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Affinity illustrations and experiments


Deadbyxmas

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That's awesome, Kudos!.  :)

Your graphic novel is gonna rock, big time.

Yep... Big fan of the basic round brush... I'm an all time voter for consolidating the basic brush system. As in every app, I can fake almost oil painting with just good old flow and opacity control. In many ways. Of course, going all the way to mimic my so much loved oil painting (which I miss so bad), or watercolors, I prefer to go all the way to something like Verve Painter (oils), Rebelle (watercolors) , Painter or Art Rage (the two latest, for many techniques). As kind of the other stuff is a bit in between. But as an illustrator, all those fall short in real world functionality for many illustrators, at least for my workflow. Also, I am not only a painter. And I often mix techniques. Yep, oil and watercolor brushes in every other app make it look nice often almost similar, but as one insists in painting (I don't paint "a la prima" (tho that technique is about painter always over wet) and leave it so, neither with real paints, no classic painter did this, in centuries), and as you insist, the effect gets more digital. Even if always "painterly" as that's each one's personal touch, but for me what is really worth is just a simple solid brush system, performing really well (brush lag, color picking lag (super key in realistic painting), line jitter, painting zoomed out, how it feathers, etc. Those are the key things I always care for in a painting app. Not the brush library. But that's me).  I can do wonders in Photoshop with the basic round brush. Is what I use at every company. I currently use a heavily modified version of the oil paint brush in CSP, but as that one has some features/settings really mimicking traditional paints behaviors, although not totally in the final look, but yep in how it works till certain degree. But the result is a bit more painterly. Even so, the amount of image editing and final preparation, formats, integration, etc, etc that I have in Affinity Photo, makes it worth  it to keep trying to make AP my main illustration app. I'm not into vectors for illustration (AD serves me very well in any graphic design task), but also as my style is very different than yours. What you do can be entirely done in AP, but the features in AD are time savers for what I believe you do there.

Keep 'em coming, these are gorgeous.  :)

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

You're right SrPx - but that's the problem we face, there are too many options also in terms of software, tools etc. I've found I get lost and waste massive amounts of time trying out stuff, rather than consolidating one technique. Oh well, I guess you can't change how one is, although I often find that perfecting and doing one or two things to overkill tends to reap more rewards in term of attention. 

Anyway, moving on, something I did recently, in the wake of the events tearing apart this world. 

Although I'm not there at the moment, my hometown is Milan, Lombardy, deeply affected by this catastrophe. I was there just before total lockdown, and the streets were already eerily empty. 

Cara Catastrofe (again, combination of AD and AP)

 

 

caracatastrofe.jpg

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21 hours ago, Fred Lespine said:

Very nice ! Subtle with a lot of storytelling that we can guess 👍

Thanks! The small storytelling within the pictures is always something I love to focus on, so really glad you picked it up!

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  • 5 months later...

Posting again after ages! Actually there is quite a lot to share as I have taken this time to try to experiment, try out stuff and improve as much as I can. 

SO, I will start with something painterly (although it is mostly Affinity Photo, the technique I used was more traditional like, in fact it's practically all on one layer) that summed up pretty well these recent times. 

I did it for the Character Design challenge btw, it went down well with users, not so much with the jury. Oh well, can't win them all

ta

 

theflu.jpg

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The jury was obviously lacking that morning coffee.  :)

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 9/8/2020 at 7:38 PM, SrPx said:

The jury was obviously lacking that morning coffee.  :)

Ha thanks!  Possibly it is an explanation!

Anyway I thought I'd share something different now (more of the character design, portraits people later) . I have decided recently to try to do a batch of studies  - all on one theme - just to hammer in some workflows and methods, and as I have been a bit taken by the German Drama Dark (on Netflix), I did a series of 5 studies based on the opening scenes of Season 2. So I'll just post them all in one batch now!

All of these done with a combination of Designer and Photo

 

 

darkstudies_1.jpg

darkstudies_2.jpg

darkstudies_3.jpg

darkstudies_4.jpg

darkstudies_5.jpg

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Amazitstanding.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 3/29/2020 at 1:29 PM, Deadbyxmas said:

You're right SrPx - but that's the problem we face, there are too many options also in terms of software, tools etc. I've found I get lost and waste massive amounts of time trying out stuff, rather than consolidating one technique. Oh well, I guess you can't change how one is, although I often find that perfecting and doing one or two things to overkill tends to reap more rewards in term of attention. 

Anyway, moving on, something I did recently, in the wake of the events tearing apart this world. 

Although I'm not there at the moment, my hometown is Milan, Lombardy, deeply affected by this catastrophe. I was there just before total lockdown, and the streets were already eerily empty. 

Cara Catastrofe (again, combination of AD and AP)

 

 

caracatastrofe.jpg

Seems like paintings of Albert Marquet.

One of my favorite painter.

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On 11/6/2020 at 11:38 PM, lenogre said:

Seems like paintings of Albert Marquet.

One of my favorite painter.

Thanks, I had heard of him but I wasn't entirely familiar with his work - but absolutely, one ultimate ambition would be to try to recreate some of the mood and atmosphere of those painters, almost like bringing them to the 21st century. Oh, well, one tries

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Hi, now with a change of mood, a couple of portraits/headshots, always done with a combination of Designer and Affinity. 

I have some plans on my mind, but I will share once I get round to doing something, I wouldn't like to promise stuff and follow through. 

Anyway thanks for watching, more soon (hopefully)

r.

 

armina.jpg

firering.jpg

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  • 6 months later...

Hi all, 

me again with a really overdue update, sorry about that, I have been doing so much stuff that I forgot to share here as well. 

So probably I'm forgetting stuff, but I will try to remember some of the things I've done. Starting off with some simple images, I did a series of lifestyle illustration, here are the first six. Main shapes done in Designer, then painted in Photo. All these images, along with the ones posted earlier and the ones I will post in the near future (hopefully) are part of studies on trying to find a good workflow and work method - which I have developed over the last 6 months to a year. 

For this purpose I have been recording some video process to share, some might find it interesting because it's all Affinity based. At the moment I'm putting together the first, when it's ready and online I will give you a shout here

best

r.

 

 

LIfestyle_1.jpg

LIfestyle_2.jpg

LIfestyle_3.jpg

LIfestyle_4.jpg

LIfestyle_5.jpg

LIfestyle_6.jpg

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1 hour ago, Deadbyxmas said:

me again with a really overdue update, sorry about that, I have been doing so much stuff that I forgot to share here as well.

Not to worry. It’s good to see that Xmas is long gone but you’re still with us!

Very nice work, as usual. :)

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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  • 1 month later...

Hi All, 

before I catch up with bunch of other stuff I've done, I wanted to share something I promised yonks ago (nope, it has nothing to do with Xmas) - I recorded a process video, and added notes to explain step by step my work method. 

Bear in mind my workflow changes and adjusts a bit, so every piece differs a bit in that respect,  but it gives a general idea. Moreover the picture is quite simple, so it was a good excuse to get it done. I hope someone finds it useful. Ah, I have recorded another, just need to export, stitch together etc etc, as I'm a bit busy with work it might take a while, so in the meantime here you go. 

 

demo3.jpg

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So, going back to the various visual development studies - a study I did based on Japanese director Sion Sono's work (in particular Tokyo Vampire Hotel) had a big role in learning and adding new tricks in my sleeve. 

I will share a couple to start with, thank you for watching and feel free to let me know what you think or ask any questions!

best

 

TVH1.jpg

TVH2.jpg

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On 7/26/2021 at 4:41 PM, MEB said:

Absolutely fantastic work :) Thanks for sharing Deadbyxmas!

Thanks MEB, always glad to, and hoping to share another process video soon in case someone might find it useful. 

In the meantime, here's another two from the Tokyo Vampire Hotel series of studies. (yes, the are references to Tarantino, just in case  you were wondering)

Thank you for looking as always! 

TVH3.jpg

TVH4.jpg

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and here are the last two from the series, 

thanks again for watching. Next one coming up will be another process video where I definitely mix Designer and Photo, just need to stitch it together and do a bit of editing!

 

 

TVH5.jpg

TVH6.jpg

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These are just fantastic....

 

Affinity Version 1 (10.6) Affinity Version 2.4.1 All (Designer | Photo | Publisher)   Beta; 2.4 2.2356
OS:Windows 10 Pro 22H2 OS Build 19045.4046+ Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19053.1000.0
Rig:AMD FX 8350 and AMD Radeon (R9 380 Series) Settings Version 21.04.01 
Radeon Settings Version 2020
20.1.03) + Wacom Intuous 4M with driver 6.3.41-1

 

 

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So as said, I recorded another process video where I use heavily both Designer and Photo - I'd say it is an accurate representation of how I switch from one to the other.

This is a bit longer and labourious, and recently I've been going for quicker ways to do things, but in principle there are still quite a few things that I have worked in my workflow. 

For this one I haven't added detailed comments or explanations, but if you have any questions or doubts please feel free to ask either here or in the comments section on You Tube and I'll do my best to help out. 

thanks for watching as usual

 

cityofgod2.jpg

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  • 3 months later...

Hi all, again I'll share a couple of things (very randomly as usual, but I try to give some sense to these posts!) - this time some (rainy) environment studies, where I have been working in a slightly different way - basically without sketch, just starting with blocked in shapes in Photo, and using much less Designer if not for some really basic stuff (if I need precise  shapes and if they are simple I usually manage within Photo with the vector tools - when they become more complex I switch to Designer) - and anyway the vector shapes are immediately turned into selections with the "Selection from Layer and Delete" as if it was an advanced lasso tool.  

Once I block in the shapes colours (keeping the window really tiny) I then "zoom in" with the details. Ah, I have been using this very simple custom brush with slight hue and saturation variations on pressure, to throw in some random colours on the canvas. 

Not sure if that's clear, but here you go! And if you have any questions let me know

 

9_1.jpg

11_1.jpg

11_3.jpg

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