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@Mark, thanks, my preferences are set just as yours are. My bad for not being more specific when I said I work in RGB. I appreciate your taking the time to think about it.

@Olivio Multi4G and anyone... I have a HP 15" laptop (high res, recent technology, Nvidia, etc) and a HP OfficeJet Pro 7740 Wide Format printer as I do a lot of Tabloid sized work. It is not a graphics quality printer and uses only 4 ink colors, CMYK. I work in RGB in Affinity Designer and in Affinity Photo. The AD work is primarily "cartoon" with heavy black strokes and color gradients fills. Once I get the colors visually nice on the display screen, I print and find that the OfficeJet results are 20%-50% darker on paper than the screen. Light generated vs pigment generated, right? They are even darker if I use the printer high print quality options so I stay in the normal output settings. I wonder what is the easiest way to color correct in my work flow. I can use HSL color adjustments on each and every shape to lighten before I print thus avoiding unwanted changes to black & white. On 250 shapes with gradients, this is an effort but it works. Or maybe I should put a Curves adjustment at the top of the layers stack that affects all the layers of the drawing. This would seem to be the "sledge hammer" approach but a one-click visibility on or off for instant comparison has a lot of merit. Is there a better solution since this problem occurs 100% of the time? I'm not into color calibration techniques between devices unless it is really easy.

"Then it seems to behave differently on Windows as on MacOS ..." Thanks for your video. I did it just as you did but my 70 would not stick. Ah, well, using the Cog tool in place of the Cloud tool was more entertaining anyway. I don't believe I would have thought to use it if not for your post that it could be used to make the rays instead of the triangle, CTL-J, Rotate, Repeat manual method. Thanks for your initial post as well as trying to make sense of the 48-max problem. Maybe I should have simply tried restarting AD or Windows; you never know what that will fix.

Yes, it would not stick. The slider stopped at 48. So I over-typed the 48 in the field with 70. When I hit "Enter" it deleted my 70 and reverted back to 48. I also started over, did not use the slider, and just over-typed the default with 70. It would not stick either.

Curiously, my AD 1.7.3 / Win 10 maxes the cloud shape out at 48 bubbles, and won't do the 70 your tutorial specifies. Tried a few things to force it without success, couldn't find a Preference to change, noticed my cloud radius is at 97% as is yours. Gave up and tried a work-around using the cog Shape tool instead that does allow me 70 cogs, then I rounded the heck out of the squared-off cogs and took the center hole radius to 0%, eliminating it. This resulted in the same shape you had for the badge in your tutorial. Sooo, I post this for anyone else that bumps into a 48-bubble max like I did. [FYI, my document is Print, Letter, 300 res, display in inches, Art board, although I don't see how it should matter.]

Great stroke pressure effect put to good use for a group of curves. Much better/faster than pen-tooling each drip, which is how I would have approached it. The drip variety is simply a result of the length of each line segment and you can still revisit each layer for a different pressure setting if you see the need. Thanks for sharing this technique.

MEB, by type of object, do you mean curve vs shape? If not could you give some examples of what you mean? Does this carry over to a new document? Or when you close Designer and reopen Designer? In Designer, I use Scale with object on all strokes 99.9% of the time. I was hoping for a Preferences option for "ON" being the default for Scale with object. I understand others may not want it on 99% of the time, but it would be an advantage for my work flow.

"You see a list of all the different layer blend modes and let’s panic!" Ahh, up to your usual hi-jinks, I see. Good one! Great summary of the Blend Modes. If I were to ask for more, it would be to answer "when." I see the techie descriptions of "what" they do but it is difficult for new users to translate that into "when" do I need them. Many educators respond by saying 'just experiment with them while you are in a project.' Yeah, that is hours of fun but not very helpful. While I like your shapes/gradients as a visual guide for each Mode, could you take the 7 most often used Blend Modes (from your summary) and show a real-life example of why each might be employed? Yeah, I know: just lump me in the never-satisfied category.

Dave, tremendous technique. The proof is in the step-by-step photos you attached. Thanks for this idea!

The correct rounded-look was a big problem for me as you could plainly see. The Toggle-on/Scale up/Toggle-off/Scale back down is a genius approach! What a bonus from this exercise. The Fx Inner Glow is a nice touch too! Thanks for your assistance.

Stuart_R, You got the gloss, man! And great shadowing. Now I have to dig into your layers (hmm, sorry, that doesn't sound right!) and see how you got them to look like M&Ms instead of like faded cotton socks. Hey, you can't even touch the raster brushes if you stay out of the Pixel Persona! Thanks for a great solution.

Alfred, nicely done! I think your simplified radial gradient fill leaving only the Bevel/Emboss in Fx did a much better job than my attempt. AND, you didn't need to add a glint and a tack-on shadow layer like I tried! I didn't notice the huge MB until I uploaded. Wonder what caused that. Interestingly, both Stuart_R's and sleekdigitals's files are tiny! Maybe because they deleted the pixel image of how a balloon should look? I didn't think it was a huge image but I'll test to see. Thanks for sharing a better solution.

Would appreciate someone's artistic touch with Designer Fx settings for a heart-shaped balloon. The attached afdesign file is AD 1.6 on Win 10. I think my trials are close but miss in 2 areas, 1) no gloss or shine, 2) the lower shadow isn't right and the line where the shadow begins is too sharp - needs some diffusion. I haven't even gotten to the Transparency Tool yet. Suggestions are appreciated. heart-balloons-jm.afdesign

So helpful! Your tip is the key!

Dave, way to keep after it! You've put much effort into something that benefits many of us. Thanks!

Good job showing Affinity Designer capabilities in Pixel Persona. Enjoyed the color corrections to the water to be consistent with the apple. Sometimes in Designer I go to File > Edit in Photo when, if I had just slowed down and thought about it, I could have performed my action right there in Designer Pixel Persona. Your tutorial shows even complex pixel actions can be handled right in Designer.

Very thorough on approaches and details. Nice job! Some great learning techniques on a variety of different photo examples - especially the lake & trees. Thanks for this vid. Also, I think you just like clouds!

@pixupdate Yours looks really good! As a potential collaborator for ideas for colorization, have you seen this thread? https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/42794-ap-colorization/ You and @EZeemering might want to share methods and ideas.

I think I need to watch this a few more times, first because it's freakin unbelievable. Second, because I want to understand it.

Admirable, though!

A new word for me: Skeuomorphic. Tips I enjoyed include: Use shapes rather than strokes for certain edges for their added versatility. Subtract an offset duplicated shape to create highlight/shadow arcs/crescents. Use the star shape tool adjustments to easily position dial points. Great tutorial; thanks for sharing!

@owenr do you use inkscape for these extreme curve features and then re-open in AD? Or are you just aware of those features? Wondering if it is worth considering using both inkscape and AD or if that is more trouble than the features are worth (until AD catches up). I know inkscape is often mentioned here for its raster to vector Trace capability. But normally I just Pen-Tool my scans. Hmm, have we hijacked a thread here? Sorry.

Wow! I couldn't turn off that video - had to watch the whole thing. Could not believe all those curve/line manipulation features! Hmmm.

Hey, great! I just now needed to add some rain to an AD comp so I can "edit in APhoto" for your rain and take it back to AD. Thanks! Funny aside: that is a really sunny photo you added the rain to in your sample!

Good Time vs Color Definition chart! Funny! You could even add another downward column showing how my aging eyes took colors from bright in Grade School to some gray average Now! Making me happy it is somebody else's problem.