CiggyStardust

Fantastic. Thank You, paolo. User error, on my part, for sure. I think my Spacing was too high, for a start. And the thing about AP importing just the brush tips will make me more careful in future. I'm now getting beautiful lines. (Most often, I'll be using 1px or 2px brush, to simulate pencil, and I'm now getting super sharp lines, at least as good as anything PS ever gave me. So, yep, user error. Apologies to the devs for suggesting there was anything wrong with their brush engine. :-) Thanks, again, paolo. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out there, and for taking the trouble to add the screenshot. Super useful.

Thanks, paolo. Difficult to explain - it just feels as though the lines are more pixelated, somehow (in the same way that lines in PS are more pixelated than those in MangaStudio). I probably need to spend more time playing around with settings. Although I've imported brushes from PS, I'm not convinced that all the settings are maintained. I did take a look at Krita but even on their website they warn that the Mac version is unstable right now so I'm guessing I won't go too far down that road right now.

Thanks, Herbert'. That's useful. Might need to give Krita a try. I do have MangaStudio and that, too, blows PS out of the water for drawing in my opinion, although I'm far from an advanced user. Thanks again.

Is it just me, or is the brush engine in AP some way behind that in Photoshop? Most of the time I'm editing photos, so drawing features don't bother me that much but occasionally I'll find myself in the mood for some digital doodling. I've tried AP's own brushes and also imported some custom brushes (which simulate 'real' pencils, a variety from 2H to 2B) from Photoshop but I can't get anything like the same smoothness of line in AP. I've tried both my Wacom tablet and mouse, but makes no difference. Now, I understand perfectly that this kind of thing is going to be far from a priority but just wondered what others were experiencing. I did try searching and found a few users who reckoned it was an issue with Wacom support, but even with a mouse (not something I'd want to use for any length of time when drawing, obviously) the results are nothing like PS. Other than that, outstanding piece of software. Top marks to all those developing this amazing tool.

I'm new in these parts but I'm interested in finally learning how to use vector drawing software. I'm taking Ronnie's Udemy course and posted a short review over at Udemy. Wanted to share it in this thread, too: "Top class. I’ve only done the first half or so but can already tell you that this is a very good course. I did get a 50% discount by using the coupon on Ronnie’s website, but would still be happy if I’d paid full price. Ronnie really knows his stuff and is one of those people who can not only do but can also teach others to do. His delivery is clear, well paced, and thorough. He’s also responsive to questions and comments. Difficult to think what else you could ask for in any instructor. He’s given me exactly the sort of confidence I was hoping for (and like I say, I’m only half way through.) I imagine that someone, somewhere, is writing the first of a whole bunch of introductory books about Affinity Designer. If their plan is to give a beginner as good a grounding as Ronnie gives us in this course then they’re going to have their work cut out in my opinion. (I might add that I’ve found the quality of courses on Udemy pretty mixed, and requested refunds on several because they either represented really poor value for money or didn’t get close to delivering what they promised. No refund needed on this one, for sure.) Recommended." EDIT: Just wanted to add that I’ve now watched the whole course and the final part is every bit as good as the earlier material. Ronnie takes us through a project, based on his own hand-drawn sketch of a cartoon-style alien creature. Everything from importing a photograph of the sketch through to inking and colouring and applying some pretty cool features, using those tools that he gave us such a thorough introduction to in the earlier videos. So in this part of the course alone we get more than an hour and a quarter of watching an expert do his thing. The commentary is detailed, clear, and well-paced, just like all the stuff we saw earlier on. We also get useful information on project management - not only the file structure for each project (working files, imports etc) but also the naming and arrangement of layers within any particular AD file. And at the end, since Ronnie can’t contain his enthusiasm for the software, we get a detailed bonus lecture on making pixel selections from a photograph. If you’re at all serious about learning Affinity Designer you’d almost certainly get an absolute ton of goodness from this course. If it was ‘Recommended’ before, it’s now ‘Highly Recommended’. We can only hope that one day, when Udemy get their quality control sorted out, all courses will provide this kind of value.