in workscreen open Document menu and tap save. Open Files app again and look at the files icon. It now shows a green rectangle. 
Conclusion, autosave or back button update the sandbox copy but not the file itself. Save using Document menu Save or Home Screen Hamburger menu Save updates both sandbox copy and file copy.
Note that if you close the file on the Home Screen without having done a manual Save you will lose any edits made since previous manual save. 
To further confuse matters, if you have closed the file on the Home Screen then at a later time  reopen it from the default save location you will need to do another manual save from the Home Screen hamburger menu to re-establish a link between sandbox copy and the afdesign file. This creates a new copy of the existing file in the default location. Until you do this you won’t see a Save option in the Workscreen Document menu and the edits will only appear in the sandbox copy which can get corrupted resulting in loss of work with no up-to date backup.
Hope this makes sense and help prevent further losses. 
 

We've had a query about what is viewed as 'acceptable' content, and what our stance on it is.
 
This topic is one which is typically fairly volatile because everyone is so different and what is acceptable for one person, can be shocking or inflammatory to another. We don't want everyone to feel cautious about what they click, just in case they are faced with something they'd rather not see, but we also don't want to discourage people from sharing the amazing work they've been creating, so... We think the simplest, clearest thing to do is:
 
If you think your image could in any way be described as controversial...
 
- Start a new topic with an appropriate title
- Upload your image to a sharing site (Flickr, Behance, Instagram, etc) - you can even use the 'Share' link in the app's File menu
- Write a proper description of your work in the body of your post and add a text link to the image you have shared
 
 
Now, if people think they'd be offended, they just don't have to click the link and they won't see it at all.
 
Thanks,
Matt

I was bored during the flight to Madrid, so created some painting in APhoto using DAUB brushes made by Paolo. 
I was trying to get a similar effect on the sky as in some works of Joseph M.W. Turner's. 
I used CMYK translation of HKS-N colours and hope it will print nicely.
I'm quite happy with it as I'm complete beginner in digital painting.
 

Hi Michael A. Lowry and welcome to the Forums,
This is a known issue and is currently logged with the Dev team to resolve.  I'll bump the report with a link to this thread