ArtistJaime

Old Bruce and thomaso, THANK YOU!! I did what you suggested and was able to make the steam finally go away and can now continue to work on it. The artwork was originally scanned at home and then I just opened it in AP to make changes so the original is a jpeg file if that helps. Thanks for pointing out thomaso that the shiny fork layer was hidden. I've since moved it to the front, good catch. Do either of you know why I had to "invert" the pixel layer to be able to continue to make edits? I don't recall clicking on that tab in the first place so I'm curious if that is something that happens automatically at some point or maybe I unknowingly clicked it. Because I obviously still have a lot to learn about AP, are there any resources either of you or anyone else reading would recommend? Like I mentioned earlier, I have the Affinity Revolution video course (which helped me a lot to get going) and I have the AP Workbook but don't always find answers there. I have no experience with Photoshop or any other photo editing software so I'm doing a lot of trial and error. Would love to simplify the process if possible. I can't thank you enough for your help!

Let me know if you can't open the Cropped Coffee photo

Here's the cropped photo of just the coffee cup, then a picture of my artwork before I started editing. I took a few different illustrations I had done and combined them using different layers, then adding the background in subsequent layers. Cropped Coffee.afphoto

Old Bruce I tried as you suggested and this is what I got. I tried copying it flattened and just normally as well and still got the same response. I also tried to just copy it and open in a new document (not from clipboard) and nothing showed up. It's like the layer doesn't exist which I don't get because I put it there and was editing it. HVDB I did realize I was using the Background Erase brush but that was only after trying everything else. Thought maybe that would maybe work but it's as if the layer isn't there at all. It's so bizarre and I've worked long enough on it that I don't want to start over if I don't have to. Thanks again, Jaime

I appreciate even a guess as to what it could be, thank you! I unchecked all of the other layers so we can see just the layer I'm working with. When I did that I see that I must have somehow painted on some of the background color at some point (by the steam) but that isn't a big deal. I tried to then make edits like erasing or painting and still can't, even with everything else gone and this layer selected. It sure seems like it should be working and I'm baffled. I included another screenshot below.

Hi thomaso, Thanks! Here's a screenshot after going back and reopening the file so it doesn't show all of the steps I've tried in the panel. The issue I'm having for instance, is the "steam" above the coffee cup, I would like to erase and add something a little different. When I click on that layer and try to erase the steam, nothing happens. I then tried clicking on the background color layer and tried to just paint over the steam since I couldn't erase it and again, nothing happened. Another thing I'd like to do is maybe change the background color to a lighter yellow and when I click on it the selection is highlighted with the blue lines but I'm not able to make any changes. It's worth saying again that I'm new and feel like it's probably a simple fix but I've tried everything I can think of including looking through the AP workbook, Affinity Revolution course, and internet search. I'm stumped! Thanks so much, I appreciate any advice you can share.

Hi all. I have looked and Googled to try to find a fix before bothering you with this but I can't seem to find out how to fix my problem with AP. I was working on an art piece in Affinity Photo for a few hours and had added and edited layers just fine and then out of the blue I wasn't able to make any more edits. Does anyone know why? I'd like to continue making modifications but can't seem to get it to work. I've unlocked all the layers, checked the assistant which seemed fine although I am still relatively new to AP still. I'd appreciate any advice. Thank you in advance!

I also am having this problem after saving. I can't get the move tool to work whether I use my mouse or pen on a Wacom tablet. Any thoughts?

Thanks Callum, happy to be here! I appreciate your response. I apologize for taking so long to respond as we were out of town and just got back. I ended up shutting AP down and when I went to open it again I saw that the 1.7.3 update was available so I installed that and the issue was fixed. But to answer your question, it was lagging on every file. I'm so relieved the update fixed it. I am perplexed though how it was completely fine and working great one minute and then not the next. Thanks again, Jaime

Do any of you happen to know why the eraser tool in AP suddenly started lagging? I was using it today and it was working just fine one minute and the next it started lagging something horrible which is making it impossible to work right now. I am using a Wacom tablet/pen and the same thing happens when I tried using my mouse. Thanks in advance for your help!