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Cartoon Drawing in Affinity Designer


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I have been using Affinity Designer for a little over a year now, so I will teach my style to the people on the forum. There are of course many ways to draw, but this will cover a cartoon style. I will teach the style I used originally, and I will teach the style I use now. With the new brush stabilisers implemented in Designer 1.6, I decided to begin a brand new approach, but I will explain what I did for my original style first.

 

Original Style

 

For all of the line work, I used the Pen Tool, because curves created by the Pencil Tool and Brush Tool were too jagged and could not continue lines. However, the Pen Tool does not allow free control, so creating a character entirely from scratch is certainly a challenge. You will need to start smaller.

 

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Above is a long but particulate example. You are probably aware that there are both vector and pixel tools in the program, so I decided to first start off with pixel tools. (In the Brushes tab in the Pixel Persona, I used "Size 2" under the "Assorted" category and with the "Force Pressure" button toggled on.) Before starting the actual character design, Angie, I wanted to have a pose thought out, because drawing a character from scratch in an particular pose may not always be accurate. Therefor, I started out with a figure, then I traced it with a rough sketch, then I used the Pen Tool for the line work but I had to figure how to close each path, and then finally I added coloring.

 

Figure

 

Creating the figure is the same as just creating basic shapes for a simple guideline, but you still have to be accurate. You cannot make the head larger than the body or have arms rotated in a position that does not make sense. Even though you are just making basic shapes, you are still bound to mess up, so rather than create each shape in one stroke, do so in several sketchy strokes. To make a simple circle, for example, sketch lightly in a round motion. If you mess up, sketch a little darker right over the messed up region.

 

Rough Sketch

 

Now that there is a main figure, you can use it as a main guideline for drawing your character design. It is okay to draw out of figure's boundaries. Just don't make things too simplistic. While it is not necessarily the case here, a good character has different features on each part of the body. With female hair, for example, there can be the front bang, side bang, and upper hair. If you can figure out a way to divide these three features, then you are on the right track. Also, as you sketch over your figure, you may think to add a little more details than regular shapes. For the Angie's shirt, there are two lines below the breasts which crisscross to indicate a fold in the fabric. Rather than having the shirt in a regular square shape, it sticks out towards the bottom. Other lines were added to indicate the fold.

 

Line Work

 

Now we will trace the rough sketch exactly with the Pen Tool, but we have to do so in closed regions. This time, we cannot leave the boundaries. While you don't have to do it this way, I divided each body part in its own layer (from top to bottom: Glasses, Top Hair, Head, Shirt, Shorts, Arms, Legs, Back Hair). The reason I did it this way is in case I wanted to change something. Maybe I wasn't happy with the shirt design, and I wanted to replace another shirt on her. If she were wearing long sleeves originally and I wanted to give her short sleeves instead, then that would mean I would have to extend her arms since they would have originally ended at the palms of her hands.

 

Coloring

 

As long as the paths are closed, then coloring is very easy. Just select each path you want to add color to, and add color to the fill. There are also different shading features such as clipping other objects or pixel layers. For this, I used gradients and a 3D effect. If you do use gradients and if you divided each body part in separate layers, then just be careful. The "Top Hair" layer is not actually closed because there is an open region on the bottom with the "Back Hair" layer behind it. If you use the gradients, make sure they smooth out.

 

Working with basic shapes first and then getting into the character designs do really help.

 

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It is also okay to go and change change your finished design. Such features here like the hair and legs have been slightly modified.

 

 

 

New Style

 

The above style, although is very particulate, does take a really long time, and that can delay production. With the new brush stabilisers, I feel very confident to draw with the Pencil Tool now. While it does not continue paths like with the Pen Tool, we can work around that. We will also never be expanding our line work for in case we need to make adjustments such as change the shape or size. We will also be drawing with more free control (open paths). If you feel you need to create a sketch figure before jumping into the vector tools, that is okay, but you will not need to create a rough sketch this time unless it helps you.

 

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Vector Eraser Alternative

 

I did say that we won't be expanding our line work, so we cannot use the boolean operations. And it wouldn't make sense to use the Pixel eraser, so how the heck will we be able to erase our lines? The answer is, with the node operations. We have three powerful options when the Node Tool or Pen Tool is selected in the "Action" category, and those options are Break Curve, Close Curve, and Join Curves. These three things can really go toward our advantage, especially since joining curves will take the ends of the multiples curves and close the ends which are closest to each other. I forgot that when I used Illustrator, I never actually used the Eraser Tool on the line work because it always deformed the shape. If I could've, I would've.

 

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Here is an example. King Dino's tomahawk has a squiggly line that needs to be removed, but it is part of a closed shaped. To do that, add a node where the squiggly line starts and click "Break Curve," then add another node where the squiggly line ends and click "Break Curve," again. The squiggly line is now its own shape, so you can go on and delete it. Now, you can select the remaining part of the object and select "Close Curve." Now let's say that the stick to the tomahawk was originally an open path. That means breaking the curve would convert it to two different shapes. So rather than closing it with the "Close Curve" button, you will use the "Join Paths" option. Do not forget just how important those node operations are.

 

Coloring

 

Since the new style was done in open paths, the coloring technique will have to be different than the way explained above. First organize your artwork in two separate layers, Line Work and Color. The Line Work layer must be above the Color layer. Now there are several ways to color in your artwork.

 

A) Pen Tool

This is probably the most common way to do it, but it may not always be the fastest way depending on the example. This means to draw a path around the closed region of your drawing to create a closed path.

 

B) Brush Tool

Depending on how small the close region is, use the Brush Tool to color in your artwork. It helps to brush around the edges first and then fill in the remaining area. After you fill in the region, select all of those brush strokes either on the canvas or in the Layers panel, and expand them in the "Layer" menu. Then click the first option in the boolean operations to add them as one object.

 

C) Node Operations

Depending on how large the drawing is, some times both the Pen Tool and Brush Tool will not work well for coloring. Select each curve that makes up a closed region (holding shift to select multiple curves), and copy them to your Color layer. Hide the Line Work layer. For the torn up cape in the second drawing of King Dino, imagine what the closed fill would have to look like and what nodes would need to be added and removed. Again, use the "Break Curve, Add Curve, and Join Curves" options. At the end, be sure to remove your stroke and just keep the fill. For the torn holes in the cape, you will need to copy and paste those curves separately, break, add, and join paths as appropriately, and then subtract them from the main cape object.

 

I hope this tutorial has been helpful for you.

 

NEW: Fast Shading

There are multiple ways to add shading such as clipping vectors, adding gradients, and using pixel brushes. However, these techniques require you to add shading to each object individually. If you would rather add shading to multiple objects all at once, a new technique is to use a mask. This video will show an example.

 

 

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Edit:

I'm aware of the emoji, but it just won't remove.

 

solution.gif Copy the text from the line below. There's a zero-width space between the 'B' and the ')', preventing it from being interpreted as a smiley shortcut.

 

B​)

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Thanks, Alfred. I didn't realize I typed the code for a smiley.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Why would you realize, Brian? It's one of the silliest smiley shortcuts out there: a similar problem persists on CommunityPlus, where '8)' is treated the same way, so anyone typing parenthetical remarks such as "(on Windows 8)" or "(using DrawPlus X8)" gets the same undesirable outcome. Since we already have shortcuts like :​lol: and :​unsure: it would make sense to use :​cool: for the sunglasses.

 

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Cheers bleduc, lots of great information there and a nice cartoon style as well. Very well explained. It's always interesting to see how other people go about creating stuff, it never hurts to learn something new. Thanks!

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so anyone typing parenthetical remarks such as "(on Windows 8)" or "(using DrawPlus X8)" gets the same undesirable outcome.

 

I can see that getting pretty frustrating. Oh well.

 

Cheers bleduc, lots of great information there and a nice cartoon style as well. Very well explained. It's always interesting to see how other people go about creating stuff, it never hurts to learn something new. Thanks!

 

Thank you. Drawing styles seem to be the largest type of tutorial that interests me. Knowing the tools is one thing, but knowing a style is another.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Brian, that's a nice give-back to the forum, thanks. I remember the earlier posts you made when creating Angie and looking for the best methods to pen shapes, layer them for exposure or not, and to hide crossover spots. You have really progressed!

 

BTW, one question I have for your text is about fills: How do you decide when to just use fill for the shape vs when to use brushes? Does it have anything to do with fills allow you to add additional fills on top with transparency gradients for shadows/highlights? Or is it a texture thing, or what?

 

Oh, another: What is the outlook for Angie? A comic book? A one-frame cartoon? A newspaper-type 4-frame comic? A web site ad-filled blog thingy?

♥  WIN 10 AD & AP  ♥  Lenovo Legion Y520 15.6" Laptop

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Thank you for your interest and support, Jer.

 

BTW, one question I have for your text is about fills: How do you decide when to just use fill for the shape vs when to use brushes? Does it have anything to do with fills allow you to add additional fills on top with transparency gradients for shadows/highlights? Or is it a texture thing, or what?

 

That is just explaining different ways to add fills to open shaped objects. It wasn't implied for shading as well, but the first and second method can be used for that as well if the objects are clipped. If you have a small region to fill up, you can use the brush. If you have a long region but close to horizontal, you can use the pen. In large or complex regions, you can use the node operations.

 

Once the feature to convert pixel selections to vector objects comes around, that will mark a fourth technique. That may work out better than all others, but the Selection Brush Tool can be a bit too sensitive at times.

 

Oh, another: What is the outlook for Angie? A comic book? A one-frame cartoon? A newspaper-type 4-frame comic? A web site ad-filled blog thingy?

 

I've been working on a children's comic book called Angie and the Knuckleheads for quite some time now. She is a babysitter who takes kids on a trip but she then gets lost. I'm taking a rest from it actually since I've been spending too long of time on it. I'm working on a coloring book instead now, but I'll try to finish the Angie comic afterwards. I plan for it to be at least 50 pages with 8 or more panels on each page. After completion, I want to sell both the comic and coloring book on Lulu.com.

 

Here is a sneak peek of the Angie cast.

 

 

 

angie_characters_sneak_peek_by_leduc_gal

 

 

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Wow! That is a cast of characters! With personalities identified too. Excellent cartooning job! Good luck with the coloring book side of it.

♥  WIN 10 AD & AP  ♥  Lenovo Legion Y520 15.6" Laptop

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Bleduc: two more lines and you would have had a book ready for publication. I'll study this when I'm back from holiday. Thanks.

Affinity Photo - Affinity Designer - Affinity Publisher | macOS Sonoma (14.2) on 16GB MBP14 2021 with 2.4 versions

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Wow! That is a cast of characters! With personalities identified too. Excellent cartooning job! Good luck with the coloring book side of it.

 

Thanks, man!

 

Bleduc: two more lines and you would have had a book ready for publication. I'll study this when I'm back from holiday. Thanks.

 

I'm glad you will consider it. By the way, what do you mean by two more lines? If you mean dialogue, then I've got a much longer way than that. Haha.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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I just meant to say that the tutorial was quite comprehensive and came close to being a book. The 'two lines' was just an arbitrary number.

Affinity Photo - Affinity Designer - Affinity Publisher | macOS Sonoma (14.2) on 16GB MBP14 2021 with 2.4 versions

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  • 1 month later...

Hello again. I hope it's okay that I'm necroposting. I have some news to share. As I was working on my art, I figured out a new technique on shading. I updated the original post and added a video for those interested. It's a way to add shading without having to edit each object individually.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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I'm so happy it helps you, Water Walker. Let me know if there is anything you need help with.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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OMG a fellow cartoonist.. Love you're style you have a vast amount of Characters, Cool. And you art is AWESOME...

Did you ever consider using the Width too to give you're characters lines a little more edge ? It does wonders for my Cartoon Character Crystal Frost.

And did you also consider colouring the Lines too? That works wonders And helped me in my art. Here are a few Examples of my character Crystal Frost..

Crystal Frost is a one of a Kind character i created. Here is a little bit about her life.......

Before Ember became the Dragon Lord and after Luna was Banished to the moon By her Sister Celestial.

Crystals mother is a Earth pony, Her Father is a Dragon. And here is a little brief information about her parents, please be patient it’s a work in process. Give it time i will get more in detail about their stories.

I first got inspired when in the MLP FIM TV Series Twilight Quoted that ‘Ponies know very little about dragons because, they were too afraid and scared of them’’

So I thought what about if one pony was saved by a dragon, their bond grew into a relationship.  However considering the fear ponies have of dragons, and that dragons despise ponies, they chose to meet in secret. Throught  this time she tells her dragon love she is with foal (Expecting) knowing they could no longer go back to their own home, they both decide to leave, and journey deeper into the out lands  not knowing what dangers and perils await them. This is just a brief part of the story. I will get more into detail.

i have other plans example, like when her mother goes into labour, the foal hybrid dragon is born, however due to the birthing complications the mother does not survive, leaving the  father dragon on his own to care for their newborn hybrid daughter. This is Tragic considering he Just lost the love of his life, however his newborn daughter gives him a purpose to continue  on.  He faces new challenges into raising a young foal hybrid dragon. And so this continues on to spin a new epic story line ;)

Years past and Crystal Frost, grows into a beautiful  elegant pony hybrid dragon . With her love to fly and especially under a moon lit sky, this creates a new challenge for her father who will do anything to keep her safe from harm.

Ember is now the The New Dragon Lord, and with her truce with the ponies of esquestria, this sparked anger and outrage in the dragon kingdom, many dragons get together in secret and plot to over throw her from the kingdom, and plan an all out war with the ponies to teach them a lesson, to stay out of the dragon way of life.   

Twilight and her friends, got lost in the out lands and stumbled across Crystal Frost, only to be attacked by her dragon father, who only is trying to protect his daughter from outsiders, whom he feels just won’t understand .

With the discovery of a new hybrid pony/dragon.  Twilight is so overwhelmed with a mountain of questions, Example  ‘’are there more out there?’’

This new discovery gives spike hope that maybe he will have a chance with Rarity, Whom he has a Major Crush on ;)

Phoenix Fire Story.....

this is a new character I been working on lately, His name is Phoenix Fire. He is Pegasus who has been abandon at the steps of the Manehatten Orphanage. As he grew up around other orphaned ponies ( earth, Pegasus, and unicorns.) he became fascinated with unicorns and their magic. He wanted so badly to learn how to make and create magic. With his desire to be as magical as the unicorns he got teased to pieces at the orphanage, with his obsession in magic and no desire to learn how to fly, he was undesired to potential adopted couples. Whom consider him to be way too odd wired and strange. He spent his entire life growing up in the orphanage, till one day he, herd the conversation of the caretakers talking abut him, taking their discussion the wrong way, he felt he was no longer wanted, so late one night he left the orphanage, as he ventures out beyond Manehattan and into the unknown forests outside equestrian, He comes across some dragons, stealing eggs from a phoenix nest, he confronts them and demands they put the eggs back, the dragons laugh and tosses it high in the air, Phoenix tried to fly after it, however never learning how to fly impairs him form catching the eggs in the air. So he tries really hard to use magic that he learned, All of a sudden the eggs started to glow and float in the air, he himself noticed being lifted from the ground, and suddenly a glow of Golden light shone in the night sky, the dragons blinded by the glow decided to leave, and look for other places to stir trouble. Later Phoenix woke up to find the Eggs near the shore of the water unharmed, and as he reached out to get the eggs he saw his reflection in the moonlit water, he had a horn just like the unicorns, he was surprised and shocked. He still had his wings, and now has a horn. He became the first Colt Alcorn.

I also plan to intertwine his storyline with Crystal Frost storyline This is when they are both older, of course.

Phoenix will have his own stores about life in the orphanage.

Crystal will have her own stories, as well.

I plan to have both Crystal and Phoenix meet each other when they are older. And with Crystals father being so overprotective, it creates a challenge for the two to become friend and who knows...

 

My first Effort in writing a descriptive story around Crystal and her Dragon Father Skylar...

The sun rising in the east, shone a ray of bright orange light, awakening Crystal, she stretches and lets out a big yawn. As her eyes start to focus on her surroundings, a bright blue flower growing near the rock captures her interest, she leans over to try an grab it with her mouth. only to loose balance, slip off, and tumbles to the ground.
The commotion woke her father, Skyler.  ''Morning already, well I better fetch our breakfast.'' a loud rumble echo's off in the distance, looking up, he notices some dark clouds, forming in the sky. "Looks like a storm is coming. ''
Crystal got up, shook the leaves from her mane, all of a sudden, a cricket jumped out of her hair. and hopped to the ground. She stooped down her tail up in the air wagging, she leaps to try and catch the cricket in her hoofs, only for the cricket was fast and hopped in time to get out of her reach.  
''Crystal, we have to go'' skyler says in a serious stern voice to his daughter.
Crystal frown, she really wanted to catch the cricket.  Leaving the bug behind, she quickly follows her father. The cricket watches the two disappear into the woods and hops off to follow them.
As they journey deep into the woods, they come across a river,
''This looks like a perfect place to catch some salmon.'' Skyler looks back at Crystal, chewing on some Dandy lions that grew from the Ground.
''Crystal Stay here by the Shore, I'm going to catch our Breakfast. Do not wander off.'' skyler said as he walked into the river.
Crystal, slunk down, on the wet grassy ground, near the river, wishing she had someone to play with. Looking up, watching her father, standing still, not making a sound waiting for just the right moment to strike, and catch a fish.
hop, Hop, HOP.
That sounded familiar, She perked up her ears, and HOP, the cricket hoped right on her nose, so excited she tried to be still and reach her hoofs out to catch the cricket, however as soon as she moved the cricket leaped off her nose and back on the ground. Excited to have the cricket back, she follows the cricket determined to catch the bug.
The cricket, trying to get away, decides to hop on the rocks, trailing out to the deeper end of the river. Crystal tried to leap after it, she was so determined to catch the cricket. She did not notice the water looking deeper and the current getting stronger. She makes a big leap to the last rock far out. looses her balance, and falls into the river,  in panic and fear, she scrambles to try and get back to shore, splashing frantically and crying, she gets swept away in the current.
Splash, Splash, Spash. ''This got to be my best catch yet.'' Skyler grinned as he Retrieved from the river. 5 fish, jump around in the tall wet grass, trying to make their way back to the water.
“Crystal,’’ Skyler cried out. There was no answer.
“Where did she go now.’’ Skyler mutters to himself, looking in the direction he last left her. He finds the flat patch of grass, and follows his daughters hoof print tails.
As the hoof print grass trail ends it continues into the shallow end of the river, He lifts up his head and notices a trail of rocks with wet hoof prints. He quickly takes to the air, and flies close to get a better view, he finds a cricket stranded on the last rock.
‘’Oh no,’’ fear consumes him as he realizes his daughter, has been taken by the current. He flies off to follow the river rapids.
Kaboom The sound of thunder Echo’s the sky, covered by dark grey clouds, giving the illusion of night, with lightening the only light to see by. A huge gust of wind grabs Skyler, and slings him out of the sky, he loses control and falls though thick trees, hitting and breaking branches as he lands with a thud to the ground. Rain starts to pour from the sky. Soaked by the rain, A few bruises on his body, blood dripping from his cuts, Skyler gets up, coming to his senses, its far to unsafe to fly. He races by foot, off to try find and follow the river rapids. Thunder booming, rain pouring, lightening flashing, as he disappears off to look for his lost daughter.
The pouring rain, comes to a slow down. The dark clouds move on in the distance, the sound of thunder growing faint as the storm starts to break up, as the lightening comes to and end, the sky growing brighter, as the sun tries to peak through the clouds.
A strange creature, comes up to the surface, holding on her back, the small earth pony dragon hybrid. She swims close to shore. Splish, splish, splish, Plop. She drops the hybrid near shallow end of lake. Turns back to the lake, Splish Shipsh, Splish. I loud Splash is herd, As the creature retires to the bottom of the lake

I did not mean to hijack you post, Just wanted to shear my Cartoon vision with you, and provide some friendly advice that helps advance art...  Share some Stories and Art with you as well.

From One Cartoonist to another, I want to thank you for sharing you're skills with us all and we all wish you great success in the path you choose to take with Your Creative Genius. Hugs RaphLuna feel to see more of my art. In DivantArt under RaphLuna  http://raphluna.deviantart.com/gallery/ 

You must all let us know when you work is complete, I'm looking forward to seeing more of your characters and reading their adventures. Hugs..

Chello.thumb.png.4b65254d234278a455a98909f2446b67.pngdance.thumb.jpg.8e9161b1c3101bd7d9635f71d02bbb92.jpg

Skyler

 

Blossom Flower Crystal Frost Mother

 

WaterFall

 

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12 hours ago, RaphLuna said:

OMG a fellow cartoonist.. Love you're style you have a vast amount of Characters, Cool. And you art is AWESOME...

Did you ever consider using the Width too to give you're characters lines a little more edge ? It does wonders for my Cartoon Character Crystal Frost.

And did you also consider colouring the Lines too? That works wonders And helped me in my art.

 

Thank you. I am glad you appreciate my art. Width tool? While there are ways to adjust the profile of the line, there is not one in Affinity Designer. And that is the the program I used after all. And yes, coloring the lines is a common art principle. For me, it varies on the cartoon. For Angie and the Knuckleheads, I use gradients for the coloring. For The Skater Kids, I use gaussian blurs.

 

Sneak Peek:

5985c82569d8f_TheSkaterKids.thumb.png.fee82821415e3e7dc950c79a793ad5ee.png

 

So I try to change the style depending on the story I'm presenting. I also have a young super hero character who is a baby named Baby Pan. He ventures with a pan on his head and in his underwear. Since the story is made to be more cute and funny, I think that might be the one to use your style. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

You make really good art as well, and I can tell you have a lot going on with story elements. Nice work.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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8 hours ago, Bri-Toon said:

Thank you. I am glad you appreciate my art. Width tool? While there are ways to adjust the profile of the line, there is not one in Affinity Designer. And that is the the program I used after all. And yes, coloring the lines is a common art principle. For me, it varies on the cartoon. For Angie and the Knuckleheads, I use gradients for the coloring. For The Skater Kids, I use gaussian blurs

I just made a tutorial on how to use the Width tool in affinity designer.. here is link. This will help everyone who are looking in achieving Width line AWSOMENESS.. ;)

It is so easy to use these tool to widen the lines, even if I mess up they have an undo, and I can try again... Its not only AWSOME its EPIC. Width lines is doable in Affinity designer.

 

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Okay. I am aware you can do that in Designer, and it does come very useful. When you said, "tool," I thought maybe you were thinking of one from the Toolset. Illustrator has a tool called the Width Tool, so I thought that's what you were thinking of. My mistake. That option does come handy, doesn't it?

 

And yay! I finished my drawing.

 

 

 

The Skater Kids.png

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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  • 1 month later...
On 30/05/2017 at 4:28 PM, Bri-Toon said:

post-27616-0-98753300-1496154329_thumb.png

 

Here is an example. King Dino's tomahawk has a squiggly line that needs to be removed, but it is part of a closed shaped. To do that, add a node where the squiggly line starts and click "Break Curve," then add another node where the squiggly line ends and click "Break Curve," again. The squiggly line is now its own shape, so you can go on and delete it. Now, you can select the remaining part of the object and select "Close Curve." Now let's say that the stick to the tomahawk was originally an open path. That means breaking the curve would convert it to two different shapes. So rather than closing it with the "Close Curve" button, you will use the "Join Paths" option. Do not forget just how important those node operations are.

 

 

I would do it differently:

  1. select the path (which shows you the nodes it contains)
  2. drag a selection area rectangle around the nodes that make up the squiggly line (this selects the nodes within the area)
  3. press the delete key to remove just those selected nodes

No need to break or join or close.

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42 minutes ago, matt said:

I would do it differently:

  1. select the path (which shows you the nodes it contains)
  2. drag a selection area rectangle around the nodes that make up the squiggly line (this selects the nodes within the area)
  3. press the delete key to remove just those selected nodes

No need to break or join or close.

 

I missed this, way back when. For what it's worth, @matt has described exactly how I would do it.

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That does sound like a better way to do that. I can't remember, but I think I was unaware of selecting multiple nodes by a bounding box at the time of creating this topic. However, that was more of a way to get people familiar that the node operations can substitute for an eraser tool. There might be cases when breaking curves are needed. Let's say the tomahawk is bendable, and you need to draw it bending. In that case, it might be better off redrawing areas.

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19 hours ago, matt said:

Maybe, I can't remember the last time I broke a path, I always prefer to move nodes. But each to their own! :) 

 

If you have an unclosed path and you want to split it into two or more paths, then (in the absence of an Eraser Tool or a Knife Tool) I can't see how you would do it without breaking the path with the Node Tool. ;)

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