in the holster, you got it

looking at this later I feel like I should have included the box the back leg was on hah, it’s missing that context. but whatever, it’s a study :3

love how you’re not afraid to redraw and flip a lot as you go, I often get stuck with accidentally committing to odd shapes out of stubbornness haha

use em!

The only gotcha there is that .af won't load on v2, so do be aware that saving in v3 is a one-way activity. If you decide you want out you have to use interchange formats like .psd and .svg

Anyway I wrote that whole thing not to defend a corporation or piece of software. But because I'm tired of people causing themselves panic and stress over something that didn't happen, but they fear might happen someday. Yeah things suck but you have freedom of choice. Empower yourselves!

tl;dr: fuck AI and subscriptions but you can throw that out of the free candy bag and if you don't like the candy next year then you can get a different kind

Do I *recommend* the Affinity suite for a new artist or for painting? No, it kinda sucks at that workflow and is a complex piece of software. Graphic, vector design, publishing? Sure.

Folks miss the point that this is free, and that *you can change* the software you're using. Choosing Photoshop of Affinity or whatever isn't a lifetime commitment. You'll be better at your work by knowing the concepts behind the programs, not the apps themselves.

People keep panicking on what things *might* be. Will things enshittify years later? Yeah, probably. But this works well *now*, and someone at Affinity has done their homework to make sure that people who don't want AI or a subscription aren't alienated. I appreciate that.

"What if they train on your art?" They're not, they've stated this pretty plainly, and this is a pretty auditable statement given that this is a desktop app that works offline. It will be very easy to tell if your work starts to get mysteriously uploaded somewhere.

But what if newer features become locked behind a subscription? Well... then they are. The base product, which is still *more* software than the full paid v2 suite, is free. What if the whole thing goes subscription? Well, fuck, but then I'll export as PSD and go elsewhere.