Help me learn Affinity Designer!

[Aeri]

Hi everyone,

I have recently decided to learn art. I have never really done it before and I find shades and colours really difficult. I often find that when I do try and add colours it often looks odd, I think it's because I haven't really got the shading yet. 

I was inspired by this dragon looking snake (that actually exist) and decided to try and make the head. I made a circle where the eye is meant to be, I tried to make an eye before and it was an absolute disaster. Does anyone have any advice for how to go about it? 

Does it look odd when I add all the small scales at the top? I put them there to try and give the illusion of the scales going in the other direction on the top of the head although I'm not sure that comes across.

 

Thank you for taking your time!

Ps. I only have a laptop so I only use the touchpad to create the shapes. That's my only limitation.

Aeri

 

[MEB]

Hi Aeri,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
You have picked a really difficult subject to get started with (assuming you want to create a pure vector based illustration - no raster painting/brushes etc). It will require a high number of shapes for the scutes (or scales) but also additional shapes for helping sculp (add depth)/define the shading itself. Have you considered starting with something more simple? Envato Tuts has a high number of (step-by-step) written tutorials covering various subjects that may give you a good idea on how to start creating vector illustrations. They are not photo realistic in any sense but are a good base to start understanding how to draw, color and shared objects. Check this one for example: How to Create a Porg From Star Wars in Affinity Designer. Here's their full list of tutorials for Designer.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, MEB said:

Here's their full list of tutorials for Designer.

Nice resource! Thanks for posting a link to it!