Update Affinity Photo for digital painting

[AsFrog]

Hi Affinity team. This post is a cry from the heart. I have been using your programs for a long time and I really like them. They are great for designers and photographers, but not for artists. Below I will share my vision of how Affinity Photo can be improved for digital painting.

<<I immediately apologize for the quality of the text, I used google translator for translation >>

Brush Tool Update

Creating brushes from selection

Instead of one New Brush from Selection item, it's much more convenient to add two items for each type of brush.

No need to worry about using a layer and mask to create a new brush from a selection like in Affinity Photo 1.9.

Updating brush settings

The brush settings in Affinity Photo are sorely lacking in some features, and also brought in some cosmitic tweaks. I changed the view of the slider for the rotation parameter. It shows the rotation of the brush in degrees. In addition, the pivot point on the slider is in the middle.

Important changes are needed in the Texture tab: 1. Add the "Add from Selection" item to add new Brush Nozzles from the selection. This will undoubtedly make it easier to create and customize brushes. 2. Add Brighthess and Contrast settings for the texture. For these parameters, a slider with a zero position in the middle and a range of values from -100% to 100% will also be used. This way you can adjust the strength of the texture on the brush without using Wet edges.

Context toolbar

Instead of using force pressure for brushes without dynamic settings, it's better to add a pen sensitivity on / off mode. I very often need to draw a line with a pen without dynamics (like when drawing with a mouse), but this is impossible in Affinity Photo. So I have to choose a different brush or turn off the sensitivity in the brush settings. This is very annoying and time consuming.

Paint Mixer Brush Update

The Paint Mixer Brush needs to be heavily transformed. Now it is only suitable for processing the finished image and is extremely poorly suited for drawing. Therefore, I want to suggest the following changes:
1. Add a pen sensitivity on / off button instead of forced dynamics.
2. Add mode "paint at max pressure". If this mode is enabled, then at maximum pressure with the pen, the brush will paint with the selected color, and with light pressure, the brush will mix colors. This brush behavior is typical of the mixing brushes  in Paint tool SAI. If this option is disabled, the brush will have a paint limit as it does now.

3. Add mode "Take Under Layers Color". When this option is enabled, the tool will take into account the layers below, and will mix colors with their color. This will increase the non-destructive editing capabilities of Affinity Photo.

4. Add mode "Blend transparency". Now, if you draw on an empty layer without filling, then the accumulation of color is taking place on the transparent layer, and with the Blend transparency option on, the color will sort of dilute and become translucent.

In this case, the options Take Under Layers Color and Blend transparency are mutually exclusive if either of them is activated, the other will be unavailable.

All of these changes should significantly improve drawing in Affinity Photo.

[AsFrog]

Come on guys!

[John Rostron]

Serif staff do not usually respond to explicit requests in this forum unless they are about to announce that your request has been granted, typically in a beta version.

A single voice crying in the wilderness is unlikely to be acted on, but if others support your request then it is more likely to be acted on. Don't hold your breath though.

John

[fde101]

On 1/29/2021 at 3:58 PM, AsFrog said:

Instead of using force pressure for brushes without dynamic settings, it's better to add a pen sensitivity on / off mode.

I would much prefer that they add a "controller" popup like the one they have for the vector brushes in Designer, as this can be applied to users who do not have tablets as well (I do have one, but I also sometimes work from a laptop and don't carry one with me, for example...):