Rondo

Not been drawing for a while so thought I'd update the Thunderbolt II to celebrate 100 Years of Indiana ANG. The Mig 29 was inspired by the stories of the Ghost of Kiev. Seemingly now debunked by the Ukrainian AF, but still a good story.

Of course, as far as possible, but the point is that lots of business's are affected by outside factors, over which they have no control. (There are many businesses that have gone down thanks to not being able to trade for a couple of years! They couldn't just "keep working and producing" with no customers.)
I'm sorry, but it is totally unrealistic and simplistic to think that any and every plan, made at some point in the past, will never have to be revised or rethought come what may.
 
 
 

Disclaimer : I wasn't inquired by Milwaukee to create this artwork. It was only for myself.
Also, don't start a war between Makita and DeWalt fans, please 😁

New vector work – Dia de Los Muertos I: La Calavera Catrina
Today the famous “Day of the Dead” festival begins in Mexico. Definitely NOT to be confused with Halloween, the Day of the Dead is a three-day riotous explosion of colour and joy, where people all across Mexico honour and remember their loved ones and keep their memories alive. This spectacular festival is something I’ve been fascinated with for years, and seeing it first-hand one day is definitely on the bucket list!
I’ve created two pieces to celebrate this festival, and my first one “La Calavera Catrina” (The Elegant Skull) is based on the traditional female costume for the Day of the Dead.
La Catrina is known as the “Grand Dame” of the afterlife. She wears marigolds in her hair - believed to lure the dead back to the world of the living for the duration of the festival through their powerful scent and vibrant colour - and a collection of skulls representing the souls of the departed. She also wears the Sacred Heart crown, to represent the fact that the festival takes place across All Saints Day and All Souls Day – two minor holidays in the Catholic calendar, the quetzal feathers represent her native Mexican heritage, and the roses are an obvious nod to Frida Kahlo.
I’ve also added some detail shots, the outline, and the original concept sketch. Hope you like them!
I’ll be posting my second piece, La Danza Azteca, separately, so if you like what you see - keep a look out!

Hi there!
DISCLAIMER: First of all, this is not another "bring the Mesh Warp / Distort Tool right now!" Topic. I'm not asking the Team to give us an estimated time of arival... None of that. It's something different, hinted in the Title.
INTRODUCTION & INTENTIONS
The purpose of this Topic is to share my thoughts and considerations, specially with @MattP, the talent behind this and some other great Features, to keep in mind when developing this. Why? The reasons are simple:
Some of us are more than impatient to have this Feature available. It's been on the Roadmap for so long... Many need this and they are all in into Designer and lefting [Design Application] behind. There are high hopes and so much anticipation. And it's in the Dev Team plans. That's all good, but... is the gap between the Dev Team idea and the users need really been closed, even narrowed? When realeased, will it be what a lot of people are expecting? That's the key point that might turn things ugly here in the Forums.
So, I want to open a relaxed discussion to talk about needs, capabilities and workflow. I will do so by diving the kins of distortions I know in 3:
TYPE ONE
Miscellanous Specific Forms Distortions:
Topic 1: Arc Warp. @TonyB confirmed it will be doable as some other transformations. Said feature works like this for texts (but also for shapes), in Illustrator 2019 and on other Apps like PSE 10:

The other transformations available are this ones. Available on both Apps but they don't work exactly in the same way:

 
Now, the thing about these transformations (and the other Types) are these ones: Control and configuration. They are done through a set of parameters, not through a Mesh like the one in Affinity Photo. so, it's not just that it's doable, but that it's repeatable and done with a degree of presicion. And of course, it has to be editable and resetable, or as it's called nowadays: live. For example, trying to do it through a Mesh is not that great (the red one is done by hand after a lot of struggle, and it's no good):

That's the Arc Warp but imagine this for all kind of options known to man.
TYPE TWO
The next thing is about Perspective, whis is another popular requested feature.
Topic 2. This is really clear as what it has to do. Not just of one object, but for an entire Group, to do a pseudo 3D thing. On this one, DrawPlus does a good job and offers interesting options, like the slider on the Top part, and it gives the sens of working with a 3D object.

The one in Illustrator does its part, but once you transform an object, you can't have the original back, so it's a destructive effect (making this a live feature would be awesome).

If the angles of "rotation" can be in the form of parameters and mouse control, would make it cover all scenarios.
TYPE THREE
The last kind of Distortion people ask for in the forums is the Free Transform.
Topic 3. This is the one that sounds more like the one currently present for bitmaps in Photo or the Envelop Tool in DrawPlus. Personally, this is the least I am interested in, but it has its uses and would make this feature as robust as it can be.

I see there are two variations to this feature:
One with the handles, as seen on the previous pictures. One with "sharp" cornes, without the handles (it's almost like a Perspective Distortion, but I present it like a different one because with a perspective you should be able to maintain the aspect ratio, with this one you can go beyond that). In Illustrator, the Free Distort Effect does this in the "sharp corner" fashion, turning it to semi-curves in some extreme distortions:

As with the previous ones, the ability to reset and edit the effect on already distorted objects, would be gold.
SUMMARY
As I said, when talking about Distortions / Warping, most people have one or more of the three I showed. So, I leave some key points:
Having all of the three types listed above in Designer is the best thing that can happen in this regard to Serif and us the Users. Also, having the ability to reset, edit and have parameters in some of the cases, would provide absolute control (and enjoyment). If the Dev Team implements this one after the other and not all in the initial release, even if it's not desirable, is still a good path. Limiting to one or two of the Three Types "by design" would hurt the product. Very important: I'm not saying "copy this and copy that", I'm just showing examples of the possible use cases for a Tool like this; however it's implemented, as long as it's logical and feels natural, offering all of the capabilities presented, would be perfect. So, citing Matt himself:
I want our products to be good in their own right: It’s not good enough to be better than ‘x’ or ‘y’, you should just be really good and that be the end of the sentence
I expect from you what you have set as your own goal: the best possible Affinity Designer.
Finally, I invite anyone who wants to contribute by bringing examples or something they want for this Feature that I missed.
Best regards!

Well, it's been a pretty awful year. let's hope things will start to improve. Here's my New Year video, made with APhoto and MoviePlus. For those who can't understand the lads' Black Country accents (which will be most of you, I expect!) I've provided subtitles in English -- click on the little icon in the bottom right-hand corner.
 

It sped up my workflow by 1000% 😄
 

At any price, it's a matter of principle, and something I simply will not do. Subscription licensing is a means by which to entrap customers, and it effectively holds your own working files "hostage."
My wife and I have been married for 40 years (a little longer than I've been paying for the majority of the mainstream drawing programs). But I don't marry software vendors, wise guy.
JET

I think it is a very useful 3 hours video tutorial.

Our Isometric tools should deal with all the SSR calculations for you.  The power will be when you mix other axonometric axes.  For example - use the Cube, and rotate it about the vertical to  produce another set of axes for objects rotated out of conventional isometric, but using the correct scale and shear.
 
And, of course, our snapping and constraining play massively into all this.
 

Thought I had better finish it or I probably never would and it didn't take too long (although I kept fiddling with it). Added the cap too. It's not perfect but it will do. The paper in the background is just part of a photo vectorised.
 
 

Thanks for that - I hadn't thought of perspective correction!  In fact I'm starting to realise that whatever I do is going to be very superficial if I'm going to cover the bases.
As a group, our average age is comfortably into the 70s - I don't think anyone's that concerned about their Tinder profile!

Yes doing what's called Global Cloaning. Here's a tutorial video showing how Global Cloaning

There is a repeating wish that people would like to use the full scale of editing tools on masks, and handle them as grayscale layers. They are usually told that masks only have the alpha channel, and they are mistaken to think that values of alpha are considered shades of gray.
I think this is not the full story. One can use a regular pixel layer as mask, and the alpha channel (transparency) of the pixel layer will be used for masking, while ignoring the RGB channels of it. Furthermore it is possible to put a live Channel mixer adjustment on top of a pixel layer which makes it transparent based on it's luminosity. Combine these two tricks, you get a mask, where you can do every aspect of grayscale editing.
Here are the steps:
You have pixel layer A you would like to mask, and pixel layer M you would like to use as mask. You nest a Channel Mixer adjustment inside M, choose LAB channels, Alpha channel, make contribution of input Alpha 0, and contribution of input Lightness 100% into Alpha. Layer M should be above layer A. Right-click layer M, and choose Mask to Below. Bam, you have a mask pixel layer to do any edits and it's luminosity is used for masking. (beware of a GUI limitation that nested children of masks are not shown on the layers panel)
What do you think?
 

Interesting looking technique that should prove useful. Thanks.
Perhaps, as it already works, it should have been in Tutorials rather than Feature Requests, so more of us would see it or be able to find it easily?
 

A couple of days ago I finally received my copy of the Affinity Photo Workbook. Having read the first 240 pages I must admit that I am mostly disappointed. By purchasing the book published by the developers of Affinity Photo I hoped to gain some in depth insight into how Affinity Photo works and how I could apply the different techniques demonstrated in the book to my own projects. Sadly though this is exactly where the book fails. Because I know that simply telling you that the book "sucks" is not enough and certainly wont help you improving it I am going to give you a few examples why exactly it has been such a disappointing experience to me.
My biggest issue: From page 120 onward you explain in depth how to move, nest, rename and otherwise manipulate layers. While I admit that this might be useful to some beginners I think anyone who is not a complete computer illiterate will figure this out within minutes. In fact when I started editing images it was immediately clear to me how to perform such basic layer actions that do not differ much from the basic concept of manipulating files and folders in any file explorer. On the other hand any information on how the different blend modes work is completely missing. I ask you, if we talk about the average person who want's to get into image editing, what would such a person typically need help with? Creating or renaming a layer or comprehending what a multiply, hard light or reflect blend mode does? Why are there layouts with keyboard short cuts but no explanatory chapter on blend modes? Again the question, what would I probably want to read a book for? To learn the keyboard short cut to invoke a certain command or to gain a better understanding of the concept of blend modes?
 
If I read a book like this I expect to learn new techniques and I generally want to gain deeper insight on how a program like Affinity Photo works and how I can use the software for my personal work flow. But in the case of your book it has repeatedly left me with more questions than answers. Here is a list of examples where the book has left me with unanswered questions:
On page 144 you explain how to control certain colour tones using a black & white adjustment layer and the blend mode overlay. Now maybe I'm the only person on earth who finds it confusing to use a black and white adjustment layer to change colour tones in a coloured photograph but fact is, I don't understand this technique and thus I'm not able to use this trick for my own photos. Unless of course I had exactly the same photo as in the book in which case I'd certainly be able to replicate the steps described. But in order to apply this trick to my images I would need someone to explain me what a black and white adjustment in combination with the overlay blend mode does and why it does this.
  The next example would be page 160 (Laying the tonal ground work) and following. Here you explain how to control tones with brush strokes, an empty pixel layer and the overlay blend mode. And again you fail to explain why it does what you describe. But at least this one is not as bad as the case mentioned above because here I can actually use the technique for my projects (with the slight inconvenience that I use a technique I don't really understand). In other words, if someone watched over my shoulder while I am applying this technique and asked me why I had chosen the overlay blend mode I would not be able to answer the question because frankly I don't know, I just copied the steps from the book without knowing better.
  Another one: On page 228 you show a way to eliminate or at least reduce a colour cast in the sky by using a black and white adjustment layer (again in a coloured photograph) and the multiply blend mode. Once more you fail to provide any background information on why and how this combination works. Without this information the process remains a mystery to me and I'm probably never going to be able to use this technique for my own photos. I just don't feel comfortable to work with tools I don't understand. I could mention further examples but I suppose by now you are getting the point. Now one could always ask why I didn't search the web for more information. And while this is of course true and I also do this on a regular basis I have been asking myself why on earth I'd read a book that makes me search the web for basic knowledge about the described techniques. Didn't I buy the book exactly because I wanted to gain more in depth knowledge about image editing with Affinity Photo? Wouldn't I be better off not buying the book at all and simply asking the search engine of my choice (which is completely free by the way)?
But enough criticism for now. Let's also mention a few positive aspects. Apart from the missing information as described above the texts are very understandable (even for non native English speakers like me) and the book looks generally very professional. I've also found the selection of images and projects to be well chosen, the projects are interesting and the photographs are of high quality. While reading the book one immediately notices that the authors not only know what they are writing about but it's also clear that the persons involved in the creation of the book are passionate for photography and Affinity Photo in particular. In other words: If you added the missing background information on how and why certain techniques work as well as a comprehensive explanation on the various blend modes available this could become one of the best books about image editing in general and Affinity Photo in particular on today's market.
Oh and one last thought: If you don't want to clutter the book with too much information and avoid overtaxing some readers why not provide an appendix with additional background information (be it in the book or as downloadable resource) for those who desire to better understand how and why certain techniques work? And if you plan to improve the book and add the requested information it would be a very nice gesture of you to make this additional information available to the buyers of the initial issue as well (as a download for example).
P.S. I opened this thread here because I couldn't find any other, more suitable place. Please feel free to move the thread if necessary. And sorry for having created such a lengthy post
 

I came up with this line for the character [hidden message there... ]. Oh, and the illustration took me around 5 hours, more or less.

 
Best regards!

Thank you

Vegetation Raster Brushes (leaves) 
Zip file contains 30 brushes (3 pack x 10
PDF sample file added
Set 2 (30 raster Brushes) available here:
Vegetation brush Set 2
 

 
VB 1 Set 1 01-03.pdf
Vegetation S1 P01 - P03.zip

Sorry, but I seriously hope Serif ignore this request.
 
A human face causes offence wow, let's remove women from all advertising, actually let's remove them from the streets too!!!
 
To the OP suggest you put a paper beg over your head for thirty seconds whilst the program starts.

Project Brush Set 20 Pattern Brush Sets 
Updated the brush set to version 2
Changes/improvements as below
Version 2.0
1. Removed old versions redundant now..
2. All nozzles are now vector based replacing previous raster versions (as much as possible)
3. Replaced some of the older Base Patterns with some organics (set 04)
4. The old brush set was appearing darker and less intense with 1.7/1.8 update...I have fixed that with this version!
5. Updated the Sample sheets to latest layout (included ref to updated/new patterns).
6. Organised the sets into groups of 30 (Group 01 x4)
7. Added a generic set of brush Nozzles for texture variation (These are repeated across all sets)
8. Included sample sheets of base patterns
9. 19 new base textures
Archived the Older Brush set and updated Library information

Sample Sheets
Pattern Brushes Set 01

Vector Base Textures Set 01

ProjectBrush - Pattern Set 01.zip
Pattern Brushes Set 02

Vector Base Textures Set 02

ProjectBrush - Pattern Set 02.zip
Pattern Brushes Set 03

Vector Base Textures Set 03

ProjectBrush - Pattern Set 03.zip
Pattern Brushes Set 04

Vector Base Textures Set 04

 
ProjectBrush - Pattern Set 04.zip

No need for apologies, Stuart! Your great generosity isn't in any way attenuated by the amount of time that has passed since you created the brushes!! ;)

This is the my first foray into using AD.
I guess I would say I'm a casual user but I absolutely love it!
Initially started with hand drawing but have decided to start to vectorize them.

If you don't think that £29.99 as a one-off payment for a vector drawing package and bundled extras is fair, then you will not be happy with the software as you obviously don't see the value in it, so I would recommend not purchasing it at present. I use the software personally and have purchased my own copy DESPITE working here and actually being able to get it for free - because I use it all the time for so many tasks and seems SO fairly priced that I just don't mind paying for it!