Until recently, Affinity Photo image editor was the best Photoshop alternative for anyone wanting to avoid Adobe’s pricey subscription, but its £60 one-off fee still put many people off. Now, with the

Dark and reflection nebulae are among the trickiest targets for imagers. Teasing out details so that they stand out from the background sky, especially through bad light pollution, can be tough, and e

You will learn How to blend layers for a smooth finish Deciding when to blend or not Other tools to use for blending Welcome back to the Colour Pencil Clinic, your monthly exploration of tips, tricks

For my amaryllis project, I will paint from the reference photo (right), I found on Pixabay. I may incorporate other elements that are not even there, for example, I thought salt might be a great effe

Like many artists, I often develop designs for paintings from photographic reference, despite its still being thought of by many as cheating. They argue that it is only by working directly from the su

When painting from a reference photo, it’s fair to say that composition is already there for you. But when we paint in the great outdoors, it suddenly becomes very difficult. You have a wide periphera