Painting in V3 almost unusable for me

Well.. I solved the lag issues (that definitely can show up) by doing certain changes in preferences... by default, I'd get some lag, too. But configuring things in a certain way, Photo is flawless for painting. Brushes with a higher number for the distance between samples, no line smoothing, no wet edges, and of traditional media, mostly the standard brushes from the app, the default ones, which are typically fast.... I believe helped, among several other things, deactivating OpenCL. Turns out it is detrimental for painting, for some reason... and I believe also configuring Windows INK deactivated for my wacom's specific profile for Photo (I have an Intuos 4). "High Precision" in Photo's preferences, and some other things changed there (I have it all in my notes, lol, can't remember right now). Photo (v2) allows one to paint smoothly even on an Adobe RGB, 16-bit file of large dimensions and several layers, and using reasonably big brushes (if all is configured in a certain way in preferences and the wacom utility).

Kudos for two things...: Keeping an Intuos 1 (I keep one on a shelf, due to nostalgia) and mostly, using oil pastels. I was always more about actual oil paints, but those are great, too. Let alone a 3B pencil (and really anything between 2B and 6B). I had a passion for Staedtler pencils (particularly 2B).

Quote from SrPx

Keeping an Intuos 1

Hey, thanks to https://github.com/thenickdude/wacom-driver-fix ! It's the A5 model. However, it lives in my backyard studio and I've barely ever used it in the past few years.
Mostly I'm using another oldie, the cheap A6 Graphire 3 for quick retouching of photos or scans. Also via the driver fix. But both fixes don't get along very well. At least they are both still usable and I don't need to buy yet another piece of gear.

And the oil pastels are my old passion that began in the mid-80s at the art school, especially while we were working with the whole class on illustrations for a scientific book about the upcoming climate change. Yep, serious scientists already knew then what's coming at us in the 21st century, and so did we as the book artists! And now it's here.
Here I have found an early 1990s reedition of the book for sale:

Climate - our future ?

Climate - our future? : dedication : this book ist dedicated to my long-time mentor, Professor Hans Oeschger who is one of the pioneers in the science of…

amazon.com

On back cover, the chapter 4 illustration with the Earth under the "cheese dome" was one of my early oil pastel works. There's more of them inside, mostly I did illustrations where lots of "dirt" was needed…
Oh, found another one of mine from the book: https://rezised-images.knhbt.cz/1920x1920/58212325.webp → Hannibal crossing the Alps
(Note to self: should scan my copy. In fact, I should still have the originals somewhere!)

Anyway… that's now quite off topic.

In any case, while I can visually mimic my style in Affinity using the default brushes quite well, it's just not the same process as the real thing.

Quote from SrPx

I had a passion for Staedtler pencils (particularly 2B).

I used Berol Turquoise. 2B or not 2B!

Quote from loukash

Hey, thanks to https://github.com/thenickdude/wacom-driver-fix ! It's the A5 model. However, it lives in my backyard studio and I've barely ever used it in the past few years.

Amazing! I have a bunch of older tablets (one even older than the Intuos 1! from before Wacom existed), just for sentimental reasons, lol.
BTW, great that some people have given support to specific old tablet models. But in case it happens with other tablet brands as well, or... for the future, or anyone reading this thread from now on, having an old tablet of any brand, not just Wacom...keep reading! ... Wacom stops driver support for a tablet after 10-12 years. Which is "kind of reasonable" and probably better than other brands, but there's an amazing open-source project, and from what I know, it works quite well (your tablet's vendor driver is preferable, surely, while it's current). It is ideal to "keep alive" a lot of tablets. Good for the environment! I'm all for reusing stuff and countering planned obsolescence. Good for both one's pocket and the planet:

OpenTabletDriver

I had the Intuos 1 A4 model (quite big) perfectly working until some barbarians in a game studio scratched it with a screwdriver or something during their shift.
" Yeah, we were partying; sorry about that " . Like it was something minor!! (Spanish furor) In a certain way, I hate the late 90s/early 2000s....As much as I miss them.

Quote from loukash

Mostly I'm using another oldie, the cheap A6 Graphire 3 for quick retouching of photos or scans. Also via the driver fix. But both fixes don't get along very well. At least they are both still usable and I don't need to buy yet another piece of gear.

Well...maybe consider checking how opentabletdriver works for you, if it plays better with both tablets installed (I've no idea). Small tablets like an A5 and A6 are perfect for photo retouching and pixel art. For high-res illustration... Very little control over the line or brush strokes... I typically recommend something bigger, like at least a 10- to 11-inch-wide active area. Ideally bigger: the perfect drawing device is IMO a Wacom Intuos L pen tablet. Both the 2017 and the 2025 editions (this one has been "downgraded" in design! Why the heck are they putting the buttons at the top and making too thin bezels...! But the Pro Pen 3 might compensate for that... it's really good. I know some professional Japanese manga artists are quite mad about the bezels). But yeah, too big for photo retouching in most cases. For folks having never touched a pen tablet, the hand-screen coordination is too tough, and they typically are better off with a pen display (Cintiq, Huion, XPpen) or a standalone tablet of at least 12 inches (Samsung Galaxy Tab FE (cheaper series), just an iPad Air (or Pro if being rich) and the Apple pro pen. I still think a large pen tablet or a 22-24 pen display is better than those (personal opinion!).

Quote from loukash

And the oil pastels are my old passion that began in the mid-80s at the art school, especially while we were working with the whole class on illustrations for a scientific book about the upcoming climate change. Yep, serious scientists already knew then what's coming at us in the 21st century, and so did we as the book artists! And now it's here.
Here I have found an early 1990s reedition of the book for sale:

Nice work! Oil pastels are somewhat less messy than pure oil paint (and yet I love that). And the technique is closer to drawing, but with more plasticity. I actually started in color as a kid with pastels (pure pastels, the dust-heavy ones )

Quote from loukash

In any case, while I can visually mimic my style in Affinity using the default brushes quite well, it's just not the same process as the real thing.

Affinity (Photo) is quite good for painting, yep. I of course prefer Rebelle (literally traditional media mimicking, unrivaled), Clip Studio Paint (overall best drawing solution, not so much for traditional media) or Krita (free and good), but it is SUPER handy to be able to paint well inside Affinity when one is doing a project that requires a lot of image editing, so to not have to swap in the middle of a project to an external app.

Quote from Tom

I used Berol Turquoise. 2B or not 2B!

Didn't know this one! Each region/country gets different brands, I guess...My country's (Spain) most usual one in the shops was typically the German Staedtler. Are these the ones you used?



As a kid and teenager, I typically used basic Staedtler's school ones, HB and H pencils for main idea sketching, as it was cheaper, but for shading and finishing, a 2B or softer from both Staedtler and Faber Castell. Very good pencils. And yeah, that particular eraser's brand.

Thanks, SrPx, but let's not "hi-jack" and "derail" this thread…

Well...IMO the main question had been fully answered....

[nostalgic old fart over and out ]

Quote from SrPx

Didn't know this one! Each region/country gets different brands, I guess...My country's (Spain) most usual one in the shops was typically the German Staedtler. Are these the ones you used?

Yes. I remember Staedtler products were available but I ended up with Berol 1980. 6B-8H.

Quote from loukash

hold the I key to temporarily activate the Color Picker tool

Just to clarify: that isn’t the L key, it’s the i key (as in eyedropper).

I still have issues with the supplied brushes in all Affinity apps whatever version is used. There is a tendancy for the spacing to be set too low. increasing the spacing will speed up brushes. Also:
a. Reduce the reliance on dynamics ..less Dynamics = faster brushes
b. X-Y jitters can slow your brush
c. Using Sub-brushes can slow your brush
d. Using large unnecessary Nozzles can slow you brush
e. Make better use of the Dynamics graphs...they can really change how a brush works (less brushes >variety)
f. Make you own...it's fun!