Painter Persona!!

[kjs]

Ok so wouldn't that be so cool if Affinity Designer (and perhaps Affinity Photo as well) had a Painters' Persona! A tool set that was focused on illustration. Kind of like Corel Painter, Art Rage, Krita, Clip Studio Paint, Paint Tool Sai.. ect..

OR ! even better than a persona would be a dedicated app. Affinity Painter <-- doesn't that have a nice ring to it? I would buy it with love.

[SrPx]

I'd rather prefer Affinity Photo improving its painting capabilities (first, improving and consolidating the ones it already has, before adding anything else new). Krita , Painter, etc...often are short in features more in the land of image editing. There are several full digital paint softwares around (you left out Rebelle 3 and Art Rage, which absolutely beat anything else in that vibe, together with Painter....,) IMO. No real need for yet one more, but instead, have enough painting functionality inside Photo. Much more interesting for real life illustration gigs, projects, those with an angry client, dead lines, extreme variety of projects, being a work horse that allows you from doing pixel art gigs, to textures, to do children books illustration...YEP... Photo, I have designer (love it!!!) and yet I'd do ANY illustration with Photo. I'm a raster freak. Often digital paint tools miss the bus there in that illustration works are often needing Photoshop functionality. To the extent some don't even include text tools functionality.

So, I'd rather not have that persona, as puts you away from those essential RASTER (not vector) features that you have in Photo. Also, use Paolo's Daub brushes in latest betas... you need very little more (ie, in my case, ONLY the alt color picking improved / deactivation of magnifier...and purchasing a new machine for performance with complex brushes, but that wouldn't stop me right now for painting with AP, as some complex brushes of average size, and even big brushes of just round shape, default type ones) for any painting project. A solid brush/color picking (mostly) core, and everything else can be worked around, and just keep improving slowly. But with those improved, for me there's enough features set, right now,  for AP to be a full digital painting app. Indeed, once I see it working as expected in my machine (or a new one, lol...) I'll even contribute with my demonstration to that (that you wouldn't need anything else to paint, and that is MORE convenient for painting than a lot of digital painting specialized applications. At least for serious, paid projects, real life ones (opposed to just some hobby activity))

[kjs]

The reason I think a Painter app or a Painter persona would be worth while is because Affinity makes the file formats interchangeable between apps. I love that I can "edit in Photo" or "edit in Designer" ... and I could appreciate the option to edit in "Painter" 

[SrPx]

Unless Serif surprises us in a real big way in this matter, I don't see that happening any time soon.... ( as mentioned, I believe they have some tactic milestones better to cover, previous to that.... After all, is a small staff, is not Adobe's...)

Meanwhile, I am re-discovering Affinity PHOTO as GREAT for painting.... At least, in the way I am able to paint ( I use many styles, btw, so, this means, anyone in whatever the type of art, with enough capability to adapt workflows can do ... WHATEVER in Photo. Is that versatile, right now.) Specially euphoric now that I generated a trick that avoid the single only issue remaining in the way for me, UNTIL THE OTHER DAY,  as a barrier (it's in the link in my signature)  . While... there were MORE issues, long time ago, in Photo. But... the line smoothing, and tons of improvements that progressively and organically they keep adding, have reverted, happily, the situation... for me Photo WORKS now for painting.... GREATLY. IMO, that's all that matters.  I recommend everyone it for the task. The super  important matter for any pro here and out there: Not only works as it always did, for a large number of fields in image editing... for me, it already also is good enough for all sorts of painting. For 50 bucks, no subscription. This is beyond revolutionary.

About your suggestion... Well, I don't fully disagree. But I know how many illustrators, like me, are so used to illustrating in Photoshop. Many very, very high end pros, having worked in top companies, or at least, doing top high end profiles.  How they really really feel at home with the complex and powerful layers system in Photo, its very advanced selection and mask system, and an infinite etc.  I work in this, is not a hobby, and geez, is it in a good state, right now !!! . I can't understand people not putting the 50 bucks in it. Is a steal.

[walt.farrell]

I think it would be better for you to specify some specific tools or capabilities that you find lacking in Designer and Photo, @kjs. I strongly doubt we're going to see a completely separate persona. But if the personas in Publisher work the way I think they will, it might be even easier to switch between Photo and Designer than it is today. Then all you'd need is the capabilities/tools that you think are missing today.