How do I add colour?

[harvester03]

I have been doing car designs on Affinity Designer for a while now, but have never seemed to have been able to colour them in using the fill tool. Any help?

Porsche 918 Spyder.afdesign

[MEB]

Hi harvester03,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

That's because you are using open paths to draw the lines. They may overlap and define a closed area visually but it's still made by independent lines not by closed shapes (that is a shape that starts and ends in the same node). So if you want to keep your drawing as vectors and be able to fill them you must use closed shapes.

 

For example the locking fuel cap in your drawing is a closed shape. You can select it and give it a fill colour (and a stroke colour if needed). However the two "shapes" inside it are composed by separated lines, not closed shapes - they cannot be filled unless you join the lines so they become closed shapes. In some cases you will have to use boolean operations (add, subtract shapes) to generate closed areas that can be filled or alternatively clip shapes inside other shapes.

 

For example: I've picked a line from the door and the car door handle line, duplicate both and moved to the bottom to create show how to create a closed shape for the handle from them. To do this i've closed the door line (with a straight line) and extended the door handle line to cross the main door line and closed it. Now, if you select both and click on the subtract boolean operation (note the main door shape is above the door handle shape) you will end up with a closed shape for the door handle (that can be filled and match exactly the main door line you have previously drawn (see attached file).

 

Porsche 918 Spyder MEB.afdesign

 

 

 

 

Alternatively you can convert the vector drawing into an image and use the Flood Fill Tool in Pixel Persona to fill the white areas.

To do this, select all lines, press ⌘ (cmd) + G to group them, then right-click on the group in the Layers panel and select Rasterise.... Then you can change to the Pixel Persona and use the Flood Fill Tool to fill the white areas.