Alexolotlechuga

Thank you and welcome to the forum! I've been doing this basically since 2020. Everything here is all the Paint.net projects I've completed that commit to demonstrating my design ideas. I've been using the software for much longer though.

I am not aware of any plugins that produce any kind of gradient like this. Although you could use the Frosted Glass effect and adjust the parameters to make it noisy and harsh. You can also put a noise layer on top of your canvas with a blend mode. I really like to use this technique in my art. Below is a sample of what that looks like.

When I want to go back without losing my latest version, I copy the latest version, paste it somewhere else, then undo. But if you really need to put all of your steps in memory, you can copy the canvas for each step, then press Win+V to see your clipboard history.

I've been meaning to make this since I've joined. I love music (particularly leftfield electronic) and I love the interesting art that gets made for it. Here's me desperately trying to emulate what I see and wishing I actually made anything for any piece of music. Click the images to get a closer look. Enjoy :­) Year 2020 Despite using PDN for many years prior to making this, I would consider this the first thing I made where I expressed my passion for design. Year 2020 Took individual photos of streaks of light from a landline. Experimented with compositing them and I was pleased with the result. Year 2020 I actually made this in 2019 where the original resolution was 1920x1080. In 2020 I extended it to 1920x1920. Year 2020 Birthday cake. Took multiple photos with different lighting. Composited them together to get an interesting effect. Year 2021 A commission for a friend. Year 2021 I used the same technique from the birthday cake on this ice cream. Year 2021 Alternate version of the previous. Year 2021 Inspired by the styles various album covers. The glyphs are abstract. Year 2021 Alternate versions of the previous. Year 2021 Much like the previous two. Engraving says "DISSIPATED." Year 2021 Used Photoshop only for the halftone effect. Text is "synergy." Year 2021 I love juxtaposition and surrealism a lot. Year 2022 The numbers is "flora" represented in binary. Year 2022 Alternate version of the previous. Year 2022 Felt inspired by an album cover as I usually do. Year 2022 Mr. Lechuga in the flesh. "Lorem" as in lorem ipsum. Year 2022 I designed this text "bluue" in a level builder in some video game. Year 2022 Inspired by the graphic style of said video game from the previous. Year 2022 Alternate version of the previous. Year 2023 If I made the cover art for a cassette tape.

With any tool selected, you are able to pan by holding spacebar and you can zoom by holding control and scrolling with the mouse wheel. I have Paint.net as my default program to view images and it works for me.

I've managed with using the brush with a spacing of 25% and hardness 0%. It's not like the old soft brush exactly, but it's close enough. I admit that I was making this out to be worse than it is when I discovered this new behavior initially. I would still love to have that option, but I doubt anything will be done about it as it is intentional. I will get used to the new brush.

If the drawing is done entirely in black ink, and the background (say the "paper" the drawing is on) is one solid color, it sounds like to me you can change the hue of the whole image. If you want to do this in Paint.net, then you would use Adjustments / Hue / Saturation... (Ctrl+Shift+U) and drag the sliders around to achieve the color you want. This will work if the background isn't solid white.

Man, those glass and chrome works of yours are crazy. You got a lot going on here. What a gallery to look through!

Looks like I didn't install that effect previously. I have gotten it now. That almost trivializes this process. Plus the outline looks way better! So, I would use that effect that BoltBait suggested. Then, with the magic wand, select the insides of the text outlines (hold Ctrl to select multiple regions) (change the tolerance to around 70-80% in order to select all the transparent pixels from inside the outline). Finally, in a new layer below the outline layer, fill in those selection regions with the color you want. That would be my new steps which is a lot quicker than my previous steps. I suppose another way to do the text fill would be to use the effect to create normal text without the outline and just line that up below the outline layer.

You may want to ignore this reply and look at BoltBaits reply for an easier way to do this. I was able to recreate this with some plugins. The effects I used from those plugins were Outline Object and Make Color Transparent. You can download them by clicking on those links. You can click the images to see the large version. First I type the text and place it where I want it to be. (It's better to place the text where you will want to keep it since it isn't very convenient to move it after you're done). I duplicate the layer with the text (Ctrl+Shift+D), move that duplicate layer above the layer with the object, then make the text white by turning up the brightness all the way (Ctrl+Shift+U). Then I use the Outline Object effect on the text layer above the layer with the object. I made the outline color the same as the color of the original text layer. Finally I use the Make Color Transparent effect on the text with the outline. I have it detect the color white transparent so only the outline remains. Adjust the settings where it looks best. Of course the text doesn't have to be blue, you can do any color. If you wanted white text, then you should make the duplicated text black instead, then when you use Make Color Transparent, have it detect the color black instead of white. Or you can adjust the hue and saturation of the text and outline after you are done. I hope I explained that well enough, but do ask questions if you run into any problems. 🙂

Hey, welcome to the forum! Cool to have a veteran user find their way onto here. I've hardly ever seen anybody use PDN for drawing, and I salute you for trying. Your experience shows through the patterns, scenes, effects, and lighting. Your works will be a great addition to the steady flow of creations we have here. Keep us updated on anything new!

Some thick snowfall here took me by surprise, but none of it stayed. I like the depth you added to the edges of each color as well as the texture. It reminds me of an illustration for a picture book that's made out of different layers of construction paper.

I have noticed this as well. I made a topic addressing it, hoping that it may not have been intentional.

I use the brush and eraser of varying hardness for many applications. Whether it be for quick shadows, gradients, and vignettes. Pre 5.0, the brush and eraser with a hardness of 0 was very smooth, just like that of a gradient. In 5.0, the same brush I think looks more organic, but not what I desire. The effect which I describe is more apparent in large brush sizes, which I rely on. I found that changing the spacing to about 10% makes it smoother (still not as perfect as before), but it looses the intensity of the color (i.e. painting solid black on solid white will look grey). I see this change becoming a nuisance and a serious hurdle for the things I like to create in PDN. I hope there can be some kind of toggle for legacy brush behavior. I apologize if this came off a little unappreciative. Let me know what you think. I don't have any good photo examples of the pre-5.0 brush unfortunately.

You can rectangle-select the part you want, cut it (Ctrl+X), create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N), and paste your selection (Ctrl+V). You will be able to move it next to anything without the transparent part cutting off the other part of the image. You can merge the layers once you're done.