Smee Again

Pretty sure you are missing the point. "Fill" and "Opacity" are different animals that's why it's confusing when the name of the check box is "Fill opacity".
That is strictly the opacity. Take a look at this video I posted earlier. It will show you the difference when you are dealing with just one the "special blend modes". You can't achieve this with Affinity Photo at this time:
 
 

Wouldn't the fill option here work the same as with fill on the paint brush --- as in similar coding to achieve the effect?
Really unclear as to why this was not an option in photo. While it's true, opacity can help, there are occasions where when considering fill vs opacity --- fill is the only acceptable solution as there are differences in behavior.
Piximperfect (2017) explains some of the difference here:
Better info beginning at about 1:30 in on the following video:
 

''you sure it's safe"
Started from a half hearted hand held happy snap with a Panasonic FZ300 at 800 iso after sunset --- we better not get into the computer time
Much the of edit was trail error from an original idea . Basic edit to B+W was done in old Lr5 In Affinity Photo > added motion blur >masked blur from around the bird > dodge and burn > selective masking back to white. Border > merge visibility > duplicate > at grid (Ctrl + "/') > drag in top layer > add shadow + stroke (macro/action) > Added two layers for the black and a white stroke to image edge > masked to leave black over white and white over black Not sure if the toning was via spit toning or re-color with masking or a bit of both . Now add lots of back tracking and try again. Many feel (as I used to) that all editing should be a number pre-planned steps; however that's when the enjoyment becomes a job in my opinion. Honest comments and questions welcome
  original file
Lr5 edit . Several -100 clarify brushes would smoothed out the image

That's what I basically do. I set the base colour through a variety of layers including gradients and normal fills. I never use the select tools because it gives jagged edges, so I paint on the mask layers. After the whole image is done with he base colours I start with the detailing. And that brings the image really to life. And that's where the colour theory comes in to play, how does lightning effect colours and etc. 
I've learned everything myself. But asking questions has never hurt anyone. It will speed up the learning process if you watch or listen to other artists. 

I tend to start by doing a line drawing using pencil. I use this as a reference. The light and shade are all from my (limited) imagination :-)

The fallen pilots project got published last weekend in the largest Financial newspaper in the Netherlands. Pretty stoked about it! 

A quick one to get my mind off of all the military

After a summer and holiday break I picked up colouring again. This time some commissioned work. 

Almost done, one more to go.
The general response on the series was very good, but what impressed me most was the positive response from some of the family members. 


 

Should have started this project earlier, haven't seen the sun at all this weekend Hope to finish the whole project next weekend. In the mean time a side-by-side comparison. 
 

I started publishing the series. Since the pilots all fell between 10 and 15 May. But then, of course, people with more historical knowledge than me pointed out some facts and I found new uniform references. So even though half of them are finished now they still need tweaks here and there. Luckily that's no problem for AF
 
 

Started a new project this weekend. 17 more to go before May
 
Focus this time is to try to get different skin colours for each individual, instead of using the standard 'same trick'. Took me quite some time to find photo's of modern look-a-likes. Gonna take a while before I publish them all but just had to post something somewhere  

One from my own collection of film negatives.

A really, really quick one of my great uncle. Just 3 layers, blue, yellow and red. The source file is very poor, hence the pixelation. 

Learning a bit about channels, layers, etc.
Still working on selections and cleaning them up. Need a bit more patience but getting there with the images. As a country boy, I'm used to seeing cicada exoskeletons on trees, benches, or wherever they decide to exit them. Cicadas live for years underground then burrow to the surface and burst out of his exoskeleton and flies away.
What's funny is when I see how some of my city friend react the first time they see one. I'm pretty sure they think they see something like this:

Hi All,
This is a Digital Shaded Relief of the area where I currently live (Lazio-Abruzzo border, Italy) made with AP and Arcgis Desktop.
Next steps:
- Remove arctifacts
- Add roads, rivers, lakes, land cover, contours ecc...
- Map lettering
- Layout
Reference: http://www.reliefshading.com/
Elevation data: http://opentopo.sdsc.edu/raster?opentopoID=OTSRTM.082015.4326.1

Learning a bit about channels, layers, etc.
Still working on selections and cleaning them up. Need a bit more patience but getting there with the images. As a country boy, I'm used to seeing cicada exoskeletons on trees, benches, or wherever they decide to exit them. Cicadas live for years underground then burrow to the surface and burst out of his exoskeleton and flies away.
What's funny is when I see how some of my city friend react the first time they see one. I'm pretty sure they think they see something like this:

Again, layers, selections, masking, and color. A sand rose.

Nice pictures here and on the site!

Learning a bit about channels, layers, etc.
Still working on selections and cleaning them up. Need a bit more patience but getting there with the images. As a country boy, I'm used to seeing cicada exoskeletons on trees, benches, or wherever they decide to exit them. Cicadas live for years underground then burrow to the surface and burst out of his exoskeleton and flies away.
What's funny is when I see how some of my city friend react the first time they see one. I'm pretty sure they think they see something like this:

Again, layers, selections, masking, and color. A sand rose.

Learning a bit about channels, layers, etc.
Still working on selections and cleaning them up. Need a bit more patience but getting there with the images. As a country boy, I'm used to seeing cicada exoskeletons on trees, benches, or wherever they decide to exit them. Cicadas live for years underground then burrow to the surface and burst out of his exoskeleton and flies away.
What's funny is when I see how some of my city friend react the first time they see one. I'm pretty sure they think they see something like this:

Yes, but it was just a quick example of the effect I get from using the method of adding a channel to tone down a blown out red. Since I love roses, I take lots of pictures of them when I can. When I would get them in Paintshop Pro or Aftershot (Corel's equivalent of lightroom) I could never tone down the reds/magentas enough to make the image look like what I shot.
You can also use the same method to reinforce a color that even curves and HSL won't do. We have one rose bush at Centennial Park that when photographed it often looks washed out, even orange tinted. The color in the photo is pretty, but not like the original. Instead of grabbing the blue channel though, I used the red channel. Can't remember whether I invert it or not, but it kicks up the reds so that they more closely resemble the original.
I can't find it on my computer, but here is where I is on my 500px account: https://500px.com/photo/231906517/a-rose-by-any-other-name-by-colbert-cook?ctx_page=3&from=user&user_id=23042321
As you'll easily be able to tell, I've learned a bit since starting this, and Affinity is giving me a bit better results than Paintshop Pro and Aftershot were. Sometimes it almost looks like I know what I'm doing.

The first example is the blown out pic from my Nikon L340 with no adjustments.
In the second example, I have roughly masked out the single rose I want to modify and applied a curves adjustment to knock down some of the blown out color.
In the third example, I have added a layer for luminosity adjustment. I made a greyscale copy of the blue chanel and used the luminosity blend mode, adjusting opacity to where I am beginning to like it.
If I were to finish the image, there would be some brightness/contrast adjustments made to the blue channel greyscale image in order to get the color just right.
Now the rose is closer to the color and look my eyes saw that attracted me to the image to begin with.