Do you sell your artwork online, and want to help your potential buyers visualize your work more effectively?

Do you already use mockups, but wish you could create your own custom designs that are more cohesive with your style, and show it in it's best light?

Or, maybe you just want to create a gallery wall in your own home, and want to save time and frustration by creating a quick mockup.

In this class, I'll show you how to use Affinity Designer for iPad V2, to create your own, unique to scale mockups for your wall art. Whether you're selling your work, sharing on social media, or decorating your home, you're in the right place.

Hi everyone!

I'm Tracey... a photographer, illustrator, and Top Teacher, here on Skillshare!

I've been selling my photographic, and illustration, work online for almost 15 years, on both Etsy, as well as my own website. Using to scale mockups that complement my work, has not only helped my listings stand out, helped potential buyers better visualize it, up on a wall, in a variety of sizes.

Best of all, being able to create my own, to scale, mockups allows me to take a consultative approach with serious buyers by allowing me to create custom mockups of my work up on a wall in their own space.

This has not only led to larger prints being purchased, but, in many cases, multiple prints, rather than single.

In this class, we'll walk step by step through the most efficient way to create to scale, realistic frame mockups by assigning a drawing scale using Affinity Designer's Measure tool.

With all of the mockups for sale, you might be wondering why create your own mockups, rather than purchase them? Great question!

As an Affinity user, you may have noticed, there aren't a lot of mockups out there created in Affinity, for Affinity. While Photoshop mockups can be used, and Smart Objects are recognized, sometimes they don't work exactly the way they were intended and you have to do a lot of rework before the mockup can be used. Creating your own mockups in Affinity Designer means you can rest assured they will work in the entire Affinity suite.
Creating your own custom mockups means that you control the overall feel of them, right down to the background. This allows you to create mockups that complement your work, allowing potential buyers to see it in it's best light.
Being able to create your own mockups will allow you to provide consultation to potential buyers who are undecided and want to see your work up on their walls. With a quick photo of their space, and some measurements, you can create a variety of options for your buyers, allowing them to make a more informed decision. More often than not, for me, this lead to me selling larger prints, and sets rather than single images.
If you participate in art festivals and shows, have a space in a brick and mortar shop, or just want to create a gallery wall in your own home, custom mockups allow you to plan ahead. Being able to mockup the space allows you to work efficiently, with less frustration and, if you're like me... less holes to fill later!

In this class, we will cover...

Best practices for sourcing images for your mockups
- We will explore the various free use image sites, such as Unsplash, Pixabay and Pexels, as well as Designer's own Stock Studio.
- We'll discuss the do's and don'ts when using free use images for mockups
- We'll cover what to look for, and what to avoid, when choosing images for the background of your mockup.
The basics of drawing to scale
- I'll show you how the Measure tool and Drawing to Scale works, and why you want to set a scale when creating your frame mockups
How to create a single, to scale frame
- We'll create a base of vector layers for a frame, mat and a placeholder for our images
- We'll cover best practices for saving the flat version of your frame mockup to your assets, and linking them across all of your Affinity apps, so you can create mockups in the future, without having to start from scratch and,
- I'll show you how to quickly add texture, and build up dimension, using the Appearance Panel, Fill tool, Vector Flood Fill and Contour Tools.
How to efficiently create a multi frame set, or gallery wall to scale
- I'll show you how you can easily set your frames at perfect distances using the Transform panel and,
- How to create a set of frames that will fill the space, without overwhelming it.
We'll talk about what you would need to create custom mockups for potential buyers
- I'll walk you through the measurements, and other information, you'll need to create the mockup so they can see your work up on their walls.

When you're finished with class, you'll have everything you need to continue to create your own realistic, to scale mockups and build a library of mockup assets that you'll be able to use in the future.

Affinity Designer V2
- I will be creating my to scale mockups using the iPad version of Affinity Designer V2. If you are on the desktop version, the process is the same so, as long as you know where the tools are located, you can easily follow along.
- Both Affinity Photo & Publisher also have the Measure tool so you can follow along using either of them as well.
Images for your mockups
- It will be helpful if you have a few images handy when creating your mockups. If you don't, you can pull images from the Stock Studio.
Free use images for your backgrounds
- Don't worry! We will be going over sourcing background images in the class. When we do, just pick a handful of your favorites, to build your own mockups.

For those on V1 of the app, I'm sorry but the Measure Tool was only made available as of V2, in both the iPad and desktop apps.

Please note, this class is intended for intermediate users of Affinity Designer. While beginners are welcome to take the class, we will not be going through the entire interface in this class, so it will be helpful if you are able to navigate the site.

When you take this class, you will receive:

A set of metallic gradient swatches that I have created just for this class
A set of 20 real wood and metal texture frame styles that I've created. I will show you how to use them to quickly add texture and dimension to your frames with a single click.
A PDF class guide with tips and tricks on creating your own frame mockups

I will show you how to download and import both in the third video in the class. You can find the link to the downloads in the PDF I've shared in the Projects & Resources of the class.

Hi there! I'm Tracey. I'm an illustrator, designer, and photographer located in the Chicagoland area. You can find more information about me, and my work in my full profile. (find the link above) I've been a full time artist for over a decade, after leaving the corporate world behind in 2011. In addition to teaching, I am a full time creator who sells my work on my own site, as well as print on demand sites like Spoonflower, Society6, Etsy and more.

I've been using Affinity products for the last several years and love to learn as much as I can about the tools so I can not only use them the way they were intended to work but make them work for me; and I love sharing that knowledge with my students! I've had the privilege of being spotlighted by Serif, the company who created the app, twice as a go to teacher for their apps. You can find links to the spotlight articles on my profile page.

If you have any questions about the class, or would like feedback on your project, please feel free to let me know in the Discussion section of class, or by emailing me at hello@traceycapone.com.

I look forward to seeing you in class!

Music Credit: "A Ghost in Someone's Body," by Ben Reneer on artlist.io

Martyn

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