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Affinity Photo is a raster graphics app, so it’s more like Krita than CorelDraw. Affinity Designer is a hybrid vector/raster app with the emphasis firmly on the vector side of things, so it’s like CorelDraw.

All of the desktop Affinity apps are free to try:

https://affin.co/designertrial

https://affin.co/phototrial

https://affin.co/publishertrial

 

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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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For the matters you mention, Clip Studio Paint is amazing (my favorite for line-art, and also for painting). That said, you can do all that (but in a different way, and in some aspects CSP has no rival)  and more with Affinity Photo. Which has the advantages not so present in most painting-only apps, (and csp is not an exception) that it allows you as well fine tuning the image in certain matters, much more advanced and professional export (for print, etc). Which for most projects are absolutely key.

Me, as an illustrator/designer, cannot (or don't wish to loose all those features) work in a large variety of projects without a tool like Affinity Photo. Of course, similar workflows are possible with Photoshop, or (if are so inclined) with Gimp. A bit less featured (IMO) than all these, but still supporting CMYK mode and color management in general, is Corel Draw's Photopaint. But u need to pay the 700 bucks for the entire suite, no way to buy it apart. There are a bunch of specialized painting apps (imitating very well traditional media, etc), but again, my personal take at it,  if doing full time freelancing, or any sort of advanced hobby or side freelancing, sooner than later, even in pure illustration work (while we tend up doing ANY sort of graphic task, for the $$$) you end up needing (badly) the features that Affinity Photo, PS or Gimp gives you.  But PS has the subscription issue (which includes the not crazy fear of seeing it increasing the monthly cost or even doubling soon), and Gimp does not even have yet a proper CMYK mode, among other lacks. 

In summary yes, a combination of Krita or Clip Studio Paint (my personal strong preference is for the latter, by very far..and btw, I decided not to mention all of the others, on purpose) and Affinity Photo, for activities like painting, line art, comics, concept art, or etc, is absolutely stellar.

That said: you CAN do entire illustration workflows with Affinity Photo, just with it alone. And if you like vectors, with A. Designer. But I'm a painter, I don't. (still, use heavily designer for all my graphic design work, now, unless is very image edit/retouch heavy, then is Photo, again). I mean, you can make many combinations of apps, but my main consideration is AP and AD are in all of them.

A note here.... typically line art and manga (imo, a very specific case of line art, as is comic, tho not all comic is/has to be line art) have its own set of specialized apps (Clip Studio Paint being the king there although a lot of people use PS for that)  and definitely is an entire different thing in digital workflow (and form of expression) than digital painting. To the point that in line art (inking for comics, etc) you need to deal with stuff like line stabilizers (Photo, Krita, CSP and PS have them), extremely accurate digital tablets (be it pen-tablets or display-tablets) , while in digital painting, it's more other things which matters : The one-shot, one-go perfect line is not so key, and the tablet can be almost anything medium size with sensitivity to pressure.  In software, apps, you will care if the app have specially good brush flow and opacity control by pressure. IMO, way, way more important than if supporting to load many different brushes. You can imitate trad. painting with just a round brush and those controls for the pen pressure (there's a lot of misinformation about it, even pretending that you NEED very complex brushes to make an oils/acrylics like painting). Also matters if it is fluid, what performance allows the PC to have with large brushes, the view quality of the canvas when zooming, if the zooming has no glitches, how large the canvas can be (specially for projects that will end on print, large event posters, big painting canvases, etc) and maintain a good performance, the comfort and speed of the tools workflow, flawless and fast color picking, etc. And of course, in that case is immensely important that you can prepare your file for print, having a good collection of image adjusting features, etc (well, what Photo has).

Meaning, you can do any sort of digital art with Photo already (non vector based, for that there's AD). When a painting specialized feature is not there, you can find a workaround easily, basically as painting relies way more on your real painting and drawing skills, all you need is the basic operation to be flawless.  But there are quite some things that if you don't have them (and you do not in many of the painting specialized apps) you get totally stuck in so many stages of so many projects. Most of the painting apps fans I know (and I mean, other pros), if making serious work, at the end are launching PS in a good number of stages of the project. Even if it is not "cool" to admit it and say : "No, I just use my [insert whatever the fancy and supercool trendy toy]  for everything". Most of the times that's a lie  :D . Or is all about a light hobby, doing only the few things they can do with their tool, as there are no needs or compromises. So, if I was told to use ONLY one app, or I would be only willing to learn one application, I'd pick then AP (Photo), as at least with that one I reach everywhere (like I do with PS when at a job). If given a richer option, I'd use both CSP and AP.

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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Just to be super clear: My absolute advice is to use a combination of tools : AP and CSP (IMO, Paint Shop Pro, even the advanced one, is a bit too simplistic, but is fine. AP has way more depth and more pro solutions). And if needing to decide, then AP only, as in a certain way is the most complete and capable tool, and you can paint very well with it (extensively proved that to myself). Is just safer when one has several tools in the shelf. As projects may emerge with particular needs, and no package is absolutely perfect in every corner, maybe in those ones is where shines the other one, and viceversa.

That's a nice tablet. I highly recommend doing a color calibration by hardware, though, I've heard it comes with values quite off, and that it does not end up as fine tuned in calibration like, say, a wacom Cintiq (which is almost completely fine out of the box, without calibration. But one must calibrate always the monitors). But goes with the price !

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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I'll check out CSP. I know the price is right and that it comes bundled with some of the Wacom Intuos tablets. 

Careful, that version I don't know if is subscription based or time limited. I'd just buy the desktop one to be pretty sure there'd be no issues.

Anyhow, I have this strange feeling that they'll keep improving the brush system in Photo. And, again, Photo is enough,for all (digital painting, image edit, comic authoring, and a large etc).

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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8 minutes ago, SrPx said:

Careful, that version I don't know if is subscription based or time limited. I'd just buy the desktop one to be pretty sure there'd be no issues.

Anyhow, I have this strange feeling that they'll keep improving the brush system in Photo. And, again, Photo is enough,for all (digital painting, image edit, comic authoring, and a large etc).

The one issue with AP is that there isn't much in the way of training or videos on using Photo (or Designer) for painting.

I spent 30 years as a software developer before retiring last year and I'm a big big fan of having multiple tools in my tool belt. I currently have the Affinity Studio Suite along with Krita and Scribus. I am also a proponent of Open Source software. Paint Shop is out of my price range as is the Adobe Suite. I'm currently experimenting with Paint Shop Essentials but it seemed a little quirky (I couldn't arrange the desktop to my liking) on my MacBook Pro. I'll download CSP later today and try it.

I'm really liking the feature set and UI of Krita. It and the Affinity tools will probably be my main tools. And once I have the money I may add CSP to that mix.

I did a lot of research before choosing the Artist 16 Pro and it seemed to have the best price to value ratio. I'm not sure if I could learn the hand eye coordination needed for a non screen tablet. I wish I could get a larger screen tablet or even a Wacom but the cost just goes too high for my budget. This will be more of a hobby or freelance gig for me in my "retirement" so keeping the cost low is my goal. I don't want to give up a lot of functionality but I don't have to have the fastest most efficient workflow possible.

Do you have a website or portfolio? I would love to see some of your work.

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BTW, CSP PRO is enough. You 99% surely don't need the more expensive EX version (I have the PRO). The Debut is too basic. And again, with A. Photo you can do everything.

PMed you, check your PMs :)

EDIT: That display-tablet is pretty good, don't worry.  :)

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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The tablet arrived yesterday evening. I set it up on my desk and played with it last night. It is working great but I really suck at using a tablet. I'm sure that I will get batter after some practice. This will be a fun journey for me.

I tried out CSP but it sin't a very OSX compliant application. I couldn't get it to move from my primary display to my secondary display. I could move some of the window but not the menu bar and some other items. So. I've put it aside for the moment and concentrating on AP and Krita.

Thanks for all of the advice. It is much appreciated.

 

 

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Hi, MarshallHarrison,

Note that w. traditional art, hand/eye skills can take years, even if you start as a child. It may feel a bit silly, but old fashioned "penmanship" exercises can help. Draw lots of circles, parallel lines, squares, triangles, until your arm gets the feel of moving across the rather slick surface of the tablet.

At least there is the perfect eraser of "undo."

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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2 minutes ago, gdenby said:

Hi, MarshallHarrison,

Note that w. traditional art, hand/eye skills can take years, even if you start as a child. It may feel a bit silly, but old fashioned "penmanship" exercises can help. Draw lots of circles, parallel lines, squares, triangles, until your arm gets the feel of moving across the rather slick surface of the tablet.

At least there is the perfect eraser of "undo."

I'm learning both and the digital mistakes are easier to correct than the analog. Its a daunting task but it gives me something to do n my retirement and its fun.

I am really enjoying learning graphic design and digital art.

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17 hours ago, MarshallHarrison said:

I am really enjoying learning graphic design and digital art.

That IS what really matters.  :)  (about art, IMO)

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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