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how to create watercolor on paper effect in Affinity Photo?


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Hi, I create watercolor drawings on paper, and I would like to achieve the same effect in Affinity Photo. I tried many watercolor brushes (DAUB, Kyle's brushes), but I don't get the same effect as on paper. I very much miss the the texture of the paper. Normally, the texture of the paper interacts with the watercolor paint, which causes beautiful irregularities. In Affinity, everything looks very smooth, every brush stroke looks the same. Is there a way to mimic the effect watercolor has on paper in Affinity? Thank you very much! 

Karina  

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The "Daub" tools include papers. While I have the brushes, but I don't seem to have the paper textures.

If you do, look at the DAUB tutorial on how to get something that is more like the natural effect of transparent watercolor on paper.

 

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

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14 minutes ago, gdenby said:

The "Daub" tools include papers. While I have the brushes, but I don't seem to have the paper textures.

https://gumroad.com/l/IXbWp

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18 minutes ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

Had to dig around the file system, had them in a folder w. brushes, and not installed. As my parents said many years ago, "You'd forget your head if it wasn't attached to your shoulders..."

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

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If you want the effect of watercolours blending there are better apps for this, like ArtRage and Corel Painter, especially Corel Painter, they give a more "authentic" watercolour experience.

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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38 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

If you want the effect of watercolours blending there are better apps for this, like ArtRage and Corel Painter, especially Corel Painter, they give a more "authentic" watercolour experience.

Rebelle looks pretty good, too. :)

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
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Thanks a lot to you all! I'm looking into all the options you mentioned. One more question: In the DAUB manual for the recommended brush set it says that the paper textures are specifically designed for Affinity Designer. Does anyone know if the paper textures will work in Affinity Photo as well? I will mostly be using them in Affinity Photo for drawing. 

Karina

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Karina,

The papers install as assets in Designer. When I tried out mine last night, I just transferred the file to APh.

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

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14 hours ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

Rebelle looks pretty good, too. :)

Love Rebelle and Flame Painter.

Flame painter doodle

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iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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Karina,

Assets are collections of objects that one may want to use over any number of projects. They can be all sorts of things. Bitmaps, vector object, symbols. For something like the Daub papers, its easier to just open the Assets studio, and go to them, rather than dig thru the computers file system. That way they are all in a bundle closer at hand.

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

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Hi,

You can always take photos of some of your watercolour paper and use them as overlays to add to work you've already done, basically bring them into the project and add to the top of the stack and use a blend mode like Multiply or overlay.

I really like the Daub watercolour brushes and you can always use the smudge brush tool with different brushes to get some cool effects.

Sara :)

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On 9/4/2018 at 11:26 PM, αℓƒяє∂ said:

Rebelle looks pretty good, too. :)

Thanks, I looked into all the apps mentioned, and I think I'm going to buy Rebelle (downloading the demo now). CorelPainter is too expensive, and Artrage seems about the same as Rebelle, but everyone says Rebelle is better for watercolor. 

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On 9/4/2018 at 10:47 PM, firstdefence said:

If you want the effect of watercolours blending there are better apps for this, like ArtRage and Corel Painter, especially Corel Painter, they give a more "authentic" watercolour experience.

Thanks for mentioning I should buy another app. I didn't realize this. It seems you need a different app for everything to get the best results. Still love Affinity though!

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1 hour ago, Karina said:

Thanks for mentioning I should buy another app. I didn't realize this. It seems you need a different app for everything to get the best results. Still love Affinity though!

You can't make a symphony with just a trumpet! ;)  Watercolour effects are doable in Affinity but they don't show the nuances of the medium. Corel Painter is a professional painting app with "off the chart" "Infinite" brush parameters and you can spend hours painting and creating brushes to do pretty much anything you want. 

ArtRage is fun and a pleasure to use, it's like a lighter, quirkier version of Corel, you can find yourself with missing time in both apps but ArtRage has an easier learning curve.

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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Hi, I know this is an Affinity forum, but do you guys own Rebelle 3? I tried a lot of drawing apps (ArtRage, Corel Painter, Krita, Expresii and Rebelle), and I decided Rebelle is best for me. But I can't seem to navigate, and can't find the solution anywhere. I contacted Rebelle, but haven't received an answer yet. The problem: I downloaded the demo version, but I can't navigate to left, right, top or bottom once zoomed in. As you can understand this feature is vital to me to be able to draw in detail. I saw this really handy navigation screen in the top right corner in a video about navigating Rebelle 3, but I can't find it in my version. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT1-gPiHetk 

I use  a Huion Kamvas HD 156 v2 drawing screen, and also can't navigate with the buttons on the screen like I do in Affinity or Photoshop. Do you have different shortcuts in Rebelle 3? It would be great if you can help me out! 

Karina

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On 9/5/2018 at 5:46 PM, gdenby said:

Karina,

Assets are collections of objects that one may want to use over any number of projects. They can be all sorts of things. Bitmaps, vector object, symbols. For something like the Daub papers, its easier to just open the Assets studio, and go to them, rather than dig thru the computers file system. That way they are all in a bundle closer at hand.

I bought the DUAB collection last week and the brushes are now in my brushes folder, and the papers in my assets studio in Affinity Designer. I don't understand though how to place the paper correctly on my canvas. Do I drag it and fit to size? This makes the texture obviously much larger, not really like paper anymore.  Or do I tile the paper like a repeat pattern until I have enough to cover the whole canvas? This also seems a bit odd. 

Also, Affinity Photo does not have an assets studio. Do I have to place the paper on the  correct size canvas in Affinity Design, and then export it like .tif or so to be able to open it in Affinity Photo? 

If the DAUB paper is placed correctly in Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo, and I use the DAUB brushes, do they automatically interact? Or do I have to change the settings?

Thanks a lot for your help!  Sorry I have so many question, this is all very new to me... 

Karina

 

 

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Hi, Karina,

I don't do this sort of work much, but I recalled the Daub papers tile seamlessly. Just tried a few, and they did. Drag the asset onto the workspace, and duplicate it over and over to fill the space. 

Then use the menu "File/Edit in photo" In Photo, according to the Daub tutorial, the paper is used as a mask for the brush strokes. The paper texture blends w. the color stroke, adding the light or dark changes from the paper bumps.

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

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1 hour ago, KellyKirsty said:

Hi,

Can I download the Daub brushes to use with the updated 1.6 version of Affinity Designer?
Thank you!

Yes you can. I am no expert, but I have the DAUB brushes and papers, and they seem to work fine in the new version. You can also use them with the new version of Affinity Photo. If you think they work better in an older version of Affinity Designer, you can also download an older version of Affinity if you use the DAUB brushes. Maybe it is best to write en email to DAUB to be absolutely sure there are no differences in brush behaviour. But from what I can see when I tested the brushes and papers in the new version of Affinity Designer they work fine. Hope this helps.  

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