affinity beginner

[computeartnerd]

Hello I'm currently reading through the Affinity designer workbook and have started the first illustration project the panther and I'm stuck already. The curves in pen tool do not appear to be doing what the are supposed to.  After doing a few curves the curve no longer starts as a straight line to be manipulated but as a curve that does not follow the sketch as you would what. I have attached a screenshot to help explain. Also I created a new layer and used a green pencil to highlight the areas and to my surprised when I went back to the panther curves layer and tried to continue with the curves the colour snapped to green! ( as shown on the leg) I'm not impressed by this am I doing something wrong? Why is it doing this? 

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, computeartnerd said:

After doing a few curves the curve no longer starts as a straight line to be manipulated but as a curve that does not follow the sketch as you would what.

To start with a straight line, click but don't drag to set the first node. This creates a 'sharp' node. See the Affinity Designer - Pen Power video for more ways to use the Pen Tool.

3 hours ago, computeartnerd said:

Also I created a new layer and used a green pencil to highlight the areas and to my surprised when I went back to the panther curves layer and tried to continue with the curves the colour snapped to green!

That is because the stroke color is still set to green, as indicated by the small hollow circle in the Colors panel.

[computeartnerd]

Thanks for your help. Now I'm trying to colour in my drawing, I find affinity quite tricky doing this as its vastly different from when I used to use MS paint which was simply click where you want to fill on the artwork in with a bucket of paint and hey presto. The book says after colouring in the eyes on the face to colour in the rest of the shapes on the panthers body. I wasn't aware I was meant to be making shapes. Perhaps its the way I used the pen tool but what I'm left with is a series of separate lines on the layers panel, no shapes! How am I to colour in the panther?

[Guest]

Hello computeartnerd,

I don't know if this solution is right for you, but to color the space between intersecting lines, select the lines, "Layer", "Expand Stroke". Then do a Boolean operation "Add" then another "Divide". You can then color the parts contained between the lines.

[computeartnerd]

I'm not sure that helps I guess I have to go back and create shapes out of my lines. No shapes no colour apparently in affinity. 

[gdenby]

Any vector that encloses an area can have both a fill and a stroke. The end points of the vector don't need to be connected, but the fill will be a straight line between the end points. The only exception is a straight line, which does not enclose any 2D space.

There are several problems when using unclosed curves. The obvious one is unexpected straight lines among the curves. The other is when the curves are used in boolean operations, such as add, deide, etc. Designer automatically closed the curves, which can lead to all sorts of odd fragmented shapes.

So it is best to draw a complete perimeter for each shape, or at lest one which is so close to complete that the gap is very small. One can then use the node tool widget for closing the curve, which will add the small straight stroke.

Then its just a matter of getting the shapes in a proper layer hierarchy so the upper shapes cover parts of lower ones.

[computeartnerd]

Thanks thats a relief and a help