No marks in pixel tool

[Julianne Lee]

New learner here. I've got the Affinity Designer Workbook, and have managed everything up to about the middle of the Whittler project. Now, weirdly and suddenly, I can't get any strokes to show up in Pixel persona. It's only in this one file. Everything works fine if I open a new file. And only in Pixel persona. Vector works fine and it was working this morning. I have no idea what wrong button I clicked. Is there help for me, or did I break the file?

[Pšenda]

Any more detailed information, screenshot?

[Julianne Lee]

4 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Any more detailed information, screenshot?

No screen shot, because there's nothing to see. That's, literally, the problem. I go to use the drawing tools in Pixel persona, and nothing appears on the page. But when I look at the Undo function, it claims there's a stroke that was done. But there's nothing on any of the layers. Nothing on the target layer. Plainly there's a setting somewhere I've accidentally switched on that prevents making changes with the pixel tool or pixel brush.

The layer I'm trying to draw on is a pixel layer. Everything I'm doing is according to the steps in the book for this exercise. I've gone over it five or six times. 🤪

 

[carl123]

9 minutes ago, Julianne Lee said:

No screen shot, because there's nothing to see

A full size screen shot showing the tool selected and the layers panel very often reveals the source of the problem,.

Please upload one, if only to eliminate anything obvious as the root cause of your current issue 

[Julianne Lee]

10 hours ago, carl123 said:

A full size screen shot showing the tool selected and the layers panel very often reveals the source of the problem,.

Please upload one, if only to eliminate anything obvious as the root cause of your current issue 

I see. Okay, coming right up.

Edited September 30, 2020 by Julianne Lee
added screenshot

[Pšenda]

The screenshot shows that you have selected the Move tool - what do you want to move with it?
I thought you had a problem with drawing!

[Julianne Lee]

19 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

The screenshot shows that you have selected the Move tool - what do you want to move with it?
I thought you had a problem with drawing!

Yeah, I did a lot of futzing around, trying to find out what I'd done wrong. I used the move tool t see if I could highlight the foreground, but I couldn't. I'm really missing a bit of information regarding how to use the pixel tool, and I'm thrashing around, trying t isolate the layer I'm trying to draw on. But I can't draw on any layer with the pixel tool or brush, even when I've actually got it selected. I've tried everything.

[lepr]

1 minute ago, Julianne Lee said:

Yeah, I did a lot of futzing around, trying to find out what I'd done wrong. I used the move tool t see if I could highlight the foreground, but I couldn't. I'm really missing a bit of information regarding how to use the pixel tool, and I'm thrashing around, trying t isolate the layer I'm trying to draw on. But I can't draw on any layer with the pixel tool or brush, even when I've actually got it selected. I've tried everything.

Ensure the Pixel Tool is active in a screenshot so we can see the tool's options in the context toolbar.

[Old Bruce]

6 minutes ago, Julianne Lee said:

I'm really missing a bit of information regarding how to use the pixel tool,

Your screen shot shows that you are in the Designer Persona. You need to be in the Pixel persona.

[Julianne Lee]

23 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Your screen shot shows that you are in the Designer Persona. You need to be in the Pixel persona.

As I said, I've tried it every which way. That's why I know that it's just this file.

And while we're at it, I also have trouble getting the stroke color to show up while I'm drawing with the vector pen tool. If that's related...

In any case, here's the screen shot of the pixel tool settings.

[carl123]

Try...

Select > Deselect

If that does not work go into Brushes Panel and select one of the Basic brushes and see if that works

 

 

[Julianne Lee]

2 hours ago, carl123 said:

Try...

Select > Deselect

 

Carl, you did it! It was a mystery object that was selected and I couldn't find it. Deselect was the answer! Thank you so much. I can proceed with my exercise, and if this ever happens again I can go straight to Deselect. A million thanks!

[Julianne Lee]

I see several people here helped. Thank you all.

[Pšenda]

3 hours ago, Julianne Lee said:

and if this ever happens again I can go straight to Deselect

Just press the Esc key.

5 hours ago, carl123 said:

Select > Deselect

A forgotten/unwanted selection, which then prevents the desired drawing, is a relatively common mistake - a visual indication would be appropriate (for example in Status bar).