In the world of digital illustration, tools and techniques significantly impact the final outcome. I personally started off with raster art in Procreate, as many of us :) Next, I switched to vector art in Affinity Designer, which for many many reasons worked out the best for me. If you’d like to see a few more examples, check out the article on my website: “Here’s Why I Love Illustrating Children’s Picture Books With Vectors“.
One of the top 3 questions that I get asked is about vector brushes in Affinity Designer. We also tackled this topic in our Facebook group for Affinity and Fresco users. Many artists think that those “vector” brushes are not good enough because these are actually raster textures on a vector path, and therefore no “real” vector brushes. How does Serif (the maker of Affinity) officially describe their vector brushes?:
“With the Vector Brush Tool you can create a hand-painted look by painting freehand, variable width, lines and shapes as if you were painting on paper. Its vector characteristics means you can edit the stroke at any time.”
What can we see there?
those brushes give a “hand-painted look”, which is a characteristic of raster strokes - as if you were painting on paper
but, they also have vector characteristics, which means they are highly editable
In other words, they look like raster art but their nature remains vector. Sounds great, right? :) To me it sounded lovely (giggle), so I started experimenting with them at length. Over time, I’ve gathered so much experience with them that now I am ready to write this knowledge article, so that I can simply send a link to this blog article for those of you who would profit from a written analysis of Affinity’s vector brushes. Also, stay tuned for an explainer video on my YouTube channel.
PS: Have a look at all the details in the pictures below, those two illustrations were drawn with a vector base and all the details were created with vector brushes. No pixel persona, 100% vector paths! It’s worth reading this article till the end :D
Can vectors support textures?
Allow me please to explain with a metaphor :) Are apples and oranges the same? They’re both fruit but we can all agree they’re not the same? Say, you could pick only one, but you want both. If you choose an apple would you still try to turn it into an orange? Or an apple-orange hybrid? :) The point that I am trying to make here is that sometimes you can’t have both and they’re both different (but both cool). Apples can be sweeter and firmer, oranges can be more sour and squishy. They both have different characteristics and that’s their nature. In a similar way, pixels, short for "picture elements", are the smallest units of a digital image, like a tiny grid that together makes a picture. And then vectors are composed of paths, which are defined by mathematical equations rather than pixels. These paths can represent lines, curves, shapes, and colors.
Pixels (our apples) are like little building blocks, like legos that will build your picture. Vectors (our oranges) are paths and maths, like soft and smooth waves. So on one hand we have blocks and squares, and on the other hand we have waves and curves. It is much easier to build textures with blocks, aka with pixels, because waves and curves are softer and more organized. Let’s also not forget about the transparency aspects. A watercolor semi-transparent texture will be hard to create using vector paths, unless you are using some Transparency Tool gradient option. But even if using the gradient tool, the transparency will be more “linear”.
This is important to understand that raster vs vector have different natures, catering to different needs and applications. So whether you choose tools and software that focuses on a raster technology (Procreate, Photoshop) or one that focuses on a vector technology predominantly (Designer, Illustrator), this will dictate your outcome and will influence your style (because you will have to create within the limits of the tool that you are using). Check out my older Procreate art vs my more recent Affinity Designer art:
Are vector brushes the best compromise?
Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of vector brushes. At first, I really wasn’t, because I didn’t “get them”. After weeks and weeks of experiments I can finally say that I am a believer. That’s this little thing between me and Affinity products - I start with a big dose of mistrust (and hope), there is a moment I give up, then I give it another try, and something just clicks and I am truly converted! This was exactly the same with vector brushes.
What are they really? In essence, it is a raster texture placed on a vector path. So let’s summarize what happens there as you draw with vector brushes:
you are drawing a vector path, with editable nodes
this path is also highly editable through the Stroke Studio = you can manipulate its width
the vector-brush path that you draw is highly editable vie the Color Studio = you can change colors in seconds and even apply global colors, just like for any other vector line
you also have an option to change your mind about your texture type and you can edit your brush stroke via the Brush Studio, super easy and convenient (not possible with raster brushes because once you paint with a given brush, you can’t magically change what drew it into another brush type)
what you draw will be also further editable = you can use blend modes, adjust the opacity etc.
Using vector brushes in Affinity, you can achieve a whole range of artistic effects from more painterly acrylics or watercolors, to more graphic textures shapes. It is all down to experimenting with them and finding your favorite brushes, which admittedly takes some time, but it’s very much worth it.
Are vector brushes scalable?
Yes, that was the biggest concern of my students when they asked me about vector brushes - but they aren’t real vector brushes because there is a raster texture on a path! The biggest concern was that if there is some raster element, it will behave like raster = it will get pixelated when scaling up the illustration.
Here is the good news! - nope, don’t worry because vector brush strokes behave quite like vectors and they will retain their sharpness even if you export your image at a much bigger size. Let’s for instance export my cheerful mermaids illustration and see everythign on an example. The original canvas size for this illustrations is 4000x4000px and we will export it at 3x its original size, 12000x12000px. So here it goes, we go to the export panel in Affinity Designer and we change our 4000px value to 12000px. You can go as big as you like, experiment, choose 20000 if you want to.
Next, I am saving my image into my iPad storage. Because I scaled it up, the file size jumped from 8MB to above 35MB, which was to be expected. I will delete that export later on so that it doesn’t clog up my iPad storage. The results? We exported the illustration at 3x the size, and there is no quality loss whatsoever, no pixelation:
Goodie, it’s as sharp as my original 4000x4000px canvas, wohooo! So what is the conclusion?
Vector brushes allow raster textures with vector scalability
The title says it all, I’m in love with the vector-brush solution! If you’re still not sure why, you may want to re-read thsi article and better yet, run your own experiments, use a few vector brushes in Affinity Designer, take them for a spin and make sure to experiment with your export output so that you can believe that the quality will be retained and there will be no pixelation.
In my opinion, this is THE best way to marry raster with vector, aka create a hybrid of apples with oranges :) Let’s summarize the advantages of using vector brushes:
they give you much more scalability compared with raster brushes
no matter how much you scale your artwork, it will always remain sharp and clear
they will allow you for precise control over shapes and lines
they can beautifully simulate a wide range of textures and details, which otherwise would be impossible with pure vector paths
Don’t be afraid to use the Vector Brush Tool in Affinity Designer. Stay tuned for new illustration courses for Affinity Designer where I’m teaching more about vector-raster tools in illustration work.
Happy creating!
MEET THE ARTIST
I’m Weronika, but everyone calls me Wera. I’m a freelance illustrator, surface pattern designer and teacher based in Germany, originally from Poland.
I help other grow their creative business - artists, illustrators, designers. You can read me here on Substack, follow me on Instagram, or watchmy free videos on YouTube. Perhaps you’ll join my Portfolio Club on Patreon?
Hi! I’m Weronika Salach, a freelance illustrator specializing in children’s books, toy design and surface pattern design. Internationally I’m represented by Advocate Art. Over 35,000 happy students have taken my digital illustration courses and watched my YouTube videos. Let’s connect :)
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