Digital Painting In Affinity Photo

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The ability to master a realistic watercolour technique using digital tools can be a huge timesaver for illustrators who frequently work in a more traditional style. In this article, we’ll explore some basic and more complex techniques which you can experiment with to create your own realistic digital watercolour paintings.

You will need…

  • A watercolour paper texture for your background—you can download a free one we have created for you here.
  • The Paint Brush Tool and the default Watercolour brush category found in both Affinity Photo and Designer (Desktop and iPad).
  • If you’re working in Designer you will be working solely in the Pixel Persona with the Paint Brush Tool. Note that the Displace filter in the ‘Finishing Touches’ section will only work in Photo.
  • We recommend working with an Apple Pencil or with a graphics tablet for the best results.

Go to the brush tool in Affinity Photo. In the tool settings click the “more” button. This will open the brush settings. Click the middle tab labeled “Dynamics”. Mar 12, 2021 - Explore Hailey Maxedon's board 'Affinity Designer & Photo' on Pinterest. See more ideas about digital art tutorial, digital painting tutorials, procreate ipad art.

Picking your brushes

Brush technique is the key to effectively creating digital watercolours. It can take a little practice and it’s good to have a real watercolour painting to reference. As with real watercolour, overworking your painting will ruin it so less is more!

Different brushes for different brush strokes

The primary tool to use is the Paint Brush Tool. Instead of trying to use every brush in the Watercolours category, pick three to four brushes to experiment with to get a more consistent look. Just like real watercolour, we’re going to work from light to dark. First, lay down some light washes using large brushes that give a diluted effect. The following brushes are a great starting point:

  • Large Diluted Watercolour
  • Diluted Grainy

These brushes will give defined brush strokes, so if you want to blend the edges try using the Smudge Brush Tool with the same brushstroke applied and smudge your edges for a blended effect.

For adding shading and details a great starting point is:

  • Dense wash
  • Watercolour Bristle 01

Although it gives an authentic appearance, we don’t always want a crisp edge to our brush—subtle colour and tonal changes are key to a realistic look. To blend colours on an existing brush stroke or area of shading use a brush which doesn’t have sharp edges like the following:

  • Light Wash
  • Fine to Wide Spongy

The Low Absorption Bristles brushes and Fine Fibers give a dry-brushed, textured look, the idea being that the paint isn’t very wet and hasn’t absorbed into the paper. This may be something you want for your image and you may want to use these brushes on your very top layer to add extra textural detail.

Wet edges

You may notice that the majority of digital watercolour brushes have Wet Edges turned on. Wet Edges give the appearance of pigment gathering at the edges of a brushstroke, much in the way real wet paint would disperse. With Wet Edges turned off you will get a softer edge to your brush.

Opacity and Flow

Use Opacity and Flow in your Paint Brush context toolbar to adjust the transparency of the paint and flow of the paint from your brush.

Applying the Watercolour brushes to other tools

Remember you can apply the Watercolour brushes to other tools you use, so if your paint is a little dark or has spilt over the edges of your line-work, select the Erase Brush Tool, choose the Watercolour brush you have been working with and you’ll retain your watercolour look as you erase. The same goes with the Smudge Brush Tool if you want to blend some of your shading or colours.

Colour and Protect Alpha

Blending colours together in watercolour is often really seamless as the colours flow into one another. A way to replicate this is to paint your brush stroke in a single colour, apply Protect Alpha, then paint your additional colours over the top of your brush strokes. This will preserve the exact appearance of your original brushstroke but apply your colours over the top, no smudging or blurring or additional layers required.

Photo

Using Blend Modes

The two main Blend Modes to explore when creating realistic watercolours are Multiply and Colour Burn. Apply these to your painting layers to blend them into your paper layer.

Multiply

Multiply is great for working over the top of line art as your darker lines will show through and your paper texture will show through. If you’re using a mostly white/grey paper your colours will stay true.

Colour Burn

The Colour Burn Blend Mode really makes the paint look like it has absorbed into the paper, but you’ll notice it changes the way your colours appear. For example, colours will generally appear brighter and stronger with Colour Burn applied. Darker colours with limited black or grey content will be bold, colours with grey tones may look more realistic but have too much grey and you’ll lose the colour. So it takes a bit of practice to get the colours you want but if you can figure it out it’s worth it!

Remember you can use an HSL Adjustment layer clipped to your painting layer if you’re struggling to get your colours just right.

Why not use both Blend Modes? If you’re painting on multiple Layers, a Colour Burn blend mode on your base wash can give a realistic absorbed watercolour look against your paper, then use Multiply on your shading and detail layers for easier colour control.

Finishing touches

Displace Live Filter (Affinity Photo only)

The Displace Live Filter is a finishing touch you can use to give your finished painting the appearance of flowing over the texture of your paper. The Displace filter allows an image to take on the property of the texture underneath it. It is often used in photo composition to blend two images together seamlessly.

Note that there are two kinds of Displace filter, one is Live and non-destructive, meaning you can edit it after it has been applied and toggle it on and off. The other is destructive meaning once it is applied to your Layer you can’t edit it. We recommend working with the Live version.

Here’s how to apply it:

  1. If you have created your painting on multiple layers we recommend that you Group these layers, Duplicate them and Rasterise one of the Groups to make a flattened/single-layer version of your artwork. Then the remaining grouped version of all your painting layers is still there if you need to edit it later (you can make this group invisible by unticking it at the side of the Layers Studio).
  2. Displace works best if you are working in a 16-bit or 32-bit colour space. Go to Document>Convert Format/ICC Profile and select RGB/16 or RGB/32—or if you are working with a painting you will want to print professionally, select CMYK/8.
  3. With your painting layer selected it’s time to add the Live Displace filter. On Desktop go to Layer>New Live Filter Layer>Distort>Displace. On iPad enable Live Filters in your Filters Studio, this will switch the Displace filter to the Live Displace version.
  4. Select Load Map From Layers Beneath on the Live Displace dialogue window that appears on the screen. This will map your painting layer to the watercolour paper texture beneath it. You can use the slider to alter the intensity of the Displace filter.

For a demonstration of Live Displace Filter being used, check out our overview video by James Ritson.

Adding grain and softness

Watercolour paint can have a unique granular appearance—use a Live Grain filter to give your painting a granular appearance. Clip this Filter to your painting layer so that it only affects that layer and not your entire canvas.

Use a Gaussian Blur Live Filter to soften the paint for a flowing watery look if this is something that works with your technique.

Need a transparent PNG? No problem!

If you want an image with no background but still want to retain the watercolour paper texture, then there are two things we can do.

  1. Use the Displace Live Filter technique but instead of selecting Load Map From Layers Beneath on the Live Displace dialogue window, select Load Map From File, then locate the watercolour paper texture on your computer or iPad for it to create its map from. This allows you to use the texture of the watercolour paper on your painting layer, but keep a transparent background. Export as .PNG with transparency and your job is done!

  2. Some watercolour brushes use sub-brushes to add paper texture to every brush stroke.

Other useful brushes…

In addition to the default Affinity Watercolour brushes, we highly recommend checking out the Neptune brush pack by Frankentoon and the Daub Watercolours and Washes brush pack on the Affinity Store. These also contain additional paper textures to create your artworks on.

Further inspiration

Roberta Burattini aka Moon Lotus Dreams walks us through her digital painting process in Affinity Photo…

1. Sketch & Digital Lineart

Start by sketching the overall idea, you can sketch directly in Affinity or scan a pencil drawing.Create a new layer underneath the sketch and use the Flood Fill Tool to apply a white colour.Reduce the opacity of the sketch layer and create a new layer above it for the lineart. Use a round brush to draw your digital lineart using the sketch as a guide.

Tip: You can create multiple layers for the lineart (skin, clothing, eyes, hair, jewellery and lantern). It will be helpful later on if you want to change colours and adjust their position (foreground/background).

2. Colours: Flat & Lineart

Tip: To choose the right colours for your drawing, I find that having a colour palette from the beginning helps quite a lot. You can save the palette in a separate layer so it’s easy to toggle the visibility at any time. Drawing in affinity photo

Below you can see the colours and tonal variations I’ve chosen to work with in small circles on the top ‘Palette’ layer. I use this as reference while working on the image.

Next create new layers underneath the lineart for each section to be coloured (I have created one for the background colour, one for the skin and one for the clothes. For the lantern, I created a group with lineart and flat colour above all else, as this element is on the forefront).

Now it’s time to apply colours to the line-art. Click on your lineart layer, pick a colour and choose the option Protect Alpha (upper right corner) to use with the Paint Brush Tool. A basic round brush will do the job. You can apply different colours on the lineart to make highlighted areas and darker areas. Note I’ve made the lineart on the shoulders and inner edge of the sleeves bright and kept it a darker tone on the arms.

Affinity Designer Review 2020

3. Shading & Details

BACKGROUND

With the watercolour brush DAUB Flat Texture Free 03, draw some highlights behind the main character.

Painting

By doing this you will give some depth to the composition.

DRESS & JEWELS

Using the Freehand Selection Tool, select areas to apply shadows and highlights. With the watercolour brush DAUB Flat Texture Free 02, loosely apply a brighter colour for the highlights and a darker colour for the shadows.

Add some details to the fabric and jewellery

Dress: create a new layer and with a basic round brush draw some ornaments and shapes. You can use multiple layers for different effects.

Crown: add some colour variations with the same principle; bright yellow for the highlights and dark yellow for the shadows.

Tip: For the gemstones I created a new layer underneath the crown lineart. This way I am sure I will not colour on top of the gold parts.

Fabric semi-transparency effect

Start by applying a Mask Layer to the clothes colour layer.

Select a soft brush, reduce the opacity and set the colour to black. With the Freehand Selection Tool, select the parts that will need to be semi-transparent. Now paint directly on the Mask Layer to create the transparency.

Tip: You can adjust the Mask as many times as you need by playing with brush opacity and shape. Tip: Use a Mask Layer to mask the elements that need to be behind the dress (in this case the hair and the crown ribbons).

SKIN

Select the skin layer and with a soft brush apply a darker colour on the cheeks and the nose. Then, select the base colour and draw the highlight on the nose to give depth. Apply a red line around the eyes for simple make-up and the same red for the lips.

Create another layer above the skin, set 50% Opacity and Multiply blend mode. Pick a red colour and, with a soft brush, accentuate the blush on the cheeks and nose.

Overall shading

Create a new layer above the previous, set it 50% Opacity and Multiply blend mode.Draw the shadows using the skin base colour and a round brush.

Eyes

Select the eyes layer and apply colour highlights to the iris with a soft round brush (Protect Alpha on).

Shading: create a new layer, set it at 75% Opacity and Multiply blend mode. After picking a light grey colour, trace the shadow with a round brush.

Painting in affinity photo

4. Complex Elements

KOI FISH

It is now time to draw the fish (Koi) coming out from the lantern.

Create a new layer inside the Lantern Layers Group.Draw simple white shapes to get an idea of which position and size work best. Once you are happy with the choice, start giving form to the fish. You can use references from books or online to get the right proportions, you can see one of the reference images I used below.

Tip: For the colour spots on the fish, I used DAUB Pigmento Moist Media brush Oil Pastel with the blend mode set on Multiply.

APPLY A TEXTURE

The next step is to apply a fish skin texture/pattern. You can create your own texture, purchase stock textures or find one that’s free for commercial use. Import the texture as image and place it on a layer above the fish. Set the layer at 15% Opacity with Overlay blend mode.

Adjust the layer to follow the fish orientation. Repeat the process for each fish then merge all the texture layers into one. Mask the texture around the fish bodies: quick-select the fish layer (Cmd-click or Ctrl-click on layer) and apply a mask to the skin texture layer.

Tip: At this stage you can give more details to the lantern as well.

5. Light Effects

Time to add some magic!

Playing around with different brushes and layer blend modes, you can add some magical lighting to the composition. This is how you can apply some light effects:

  • Create a new layer group and name it ‘light effects’
  • Create a new layer inside the group, pick a light blue colour and then paint with a brush of your choice over the areas that you want to highlight (I used Franketoon - Concept Master cloud brush)
  • Set the blend mode to Glow or Hard Light or Vivid Light and the Opacity between 20% and 50%
  • Repeat to add as many highlight layers as you want. Below you can see my process.

You can easily create a ‘bokeh’ effect with a customised round brush and the colour set to a light pink—see the following brush settings:

6. Extra Touches

Digital Painting In Affinity Photos

LAYER EFFECTS

You can use Affinity Photo’s Layer Effects to add more highlights or special effects to your composition.

Koi layer

Apply Outer Glow and set: Vivid Light blend mode—40% Opacity—100px Radius—25% Intensity—Colour=light blue (see image below).

For extra sparkle

On a new layer draw white drops around the fish and apply the same layer effect.

HAIR REFLECTION

Select the hair layer and apply a black to deep blue gradient. This way you give the idea of black hair reflecting blue light.

7. Overall Filters & Effects

Now the drawing is finished, but there are still some filters we can apply to enhance the overall composition.

NOISE FILTER

Create a new group and a new layer inside of it. Fill the layer with a white colour then go to: Filters > Noise > Add Noise (100% intensity). Then set the Opacity to 75% and the blend mode to Colour Burn.

TONALITY FILTER

You can easily change your drawing to a cooler or warmer tonality.

  • Create a new layer and fill it with a blue colour
  • Set Opacity to 10%> set blend mode to Screen
  • For a stronger effect, create a new layer and use a textured brush to paint external areas with a purple colour. Set Opacity to 10% and set blend mode to Vivid Light (I used DAUB Watercolour & Washes - Flat Texture Free 04).

8. Final Adjustments

To emphasise the focal point of the drawing on the character face: Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels, then shift the Black Level handle towards the right side to accentuate dark colours. Now select the Eraser Brush Tool and with a soft round brush, erase the area around the character’s face. Be sure to position this layer on top of all others.

The end result

Tip: Remember to sign your artwork!

Tools used

Drawing In Affinity Photo

Hardware—Graphic Tablet

Brushes—customised basic brushes, DAUB Pigmento and DAUB Watercolours & Washes, Frankentoon Concept Master Vol. 1: Nature—note these are purchased separately and not included in the software.

About the Creator

Roberta Burattini is an Italian-Australian artist and writer who creates art and stories based on her dreams.

“Art helps the storytelling, it’s the visual expression of the feelings, places, faces and moods in my stories.”

She has used Affinity for several years to create beautiful character concepts and figurative art.

Check out more of Roberta’s work on her website, Instagram, Artstation and visit her YouTube for speed paints of her work.