Realistic Wet-in-Wet Watercolour for Affinity Photo

[RevTim]

This tutorial will show how to create a wet-in-wet style watercolor effect, like the above image, in Affinity Photo, and using only the standard filters and tools in Affinity. You don’t even need a graphics tablet as there is no brushwork involved. This technique works like a watercolour filter.

It is quite a long tutorial as you will be creating Procedural Textures and macros, but at the end you will three macros which you can use on other images as well a fully controllable textures you can use. Go through each step methodically, If it helps, print the tutorial and tick-off each step.

NOTE: I use the right arrow symbol (>) to indicate menus and sub menus. E.g.  >Filters>Blur>Median Blur, means click on the Filters menu, then select Blur and then Median Blur.

 

Preparation

It will help if you use the same image I used to start with, since the result may vary depending upon the image pixel dimensions. So, before you begin, do the following:

Create a new blank document 5182 x 3452 px with the Colour Format as RGB/16 – the effect works better in 16 bit and you can convert it back to 8 bit at the end via >Document>Convert Format/ICC Profile.

Click on the Stock tab in the palettes on the right-hand side. Make sure you have the Unsplash library selected and search for Barn.

The image you want should be the 3^rd image; it’s a sunrise over a hill behind an old barn with a red tractor and a grain silo. Now is the time we say thanks to Timothy Eberly for his beautiful image entitled “Dynamic Sky”.

Drag the photo into the workspace, then reposition and stretch so it fills the document.

Right-click on the layer in the Layer palette and select Rasterise. I renamed as layer to Barn Image to keep track of things. This is the image we will turn into a watercolour.

Finally, create a new pixel layer above the barn image (click on the chequerboard icon at the bottom of the layer palette) and fill this with your foreground colour via >Edit>Fill with Primary Colour. It doesn’t matter what the colour is. This layer will be deleted once we have created our customised Procedural Texture Presets.

 

Create Customised Procedural Texture Presets

The Procedural Texture filter is a bit daunting, especially if, like me, you don’t understand the mathematics or C++ coding! However, they can be great for creating texture layers, gradients, highlights and displacement maps – as you’ll see!

The Procedural Texture filter is found at Filters>Collours>Procedural Texture. It can also be used as a live filter (Layer>New Live Filter Layer>Colours>Procedural Texture).

Open this now.

If there are any equations present, delete them by clicking on the x on the right end of the equation after the RGBA buttons. Likewise, delete any custom inputs in the Custom Inputs section.

 

Paint Patches Texture

Create an Art Textures category in which to save your custom textures. To do this, click on the burger icon on the top right of the dialogue. Select Manage Presets. Click Create Category and name your category as Art Textures.

Create three empty equation boxes by clicking on the + sign under the equations box. Note that each equation turns on and therefore will affect first the red channel, then the green channel and then the blue channel.

Copy and paste the equations below into the R,G,B equation lines.

 

perlincubic(rx/((w*2)/b),ry/((w*2)/c),7,a)

perlincubic(rx/((w*2)/d),ry/((w*2)/e),6,a)

perlincubic(rx/((w*2)/f),ry/((w*2)/g),5,a)

Create custom Inputs to control the height and width of the noise patches in each channel, and another custom input to control the noisiness/smoothness of the noise.  To do this click on the custom type indicated below by clicking on the relevant input type below the Custom Inputs section. The first column is the input type, the second is the input parameter it affects in the equation, this is followed by the input name, and finally, the input value.

Custom Inputs

Type      Parameter          Name    Value

R             b             Red Pattern Width           20

R             c              Red Pattern Height          20

R             d             Green Pattern Width      40

R             e             Green Pattern Width      40

R             f              Blue Pattern Width          100

R             g              Blue Pattern Width          100

-1,1        a              Noise Smoothness          Set slider to far left.

This is how the dialogue should look when you are done:

 

It should look like this:

Save this as a new Procedural Texture preset by clicking on the burger icon top right, selecting ‘Create Preset’ and saving it as Paint Patches in the Art FX category you created earlier.

Click Apply at the bottom of the dialogue.

 

Create Small Paint Spots sub-preset

Open the Procedural Texture dialogue again via Filters>Colours>Procedural Texture.

Select the Paint Patches preset you just made.

 

Change the Custom Input values as follows:

 

Type      Parameter          Name    Value

R             b             Red Pattern Width           200

R             c              Red Pattern Height          200

R             d             Green Pattern Width      400

R             e             Green Pattern Width      400

R             f              Blue Pattern Width          600

R             g              Blue Pattern Width          600

-1,1        a              Noise Smoothness          Set slider to about 40% (in from the left, not the centre)

Click on the burger icon to the right of the Custom Inputs box (see image above) and select Create Values Preset. Name this sub-preset as Small Paint Spots.

It should look like this:

 

Watercolour Paper Texture Macro

Now we’ll create a macro which will add a watercolor texture to any image.

First DELETE the procedural texture layer you just created so that all you have the rasterised barn image in your layer palette and nothing else.

Open the Macro tab via View>Studio>Macro

Click the record button (red dot)

Create a new pixel layer via Layer>New Layer or click the chequerboard icon on the layer palette.

Fill with Primary Colour via Edit>Fill with Primary Colour.

Apply the Small Paint Spots procedural texture sub-preset you just made via Filters>Colours>Procedural Texture then Paint Patches Preset and Small Paint Spots sub-preset. Sub-presets are found by clicking on the presets drop-don list in the BOTTOM custom Inputs section.

Click Apply.

Go to Filters>Colours>Emboss – Radius 3px, Amount 100%, Monochrome – click Apply

Change the Layer blend mode to Overlay

Click the stop button on the Macro tab (little square).

Save the Macro as Watercolour Paper Texture 1 by clicking on the save as button (3 squares with + sign). I created a Textures category in my Macros library first – This is entirely up to you.

It should look something like this (close-up):

 

You now have a one-click watercolour paper texture for Affinity Photo!

 

Pre-paint Simplify Macro

This simple macro sets up a photo in readiness for further editing to make it look painterly by removing detail. It’s a little like the Watercolor filter in Photoshop.

Delete all layers apart from the Barn image layer.

Click the record macro button (red dot)

Duplicate layer

Change Layer blend mode to Colour

Select layer 1 below current

Filters>Sharpen> Unsharp Mask: Radius 8px, Factor 4, Threshold 0

Filters>Blur> Median Blur: Radius 8px

Repeat the Unsharp Mask and Median Blur three more times; you should have four sets of Unsharp Mask and Median Blur.

Filters>Unsharp Mask: Radius 1px, Factor 0.5, Threshold 0

Select Layer 1 above current

Layer>Merge Visible

Rename this layer to Prepaint.

Press the stop recording icon on the Macro tab.

Save this macro as Pre-pain Simplify.

It should look something like this (close-up):

 

Wet-in-Wet Effect Macro

Delete all layers apart from the Barn image layer.

There are a lot (47 I think) of steps to this macro, miss one and the effect won’t work properly, so go through it carefully.

 

Click the record macro button (red dot)

Duplicate layer

Filters>Blur>Minimum Blur 1

Filters>Blur>Maximum Blur 1

Select layer 1 below current

Layer>New Layer

Edit>Fill with Primary Colour

Filters>Colours>Procedural Texture>Procedural Texture - Paint Patches preset

Select Layer 1 Above Current

Filters>Distort>Displace> 40, Load map from layers beneath

Filters>Blur>Median Blur 4

Layer > Fade Median Blur 80%

Duplicate Layer

Set Layer blend mode to darken

Select Layer 1 below current

Filters>Blur>Minimum Blur Filter 1

Layer> Fade >Fade Minimum Blur 50%

Filters>Blur>Median Blur Filter 4

Filters>Distort>Displace> -40, Load map from layers beneath

Layer> Fade Displace 50%

Filters>Blur>Median Blur 2

Layer> Fade Median Blur 50%

Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur 4

Layer> Fade Gaussian Blur 50%

Filters>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask: Radius 3, Factor 1, Threshold 0%

Layer> Fade Unsharp Mask 50%

Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur 1

Filters>Blur>Median Blur 2.5

Filters>Distort>Displace> 30, Load map from layers beneath

Layer> Fade Displace 50%

Filters>Blur>Median Blur 2.5

Layer> Fade Median Blur 50%

Select Layer 1 Above Current

Filters>Blur>Gaussian blur 0.5

Layer> Fade Gaussian 30%

Filters>Blur>Median Blur 2px

Layer> Fade Median Blur 50%

Filters>Blur>Maximum blur 1px

Layer > Fade Maximum Blur 50%

Select Layer 1 below current

Filters>Distort>Displace> 10, Load map from layers beneath

Layer> Fade Displace 50%

Filters>Blur>Gaussian blur 0.5

Layer> Fade Gaussian 50%

Merge Visible

 

Rename this layer to Merged by clicking on the layer's name in the layer palette (for some reason you can't get the rename layer option by right-clicking on the layer or in the Layer menu).

Press the stop recording icon on the Macro tab.

Save this macro as Wet-in-Wet Effect.

Delete all layers apart from the original barn image.

Now we’re ready to create the wet-in-wet watercolour.

 

Wet-in-Wet Watercolour Using Macros

Run the Pre-Paint macro.

Run the Wet-in-Wet Effect macro. This will take some time – it’s got to run 47 steps.

Run the Watercolour Paper Texture macro.

 

The end result

 

NOTE: Some of the macros can be edited to change their effect. Right-click on the macro name and select Edit Macro. Any of the steps which have a cog wheel can be edited. Some will be limited, but things like the unsharp mask and blur filters can be fully edited. The only problem is that at the moment (Affinity Photo 1.9.2.1035 June 2021), you have to make your changes before pressing play and the result can’t be previewed.

 

 

[dmstraker]

Brilliant! Love the PT adjustments. Interesting use of blurs, too.

When starting from a stock photo, try:

1. File/New then just hit 'Create'. Doesn't matter what shape/size the canvas is.
2. Find and drag in image from Stock tab.
3. Document/Clip Canvas.
4. Layer/Rasterise.

The Clip Canvas will automatically resize the canvas to fit the image.

I'm guessing 'Fade' means reduce Opacity of layer.

If Median Blur is for edge-preserving blur, you could also try Bilateral Blur, which can give a bit better results for this.

[LionelD]

@RevTim:  Man, you’ve been busy!  This is very interesting, thanks.

[RevTim]

On 6/29/2021 at 3:16 PM, dmstraker said:

Brilliant! Love the PT adjustments. Interesting use of blurs, too.

When starting from a stock photo, try:

1. File/New then just hit 'Create'. Doesn't matter what shape/size the canvas is.
2. Find and drag in image from Stock tab.
3. Document/Clip Canvas.
4. Layer/Rasterise.

The Clip Canvas will automatically resize the canvas to fit the image.

I'm guessing 'Fade' means reduce Opacity of layer.

If Median Blur is for edge-preserving blur, you could also try Bilateral Blur, which can give a bit better results for this.

I'm sorry I've only just gor back to you. What a great tips! Thanks for those.

The Fade command isn't anything to do with layer opacity. After you have applied a filter, you go to the Layer menu and the top item will be "Fade (filter name)". You can then Fade the filter by any amount. I'm sorry for the confusion. I should have made it clear that when I say Layer> or Edit> I mean click on those menus as in Edit>Fill with primary colour, or Filters>Blur>etc.

 

[John Rostron]

@RevTim, another good tutorial. I must try out your textures soon.

A couple of typos:

You say 'name your category as Art Textures', then you later save as 'Paint Patches in the Art FX category'.

You say save the Pre-paint macro as 'Pre-pain'.

John

 

[RevTim]

"Pre-pain" macro😅 I wonder what a post-pain macro feels like. Honestly, I'm hopeless at spotting my own typos. I wrote a book about Christian spirituality. In it I quote Psalm 156 - Psalms only goes up to Psalm 150. And in a church magazine I was trying to quote a line from a Christmas carol which goes "... One is for God's people, in every age and day." Just before I hit "Print" I noticed I'd typed "One is for God's poodle." Just as well I spotted it, who knows, maybe he's a cat-person!

Thanks for picking up those.

Tim

[RevTim]

22 hours ago, John Rostron said:

@RevTim, another good tutorial. I must try out your textures soon.

A couple of typos:

You say 'name your category as Art Textures', then you later save as 'Paint Patches in the Art FX category'.

You say save the Pre-paint macro as 'Pre-pain'.

John

 

I still can't edit my older posts. I can happily edit my most recent posts, but I'm not getting "author" by my earlier ones. Frustrating!

[John Rostron]

I have just been trying out your textures and macros. On the whole it worked well. Here is the final image:

This is a guest house on Sark (Channel Islands) whwere we stayed on on our honeymoon 53 years ago this week. (The photo was actually taken three years ago.)

There were just a few problems:

Your first reference of where to find the Procefural Textures gives 'Edit > Fill with Primary Colour'.

In the Create Small Paint Spots sub-preset, for Noise Smoothness, you say use 40%. I took it that the cursor would be about 40% above the middle of the range. I saved the sub-preset OK.

However, when I tried to access this sub-preset when recording the macro, I could not find the sub-presert in the Preset Manager. I loaded the Paint Patches filter and modified the values (changing 20 to 200 etc).

In the Wet-in-wet macro steps, you say Edit > Fill with foreground colour. I presume this should be Edit with Primary Colour.

In the final steps of the Wet macro, you say Merge Visible, which works OK, then Rename this layer to Merged. This will not work. When I try to select this merged layer to rename it, it skips to selecting the original base layer. I had to rename the top layer after the macro closed.

Like @LionelD says, you've been busy. I am amazed at how you worked out all those steps!

John

[RevTim]

On 7/19/2021 at 11:31 AM, John Rostron said:

I have just been trying out your textures and macros. On the whole it worked well. Here is the final image:

This is a guest house on Sark (Channel Islands) whwere we stayed on on our honeymoon 53 years ago this week. (The photo was actually taken three years ago.)

There were just a few problems:

Your first reference of where to find the Procefural Textures gives 'Edit > Fill with Primary Colour'.

In the Create Small Paint Spots sub-preset, for Noise Smoothness, you say use 40%. I took it that the cursor would be about 40% above the middle of the range. I saved the sub-preset OK.

However, when I tried to access this sub-preset when recording the macro, I could not find the sub-presert in the Preset Manager. I loaded the Paint Patches filter and modified the values (changing 20 to 200 etc).

In the Wet-in-wet macro steps, you say Edit > Fill with foreground colour. I presume this should be Edit with Primary Colour.

In the final steps of the Wet macro, you say Merge Visible, which works OK, then Rename this layer to Merged. This will not work. When I try to select this merged layer to rename it, it skips to selecting the original base layer. I had to rename the top layer after the macro closed.

Like @LionelD says, you've been busy. I am amazed at how you worked out all those steps!

John

That's nicely done, John and thanks, as always, for the editorial notes. With regard to the issues you had with tutorial: Sub-presets are in the main PT dialogue. They are found by clicking on the presets drop-don list in the BOTTOM custom Inputs section. They are also renamed and deleted from here rather than the Preset Manager.
To rename a layer whilst making a macro, click on the layer's name in the layer palette (for some reason you can't get the rename layer option by right-clicking on the layer or in the Layer menu).

The problem I had with editing my posts has been fixed by the Affinity Team, so I have eidted the tutorial to try to make these issues clearer.

[John Rostron]

Thanks @RevTim, I will try and implement your suggestions.

John

[dmstraker]

On 7/18/2021 at 11:13 AM, RevTim said:

I'm sorry I've only just gor back to you. What a great tips! Thanks for those.

The Fade command isn't anything to do with layer opacity. After you have applied a filter, you go to the Layer menu and the top item will be "Fade (filter name)". You can then Fade the filter by any amount. I'm sorry for the confusion. I should have made it clear that when I say Layer> or Edit> I mean click on those menus as in Edit>Fill with primary colour, or Filters>Blur>etc.

 

Oh yes. Not looked at that before. Fade seems to be like Opacity but for just-applied destructive filter (and also allows Blend Modes). I very largely use non-destructive. But there are some destructive-only, so this can be useful.

Thanks!

[Steve1000]

Excellent work....can this be done on an Ipad?

[evtonic3]

I wish Affinity devs would just go the extra mile and add presets like these examples and call it a day and give us some sort of gallery of effects. I just think that it could be done. It would really allow for it to be used as a jumping off point to allow more creative workflows.