How to paint Landscape/ grasses

[Digbydo 2]

I have several images of Rhinos, Elephants, Wild Boars & the like but  where they are standing looks awful… all lacking vaa-va-voom  feeling.  So-oooh  I'd like to paint a more suitable landscape image and then palace said Rhino in the image & then adjust colours and tone to match.  I'm okay with the finial adjustments butI  just don't know where to begin or what steps I should take to begin painting the actual landscape.  Any help, steps to take or pointers to good tutorials on the subject would be wonderful.  I have both Affinity photo & Designer but know less about Designer than photo.  Thanks for any help given

[carl123]

13 minutes ago, Digbydo 2 said:

 So-oooh  I'd like to paint a more suitable landscape image and then palace said Rhino in the image & then adjust colours and tone to match

Rather than paint a landscape why not just download interesting ones from the internet and place said Rhino in that image (adjusting tones, colours, shadows, etc to match)

[PaulEC]

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

why not just download interesting ones from the internet

At the risk of being APITA, it would be nice not to use any copyrighted images! Maybe use the Stock panel and search Pexels or Pixabay. 😉

[Digbydo 2]

Yes, I know I can download interesting ones from the internet and place the Rhino in it but that's not what I want to do So, if you have a look at the the attached image this is what set me off down this "can I do it?" path & I want to give it give it a go, give it my best shot but dunno where to start.🤷🏻‍♂️  The artist who made this image (Jai Johnson of http://www.dailytexture.com )painted all of the foreground and background. She used Procreate to create but I do not have Procreate nor do I wish to get it because I think it can all be done in Affinity (either Photo or Designer) I'm working on an iMac & I just wanted to know what is the best way to go about it  ~ Again thanks for any help given.

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, Digbydo 2 said:

I'd like to paint a more suitable landscape (…) I  just don't know where to begin or what steps I should take to begin painting the actual landscape.

Manual painting always is a matter of habits and personal preferences. So there are many ways leading to Rome. For instance:

1. Start with a sketch to define the composition:
• Pencil on physical paper is often the easiest & fastest way.
• Choose a perspective / horizont level (should it fit to the existing animal images?)
There does not have to be a horizont within the image, e.g. if it is virtually above the painting it would give an impression of a birds perspective.
• Make decisions about objects (number, size and positions of sand, gras, bushes, trees, hills, mountains, river, sky, clouds, etc).

2. Make up your mind about a style + light.
• realistic, naive, abstract, ... | vivid colourful, pale, dark, sunny, ... | rich or pur of contrasts in colour/brightness, …
• A rough result in mind makes creation a lot easier.
• Often a mental idea / visual mind is a condition to be able to do something 'useful' at all.
• The idea can be made up from scratch or can be inspired by existing pictures.
• It can help to 'analyse' how existing paintings are done:
– What painted the artist first, what seemed to come later?
– How are details treated? Do they show fill only or additionally contours / strokes around fills?

3. Start painting with 1 or a few roughly shaped background fill colors (ground, sky, topography).

4. Add details step by step. Paint large shapes first, go to details afterwards.
• Think in layers:
• Details get painted on top of an objects background.
• Objects in front have to be in the Layer Panel close to the top (this avoids the need to erase or mask parts of it).

[Digbydo 2]

Thank you Thomas for all the considerations I should give to the idea & I totally get that part of it but I'm still unsure how to commence .  Do I just open up a blank pixel layer and then using a paint brush start adding in details like the Sky Clouds and the like & gradually bit by bit build up the image until I get to doing the grasses at the front?

[thomaso]

Yes. Whereas it's up to you to add additional layers at any time. Using several layers gives more flexibility to edit certain parts separately, without the need to mask them before. For instance for your lion image above you could start with a bottom layer for the blurry brushed background and paint the grass on a separate layer. This enables you to add the lion in between back- and foreground.

Additionally you have the choice to combine pure pixel layers with vector brushes and/or vector shapes. If you aren't experienced in using Affinity I guess the best is to start with some trials first to see how various tools work and differ.

There are many tutorials around, not only video. Here for instance a text based description + screenshots:
https://www.isabelaracama.com/post/design-a-landscape-illustration-affinity-designer-tutorial

[firstdefence]

4 hours ago, Digbydo 2 said:

Thank you Thomas for all the considerations I should give to the idea & I totally get that part of it but I'm still unsure how to commence .  Do I just open up a blank pixel layer and then using a paint brush start adding in details like the Sky Clouds and the like & gradually bit by bit build up the image until I get to doing the grasses at the front?

Do you have a tablet and stylus or are you going to try this with a mouse?

[Digbydo 2]

I've just had a very quick look at your suggested link and although I haven't read the whole thing it seems its exactly what I'm after so thank you, thank you, thank you!  I don't think I would ever have found it.  Thanks for sticking with me and for ALL of your advise and tips .  really appreciate it. 👍

[Digbydo 2]

firstdefence  ~ I'm currently just working with an iMac & a Mouse but I'm already thinking if I have any success at all then I'll probably invest in a Wacom type of tablet thingy

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, Digbydo 2 said:

I've just had a very quick look at your suggested link and although I haven't read the whole thing it seems its exactly what I'm after

Just saw this one, if you prefer pixel brushes this may be more informative about use of brush and layers. The first screenshots could also show an African landscape…

https://www.isabelaracama.com/post/https-www-isabelaracama-com-post-pixel-persona-brushes-painting-exercise

[Digbydo 2]

Once again thomaso a brilliant link ~ Thank You Ever-so-much.  

[firstdefence]

13 hours ago, Digbydo 2 said:

firstdefence  ~ I'm currently just working with an iMac & a Mouse but I'm already thinking if I have any success at all then I'll probably invest in a Wacom type of tablet thingy

You will find a tablet and stylus will give you a natural experience as if using a pencil/pen/brush, especially with drawing in pixel persona. They can take a bit of getting used to but stick with it if you get one and your artwork will get better and the pleasure of drawing will increase.

[jmwellborn]

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. . . . ."  Good advice, but I didn't take it.  With zero artistic ability, a tremor in my left hand (my writing hand) and a mouse that I use with my right hand, I thought it would be fun to experiment.  I started in Photo with my image of the lions.  Then used the Selection Brush tool to remove them from their original background.  Then added a rectangle, filled with a background colour, which I placed underneath the lion selection layer.  Then created several new pixel layers (one at a time, as I fiddled with new paint colours and brushes) and used several shading brushes (and really went wild with the Smudge Brush Tool).  I flipped back and forth between Photo and Designer to try to make some convincing grass with some vector brushes.  Major flop!  Back to Photo to make a selection of the heads of the two lions, which I placed on top of the entire thing in order to try to make them peer out of the fog.  

Anyway, with a dolt like me messing around and achieving this very amateurish result, just think what you @Digbydo 2 can do!!  As long as you keep putting stuff on individual layers, so you can quickly change or replace something, you should be on your way!

 

[StuartRc]

Hi

I was sure that I had uploaded a set of brushes for creating grass effects somewhere!... I believe they in the brush sets created after 'Poison'. But I had to check!

It was a log time ago!

They do not appear in the Brush Library list as I sort of disconnected them when updating some of the sets....!#@ to concentrate on Project Brushes

The Demo Sets are in this thread here

The old brush sets (version 01) are still available in Resources (vector and Raster) if you want to try them Here They are just not very visible...you may need to reduce the accumulation and flow jitters down in brush dynamics as they worked a little less effectively in AD 1.7...

 

[Digbydo 2]

This is a big BIG thanks to jmwellborn  for taking me through all his hits and misses but in the end proving that what I was after truly can be done in Affinity Photo ~ also Another Big thanks to StuartRc for his lead to some brushes to try out.  Its late at night and I'm just picking up these messages but wanted to say thanks to both of you for helping me along the way ~ Thanks again!

[Old Bruce]

19 hours ago, Digbydo 2 said:

This is a big BIG thanks to jmwellborn  for taking me through all his hits and misses ...

Her.