Why can I not paint on a layer in Affinity Photo?

[LeviA 5]

Why can I not paint in Affinity Photo?

It is as if the program does not register that I am putting a black paint stroke on a layer...or any other color stroke for that matter.

[R C-R 3,224]

Do you have a pixel layer selected when you are painting?

[RNKLN 86]

I had this experience too. Found out via the forum that you may have to Rasterize an image layer first.

[Alfred 4,275]

If you try to paint on an 'Image' layer, shouldn't the Assistant automagically rasterize it? :unsure:

[MEB 7,403]

Hi Alfred,

That depends on the tool. Currently some will do it automatically for you, others don't.

[Alfred 4,275]

Thanks for pointing that out, Miguel. I guess I shouldn't have assumed that "paint" meant using the Paint Brush Tool!

[Sam Murray-Sutton 0]

I am having this issue as well. Running rasterize on the layer doesn't seem to make any difference. Some non-obvious config issue perhaps? I have seen various posts about this issue from new users and no-one seems to have the definitive answer. 

[MEB 7,403]

Hi Sam Murray-Sutton,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Any chance you can record a clip of the app showing what you are doing (with layers panel visible)?

If you could also attach the file used here it would also help. Thanks.

[pixeldroid 9]

One cause can be the opacity of the chosen color.  This is separate from the opacity of the brush itself - it is set in the color picker.  If it is 0, the brush will paint nothing.

Another is that if you hit "b" more than once you will change the tool...

[KathleenM 2]

I have the same problem. I assume it is operator error because it only does this intermittently, I just wish I knew what I was doing wrong because this is killing me during my rush work!  I made a video to show what I'm doing -- I have covered all the steps right? Oh -- one thing not shown in the video is that there is nothing selected, but the result is the same if I first draw a marquee to select an area of the empty layer. Help!!

Here's that video:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/3pz1brs1flum6az/cantPaintOnLayer.mp4?dl=0 

[KathleenM 2]

I found it! I found it!!

I had the "Protect Alpha" checkbox on (see the upper-right area on your workspace. Having that checked on prevents you from painting on a transparent area.