Below are some tutorials to get you started with Affinity the first is a general tutorial to introduce you to the basic concepts in Affinity. There are lots of different tutorials available for you to watch Affinity Serif the Affinity website official tutorials and the Affinity Revolution which has created and has uploaded lot of tutorials. The first video covers the following topics: 1. Opening Images 2. Affinity Photo's Interface 3. Cropping 4. Removing Imperfections 5. Adjustment Layers 6. Masks 7. Selections 8. Changing the Background 9. Adding Text 10. Saving and exporting.
Use your time out of school to improve your skills. Work through the tutorials to learn new techniques - you never know what will be useful next year. If you edit your own photographs using these techniques you can submit them as part of your coursework. You cannot submit edits using downloaded photos (unless the majority of the photos are yours - you must reference any found images - however you will still learn the techniques)
Choose a colourful image - Make a duplicate - cmd J - Filter - Distort - Mirrors Choose number of mirrors - e.g. 16 - change input and output which rotates the image e.g. 225 degrees To make a repeat pattern - Make a duplicate of your kaleidoscope - cmd J - Filter - Distort - Alfine - change to 50% and wrap and experiment