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This past weekend I met up with some working professional freelance illustrators and concept artists (five of them to be exact, and myself) for a coffee drink-and-draw at a local coffee shop. Affinity came up as a topic, and we had a good, long chat about it - I suppose like a mini focus group. I figured that if 6 illustrators had a unanimous opinion about something, then it's probably true for many others.


The general consensus was that Affinity apps for iPad are essential tools, and by far the best range of robust tools for industry work on the iPad (aside from the obvious, Procreate).
With desktop, while the response was mostly positive, and while most agreed that it is technically possible to replace their current software with Affinity, the biggest issue was the brush tool. 
All the illustrators I spoke to work with dedicated drawing tablets on their desktop (among them was the Huion Kamvas, XP-Pen display tablets, and Wacom Cintiq and Intuos tablets), and digitally draw/paint their work in either Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint.
Everyone said that, while the pixel brushes themselves looked nice and that they liked the customisable features in the brushes panel, they 'felt' a bit clunky to draw with (for lack of a better word), and lack the same 'buttery' fluidity, perfect precision, and perfect pressure sensitivity of some of Affinity's competitors. I think 'felt' is a really important word here. The brushes can often 'feel' a bit stiff and inaccurate to the tablet input at times, especially when doing work that requires a great deal of precise brush work, which results in the experience feeling just a bit off. The final illustration work may look fine when it's finished, but the drawing/painting experience is not quite there (i.e. there's a lot more cmd+z involved than should be necessary), which can hinder workflow, efficiency, and can be a bit frustrating at times.
 

As a dedicated user of Affinity software (almost exclusively for over a year now), I felt it was important to mention this in the forums, as I have the same concern.
I've mentioned tablet input inaccuracy in a few posts, and I'm really hoping that it gets addressed or looked into soon.

Sadly, I've heard time and time again that this is a deal breaker for a lot of illustrators and digital artists looking to use the software, not for vector art or photo editing, but for pixel-based digital painting, professional comics, and precise and/or detailed linework. Fixing the tablet input accuracy issues could open a lot of doors for Affinity, and for potential users that are getting more and more frustrated with monthly subscriptions, but feel tied down out of necessity. A very large portion of Photoshop's user base is made up of digital artists, and I definitely think Affinity Photo has a huge potential to make an impact in that field too. :)

I'm sure there's (hopefully) a fairly easy fix for this, as Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro, Clip Studio Paint, Krita, and so many others have already managed to get their brushes to feel near perfect for drawing and painting.

Sorry for the long winded post, but I guess this is more like my pitch to get this issue smoothed out for a better user experience. 

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I support this 100%."Feeling" is the right word.

Been working on brushes for AP for a few weeks and I'd say this:
They look fantastic. The customizability and flexibility is great. But there is some initial little lag when you draw lines. I'd guess that technically the brush engine is very robust already but the feeling part is "close, but not exactly there yet".

This fixed, plus a good way to always be able to rotate the canvas and a few little things like brushes right click menu for quick changes etc and I have my "go-to" solution for everything.

If anyone from Serif reads this: are you working closely with people from the concept art/illustration community? There are tons of people in England, let alone Games Workshop in Nottingham who produce massive amounts of high level paintings. On Artstation you could click my link, type in the city you're in and see some really good illustrators to work with face to face. https://www.artstation.com/search/artists
 I mean hey, one can dream. So far I really like my Affinity Suite and would love to use it even more :) 
 

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@TheFlow

I definitely echo that! The brushes are great, the tablet input, not so much, which is kind of counterintuitive. A great looking brush with ample customisable features is not very useful when there's a problem at the root - kinda like having the best drawing ability in the world, and a perfectly sharpened pencil to draw with, but you also happen to have really shaky hands.
That tiny little initial lag might not seem like a big deal, but it really is, and fixing it would make a world of difference.
I've spent ages uninstalling and reinstalling my tablet drivers and Affinity software over the last year, thinking the lag was caused by something I did, but it's definitely rooted in the software itself.

I would go as far as considering it to be a bug.

On the side:
Absolutely. A dedicated rotation tool would be a HUGE breath of fresh air - rotating in tiny increments is definitely not ideal (even though I've made customs shortcuts for it). 
I actually really love Sketchbook Pro's pop-up wheel when you press spacebar which allows you to move around, rotate and zoom, all in a single window - very innovative.
Similarly, having a pop-up menu like Photoshop for quickly changing brushes and settings would be a massive time saver.

Working with artists directly to troubleshoot some weak points and potential problem areas is actually a really great idea too.
It takes the guesswork out of the equation and leaves it up to the working professionals, the people using the software, to give some input.

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