Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Am looking for good blender brushes...like Just add water


Recommended Posts

I am an old corel painter user.  I would love to make the switch to Affinity Photo and Designer.  It took me years to discover the two brushes in painter that "work" for me.  Not sure if there are any here with Corel Painter experience but if there are then the two brushes i am trying to emulate are 1, the Scratchboard tool and 2, the Just Add Water tool.  

 

So far I have not found a blending brush that seems to do much.  I know I am a complete newcomer to Affinity so i have my work cut out for me but i was hoping to maybe cut off some of the learning curve if someone here with experience in brush customization in Photo and/or Designer could give me some pointers in how to formulate some brushes that would give me the effects of those two Corel brushes.

 

I am attaching a sketch from Corel Painter that I did with only these two brushes.  All of the piece was done with only these two.  The sky is the sketchiest part and might show how these two brushes look.  I will go ahead tomorrow and try to do some simple brush stroke examples in painter that might better illustrate how those two brushes work with each other.  The sky actually has almost no blending with the Just Add Water brush...just scribbling with the Scrathboard brush.  The foam on the breaking wave around and behind the rocks has some of the blending.

 

Thanks for any help with this.  I love Affinity and have just bought both programs, Photo and Designer, and would love to retire both Corel painter and Adobe PS cc and do my work inside Affinity.

post-51885-0-28266900-1487225974_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks MEB...that page was a tremendous help.  I bought all and downloaded all the free ones.  I did quick dabbles with them but there weren't any that really seemed to pick up underlying color and "blend" it with the current selected color.  I will make a quick video with camtasia to show how the Just Add Water blender works in Corel Painter.

 

I know I can blend by reducing opacity and constantly selecting color mixes that slowly seem to reach the 50/50 of the two colors but it would be nice to just have one that picked up underlying color and mix it with the currently selected color.   Even Paolo said of his blender brushes that they "mimic" blending as in watercolor.

 

Does affinity provide the tools for customizing a real blender?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is a small .mov file ( I hope it uploads )  Showing the two brushes I use in corel painter.

 

First I just make strokes with the scratchboard tool.  Notice that when the stroke overlaps itself it goes much darker.  I do not need to release the mouse button (or in my case, lift the stylus to begin a new stroke) in order for the stroke to go darker until it reaches 100% opacity.  I like that as it allows me to sketch quicker.  The opacity is pressure sensitive also and size so I can get variations on stroke width, tapering.

 

Then I choose the Just Add Water brush  and go over the strokes.  This is also varied by pen pressure.

 

I would love to find something inside of Affinity that could replicate this effect.

 

thanks for any help with this.

Untitled Project.mov

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I looked at the "just add water" Corel brush type. The brush form appears to be both a blending mode and a smear mode at the same time. In AD, I'm not seeing anything like that at present. No smear parameter in the brushes.

iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb,  AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb

iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil

Huion WH1409 tablet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I suspect Photo might suit you needs better than Designer, which is what I'm using. There is a liquify persona.

 

Nevertheless. When in Designer pixel persona, any time using a paint brush, there is an option in the tool context bar to set the blend mode. Normal, screen. add, subtract average, and more than a dozen others.

 

The smearing effect that mushes the pixels together must be done separately, which is in no way spontaneous.

iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb,  AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb

iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil

Huion WH1409 tablet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.