The Canon Magazine 65
AFFINITY BRUSH TECHNIQUES
STEP BY STEP BRUSH-BASED ARTWORK
Use the Affinity Brush tool in combination with layers and masks for an awesome scatter effect in Affinity
01 SELECT THE SUBJECT
Open the portrait and grab the Selection Brush from
the toolbar – paint over the subject to select her. Go to
Select>Refine Edges and increase the Border Width
to refine the selection. Set Output: Mask and OK. Go
to the Layers panel and click the Add Pixel Layer icon.
03 ROUGH UP THE MASK
Highlight the mask thumbnail on the portrait layer and
set the colour to black and use the Grunge brushes to
paint over the image. This will take chunks out of the
edges of the subject. Build up the effect with different
brushes and experiment with opacity to add depth.
05 USE SPLASH BRUSHES
Make two layers below the portrait layer and use the
ink brushes (see Quick Tip) to dab in dips of colour
behind the subject. Use the rotation control in the
brush settings to alter the shape of the splashes. Paint
a few drops of colour on the top layer too, if you like.
02 PAINT A TEXTURE
Drag the new layer to the bottom of the stack and go
to Edit>Fill and fill with white. Next make a new layer,
go to the Brushes panel (View>Studio>Brushes), click
the dropdown and choose Texture. Pick a brush, then
grab a grey in the Color panel and paint over the layer.04 SAMPLE AND PAINT
Make another pixel layer at the top of the stack, then
go to the Brushes panel and double-click the ‘Grunge
3’ brush to open settings. Increase Scattering and
Size Jitter. Hold Alt and click to sample colours, then
paint to scatter them around the edges of the figure.06 BLEND A PHOTO
Open a star photo from the NASA website, then copy
(Cmd/Ctrl+C) and paste (Cmd/Ctrl+V) it into the
main image. Go to the Blend Mode dropdown in the
Layers panel and choose Screen, using the Move tool
to alter the position. Make any tonal changes you like.NEXT MONTH
CLEAN SKIN IN
AFFINITYTo alter the hardness
when using the
brush, hold Ctrl+Alt
and left mouse
(Mac) or hold Alt
and right mouse
(Windows)QUICK TIP!
MAKE
YOUR OWNBRUSHES
We’ve supplied a set of
ink splash brushes in
the project files. To load
them, click the top-right
icon in the Affinity
Brushes panel and
choose ‘Import Brushes’.
To make your own, begin
by isolating a shape on a
transparent background,
then export it as a
PNG (see video for full
details). Once done, you
can head to the Brushes
panel, click the top-right
icon and choose ‘New
Intensity Brush’ then
load in the PNG.