Emperor

[DelN]

Emperor.

I did this in Affinity Photo 2.5 using my free 'Byzantium' Gold Brushes for Affinity Photo.

First, I created a background that I liked (although I changed it numerous times 😄) over which I then selected a gold brush from my gold brushes from my DEL Byzantium 01 Gold brush set to create a vertical gold line. Then I created a Pattern layer from it. I then created two horizontal lines with another gold brush, stretching them to make them thinner. I then created a Pattern layer of this too. I did a few random horizontal lines with various gold brushes and brought in an annulus (donut shape) that I had created previously in Affinity Photo (again, using the gold brushes I created) and added a drop shadow so that it popped forward a bit...

I found an image of a young man and masked out his face from the background, then applied a gold dot pattern over his hair. I selected an annulus from DEL Byzantium 02 Gold Annulus brush set, then stretched it using the Perspective and Mesh Warp tools (which are great, by the way!) to create a gold collar around his neck. I grabbed one of the gold vertical lines I had made and applied a texture to it, so that it looked distressed and rather old, then created an annulus from it, merging the layers and applying an emboss/3D effect to it. I stretched it using the Perspective and Mesh Warp tools to create the rest of the his collar/robe. I also used the annulus and put it at the back of the eye patch.

I outlined his lips with one of the gold brushes from DEL Byzantium 01 Gold brush set and filled them with gold glitter from the same brush set, then I created the gold eye patch (a bit Steampunk perhaps, but I really am only trying to see what I can produce using the 'Byzantium' Gold brushes and my imagination) using several annuli and overlaying them, applying drop shadows, 3D and bevel/emboss effects. I changed the colour of his right eye, added some shadow and a yellow colour to the left side of his face and applied a texture that I created (quite by accident), which turned out really organic and interesting, especially if layered over itself...

I used another gold annulus that I created a while back, sized it down and put it behind the 'Emperor' text. When I like an object that I create, I save it as a .png (transparent background) in case I want to bring it in again and re-use it. I have a whole library of images that I have removed the backgrounds from and saved as .pngs, and loads of gold objects since I started the 'Byzantium' series.

The text is just emboss/3D effect adjustment layer applied, with a gold effect added. I then made a duplicate of the text, selected it, filled it with a reddish brown colour taken from the background. Then I set the layer opacity to 80 percent...

So. A lot of layers, and a lot of fun... Oh, and a lot of time, although you don't really notice the time when you're having fun creating stuff in Affinity Photo... 😄😄😄

DelN