Affinity Photo Tutorial: The Christmas Angel

Affinity Photo: Creating a metal effect and painting shadows - "The Christmas Angel" (Parts 9-10/14)

Marco Kolditz
published:

The angel already has it - the wings still need it: a shiny metallic effect. This time you create it in Affinity Photo with an HSL adjustment and gradient conversion. We also need to paint a shadow. All this - in parts 9-10/14 of our Christmas tutorial series.


Part 9: Metal effect for the wings with HSL adjustment and gradient conversion

High time for even more sparkle and effect! The position and alignment of the wings to our Christmas angel are already correct. However, the look doesn't really fit at the moment. So now apply a metallic effect to the wings. This time, use a different method to the angel by first desaturating the wings using an HSL adjustment and then applying a gradient conversion . How? Once again, trainer Marco Kolditz will explain ...

Affinity Photo: The wings get a metallic effect in this tutorial part
As if cast from a single mold: In this tutorial part, the wings are given a metallic sheen.

This is what you'll learn in part 9 of the Affinity Photo tutorial

  • How to use the HSL adjustment and the gradient conversion
  • Use the HSL adjustment to convert motifs to black and white.
  • Use the gradient conversion to further enhance the metallic effect.

Desaturate wings with HSL adjustment

Now the wings should also be given a metallic look . I create a new adjustment layer above the two "Wings" layers: To desaturate the wings, I select "Wings left" (1) and the HSL adjustment (2) under Adjustment. Here we drag the saturation slider completely to the left (3). This makes the wings appear black and white (4).

You could leave it like this. However, I would like to adjust the whole thing to the metallic look of the dancer by using a gradient conversion...

Affinity Photo: Black and white conversion using HSL adjustment
Set the saturation in the HSL adjustment to -100 % to display the wings in black and white.

Create gradient conversion

The adjustment layer is active (1). Under Adjustment, I select the gradient conversion (2). This still looks a bit strange. In the dialog box (3), we can set the gradient conversion, i.e. we can colour the individual tonal values of this layer - we can select different shades from the dark to the light areas.

The red tone values are currently the dark areas, the green values are the medium gray areas and the blue values are the very light areas.

Affinity Photo: Preparing a metal effect using a gradient conversion
You can use the gradient conversion to assign colors to the different tonal values.

Adjusting the gradient conversion for the metal effect

Of course, I don't want colorful wings, but rather metallic ones. That's why we're working with gray values . I select the first anchor point (1), go to Color (2) and select the HSL slider (3).

I set the saturation to 0 (4) so that there are only gray values. The dark areas in the image should be more of a medium gray (5).

Affinity Photo: Affinity Photo: Preparing a metal effect with a gradient conversion
For the metal look, use completely desaturated settings in the HSL slider.

The light areas on the right-hand side should be white. To do this, I select the point (1), go back to Color (2), drag the saturation to 0 (3) and select the white (4).

Affinity Photo: Create metal effect via HSL adjustment and gradient conversion
Set the right-hand point to white.

I also create two more anchor points by clicking on the center line (1). One will be a darker gray (2), the other a white (3) and the last a dark gray again (4). I can move the points on the line (5). I also reduce the opacity to 91 % (5).

Affinity Photo: Create metal effect via HSL adjustment and gradient conversion
Create further points and assign the corresponding gray values to them.

I darken the white of the middle point slightly (1). I move the anchor points until I like the metallic effect (2) . Something like this:

Affinity Photo: Result - the entire motif with a shiny metallic effect
Create more points to which you assign the corresponding gray values.

Metal effect with HSL adjustment and gradient conversion - summary part 9

  • With the HSL adjustment, you can achieve a black and white conversion by dragging the saturation slider all the way to the left.
  • In the gradient conversion, you can add new anchor points, move them and remove them again if necessary.
  • Play with the position and color of the anchor points as well as with the opacity until the metallic effect meets your requirements.

Part 10: Painting and blurring the wing shadows

Do you love detail? So does your trainer Marco Kolditz. As explained below using the example of the Christmas angel, you should pay attention to the lighting conditions in all your composings and draw in shadows accordingly . See how easy it is to do this using a new layer, the paint brush and Gaussian blur.

Affinity Photo: Painting shadows for more realism
Looks good already? But it gets even better. Now let's draw realistic-looking shadows.

This is what you'll learn in part 10 of the Affinity Photo tutorial

  • How to paint and blur shadows with the paint brush
  • Shortcut: How to adjust the size and hardness of the brush with the mouse

Importing an image into Affinity Photo

Above the gradient conversion, I create a new empty layer (2) in the layer palette using this icon (1). Let's paint a little shadow on it. To do this, I zoom into the picture so that we can see both the hands and the wing area. Press the B button to switch to the paint brush tool(3). I want to use this to paint the shadow into the picture.

A little tip here: You can adjust both the size and the hardness of a brush using your mouse . To do this, hold down the Alt keyand simultaneously press the left and right mouse buttons. If you drag the mouse to the right or left, you can adjust the size (4). If you drag it up or down, you can adjust the hardness (5). This is quite practical if you are using a mouse.

If you are using a graphics tablet with a pen, you will have a problem at this point, because touching the tablet with the pen is equivalent to a left mouse click. This means that you would actually have to touch the graphics tablet to adjust the size of the brush. Of course, enlarging and reducing the size of the brush tip in this way is a bit tedious, because you sometimes make brushstrokes by mistake. Photoshop has a better solution. All you have to do is press the Alt keyand right mouse button. But perhaps this will be improved in future versions of Affinity Photo or at least be customizable. At the moment (with version 1.6) you can't change this.

Affinity Photo: Adjusting the hardness and size of the brush with the mouse
If you are working with the mouse, hold down Alt and both mouse buttons to quickly adjust the hardness and size of the brush.

I switch to the pen and activate the pen's pressure sensitivity so that the brush tip becomes wider or smaller depending on how hard I press on the tablet. I now use black to paint the shadow into the picture. We can change the opacity afterwards.

We can see that the light is on the left and the shadow is on the right. This means that the model should cast a shadow on the wing (1). I deliberately only paint with the edge of the brush in this area so that this shadow has a nice soft gradient. As I work with a pen, I change the width of the paintbrush from time to time using the corresponding input field. The arm is slightly angled at the top (2), so I assume that the shadow will continue below the arm.

Affinity Photo: Shadow gradient on the right wing
Course of the shadow on the right wing

I would also like to have some shadow on the left side, although there is light here. However, the wing should appear slightly bent backwards. It doesn't merge directly into the body, but goes out to the back. The finger also has a shadow.

Affinity Photo: Shadow gradient on the left wing
Shadow gradient on the left wing

I apply the Gaussian blur to the layer under Filter>Blur. I set this to 21 px so that the shadow becomes softer (1). I also reduce the opacity of the layer to 70 % (2).

Affinity Photo: Gaussian blur provides a soft focus, reduced opacity for a softer appearance of the shadow.
The Gaussian blur creates a soft focus and the reduced opacity gives the shadow a softer appearance.

We have now assembled the angel with a uniform metallic effect and a matching shadow .

Affinity Photo: The Christmas angel is fully prepared and is now waiting for its surroundings.
The Christmas angel is fully prepared and now awaits its surroundings.

Painting and blurring shadows - summary part 10

  • Create a new layer and paint the shadows on it with a black brush.
  • Shortcut: Hold down Alt and both mouse buttons. Adjust the size of the brush by moving the mouse left and right. Adjust the hardness by moving the mouse up and down.
  • Use the Gaussian blur and opacity to soften the shadows and make them appear softer.

> To the previous parts 6 to 8 of the tutorial

> To the next parts 11 and 12

The content of this article is based on a video tutorial by our trainer Marco Kolditz:

Published on by Marco Kolditz
Published on: From Marco Kolditz
Marco Kolditz is a self-employed digital artist, editor and video trainer in Munich under the name MEER DER IDEEN. He also runs a blog magazine of the same name and a YouTube channel. In addition to video training for PSD tutorials, Marco Kolditz has already published numerous other video tutorials on Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator and written specialist articles on creative Photoshop composings for other specialist magazines such as DigitalPHOTO.
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