Vector Workshop (2025) for Affinity

[Susan Ewart]

19 hours ago, Cristina said:

For sure they will! 😄 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

Here is the logo I created while practicing a tutorial from Affinity Revolution for Affinity Designer.

The logo Ally created was inspired by a Logo Template from the site “Heritage Type,” which offers graphic supplies for designers.

There is a free downloads section, “Free Vintage Illustrations,” from which I got the PDF flower illustration.

 

 

Thanks for the link Cristina.  I get their newsletter but didnt know about the free downloads.  

[Susan Ewart]

7 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Day 7

For this last day I managed to make a simple layout as well. I used the cloud shape with the silver bead on the bottom which gave me the idea to use a photo with some clouds. Text around that cloud shape is way too difficult to read therefore I draw a circle and put my text there. I cut my C in two and one part has recolored beads and a fitting color for the stroke and my K has 4 colors in the beads. I was tempted to use the spiral shape for that but because I have done so, I think 2 times in the PSP Vector workshop, I went with the cloud shape. Making the cuts in Affinity is so simple and for me that is great, no problem with my hands!

Thank you Carole for a very interesting Affinity Vector Workshop and a thank you to everybody for the lovely, divers and inspiring contributions!

Wow Corrie, this is stunning.  Everyone has done such interesting work, I am looking forward to getting the programs (if they come on sale - I hope someone let's us know if it does so we dont miss it).

[Cassel]

@Linda RexfordI'll look into converting some picture tubes for Affinity but I know, from trying already, that some won't be "convertible".

@CristinaThanks for the link to that site. That is a real gold mine! And yes, those image brushes in Affinity have some advantages, but also some inconveniences so Affinity will not REPLACE PSP for the picture tubes!

@Euka Great work with all those initials.

@Sue ThomasThat "accident" with the two layers give a pretty nice result! Now, time to figure it out! I am glad you were able to complete the last two lessons with Designer.

@JacquesThose little dinosaurs are cute. On the bottom project, I am not sure what was the image you used but as you can see, whatever it is shifts angle. If that is what you wanted, that is ok, but if it happened to be something that you don't want to rotate like that, there is one setting for Corners that you should set to Overlap. That will keep the design from stretching in a wierd way.

@gwen jewittGood work. I love the colors you used on the G. That hand-drawn flower is a success!

@Krystyna NichollsThere is a way to be precise when resizing, and it uses the Transform panel. Maybe we'll explore it later.

@MoniqueN.Since Affinity comes with a pretty good variety of brushes by default, I am sure you will have fun exploring them!

@Cindy SheetsGreat work on that leaf. You are getting more comfortable, I am sure.

@Gerry LandrethPlease, add the question to the Q&A thread so everything is in one place. I surely will also write a blog article for that as it is quite important.

@Corrie KinkelYour layout is great. It is a delight to see pages with those assignments.

@Jeni SimpsonTo get the cat's ears in front, you would have to cut part of the head and move it to a separate layer. It would be the "interlacing" technique, however, it is a little convoluted in Affinity, particularly to link the layers to keep them aligned. Just like any tool or program, vectors are not so scary once you know the basics. Then, you will feel more comfortable exploring them. At least, you know your computer won't explode if you click the "wrong" button!

@Raymond If you want to get the Designer app for a 90-day trial, drop me an email and I'll give you the links for it.

@AprilDawnYou are very good with your acrylic painting! Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried to apply those skills with digital painting?

@Linda RexfordThe leaves around your owl, were they meant to be stretched? Although it does look interesting to have them stretching in both directions, I was curious if it was on purpose.

@Susan EwartI PROMISE that if I hear of any sale of the Affinity suite, you will all be first to know!

Keep them coming. Some of you are just getting the lessons a little behind, but that is okay. When you get the link to the survey, make sure to fill it!

[Sharon Murray]

I was hoping to get all caught up today but other things kept getting in my way.

This is Day 6 - I don't know as much in Designer as I thought.  It took me forever to figure out how to change the brush size.  Then I couldn't figure out how to resize my canvas.  Once I figured it out, it resized my frame so small and it looked ugly, so I just had to go in a do it on a 600 x 600 px canvas.  I tried to do my initial (S) but the brushes never looked liked they were supposed to.  I resized them, stretched and pulled nodes and tried all kinds of things but never got it to look right so just gave up.  😢

[Jeni Simpson]

Sharon, I have been creating all my Affinity pages at 600x600, that way everything is a reasonable size and I don't need to remove so much excess from the page. Scrap pages I would do at 3600x3600, but these are not necessarily scrap pages, although you can add your creations to scrap pages as some have done.

[Carolyn Rye]

Lesson 7 Affinity.  I can really see the advantage of using both PSP and Affinity.  Each have their own specialties. How can we add more vector brushes to our Affinity resources?  Would be great to learn to do this. Just gives a bit more to play with 😆.

[Cristina]

3 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Thanks for the link Cristina.  I get their newsletter but didnt know about the free downloads.  

Susan, I learned about this through Ally's Affinity Designer tutorial. There's some interesting free vintage stuff.

[Carolyn Rye]

Lesson 6 using Affinity.  Decided to add a little extra just to prove to myself that I could do a bit more.  Used some extra layers and masks and also the Tube around the letter B.

[Sue Thomas]

17 minutes ago, Carolyn Rye said:

Lesson 6 using Affinity.  Decided to add a little extra just to prove to myself that I could do a bit more.  Used some extra layers and masks and also the Tube around the letter B.

You have done a grand job, in fact everyone has.  I was pleasantly surprised how easy it is to use so many tools in Affinity.  May I suggest  that you remove the  background paper from the counters in the letter B.  In typography the counters are the  negative areas  which are enclosed or partially enclosed by the letter. In other words, I believe it is  not part of the  letter itself.

Edited June 2 by Sue Thomas

[Jeni Simpson]

1 hour ago, Cristina said:

Susan, I learned about this through Ally's Affinity Designer tutorial. There's some interesting free vintage stuff.

Ally is also teaching on Udemy. I'm doing her Affinity Revolution classes, although not on Udemy.

[Jeni Simpson]

1 hour ago, Carolyn Rye said:

Lesson 7 Affinity.  I can really see the advantage of using both PSP and Affinity.  Each have their own specialties. How can we add more vector brushes to our Affinity resources?  Would be great to learn to do this. Just gives a bit more to play with 😆.

I like using certain filters in PSP, eg FilterForge and AlienSkin Eye Candy Impact. I wonder whether any can be used in Affinity. I haven't looked into that yet.

[Corrie Kinkel]

15 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Love the multi colours on the CK.  Like yourself, I get to play with designer through the trial period. I sincerely hope that it comes on sale at some point in time.  Using the  cutting tool in designer is by far less picky than in PSP

Thank you and I too hope that designer will be on sale. I only have the 7 days free trial and I don't think Affinity will give me another 90 days because I already had 90 days for Photo which I bought after the trial period. At the moment I probably won't ask Carole for the link and will try to learn more for Photo; I'm a bit pressed for time, my husband isn't well so I have to do more housekeeping, shopping etc. Besides all of that it will be summer and I want to spend time outside too; the summers here are not always great and you have to grab the opportunity when it is there. I'll see how it goes the coming weeks.

[Corrie Kinkel]

11 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

Wow Corrie, this is stunning.  Everyone has done such interesting work, I am looking forward to getting the programs (if they come on sale - I hope someone let's us know if it does so we dont miss it).

Thank you and I can only say that I like Affinity very much, a lot of things with those vectors are way easier than in PSP. I only bought Photo and will wait to see if there comes a sale, so I can buy Designer too. In the meantime there is enough to learn in Photo to keep me busy.

[Jacques]

43 minutes ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Thank you and I too hope that designer will be on sale. I only have the 7 days free trial and I don't think Affinity will give me another 90 days because I already had 90 days for Photo which I bought after the trial period. At the moment I probably won't ask Carole for the link and will try to learn more for Photo; I'm a bit pressed for time, my husband isn't well so I have to do more housekeeping, shopping etc. Besides all of that it will be summer and I want to spend time outside too; the summers here are not always great and you have to grab the opportunity when it is there. I'll see how it goes the coming weeks.

For my part, after my 90-day trial, I signed up for the "beta" version and got an additional 90 days with the key for the 1st 90 days: "https://affinity.serif.com/fr/affinity-beta-program/"

[Corrie Kinkel]

48 minutes ago, Jacques said:

For my part, after my 90-day trial, I signed up for the "beta" version and got an additional 90 days with the key for the 1st 90 days: "https://affinity.serif.com/fr/affinity-beta-program/"

Thanks, maybe I'll give it a try.

[Linda Rexford]

19 hours ago, gwen jewitt said:

Lesson 7 Thank you Carole for another great workshop in Vectors using Affinity everyone has had some amazing results, it's all a learning curve no matter if you are a novice or  experienced . Here are my efforts for lesson 7,  the letter B on the inside has a photo of my begonia from my hanging baskets which I  have just hung up outside. The last one is me playing around with the pencil tool in desinger and making this flower, I added a gradient to it and an elipse in the middle which I bevelled. 

 

Gwen, I love your flower!  It's beautiful!  (purple is my favorite color)

[Linda Rexford]

13 hours ago, Cassel said:

@Linda RexfordI'll look into converting some picture tubes for Affinity but I know, from trying already, that some won't be "convertible".

@CristinaThanks for the link to that site. That is a real gold mine! And yes, those image brushes in Affinity have some advantages, but also some inconveniences so Affinity will not REPLACE PSP for the picture tubes!

@Euka Great work with all those initials.

@Sue ThomasThat "accident" with the two layers give a pretty nice result! Now, time to figure it out! I am glad you were able to complete the last two lessons with Designer.

@JacquesThose little dinosaurs are cute. On the bottom project, I am not sure what was the image you used but as you can see, whatever it is shifts angle. If that is what you wanted, that is ok, but if it happened to be something that you don't want to rotate like that, there is one setting for Corners that you should set to Overlap. That will keep the design from stretching in a wierd way.

@gwen jewittGood work. I love the colors you used on the G. That hand-drawn flower is a success!

@Krystyna NichollsThere is a way to be precise when resizing, and it uses the Transform panel. Maybe we'll explore it later.

@MoniqueN.Since Affinity comes with a pretty good variety of brushes by default, I am sure you will have fun exploring them!

@Cindy SheetsGreat work on that leaf. You are getting more comfortable, I am sure.

@Gerry LandrethPlease, add the question to the Q&A thread so everything is in one place. I surely will also write a blog article for that as it is quite important.

@Corrie KinkelYour layout is great. It is a delight to see pages with those assignments.

@Jeni SimpsonTo get the cat's ears in front, you would have to cut part of the head and move it to a separate layer. It would be the "interlacing" technique, however, it is a little convoluted in Affinity, particularly to link the layers to keep them aligned. Just like any tool or program, vectors are not so scary once you know the basics. Then, you will feel more comfortable exploring them. At least, you know your computer won't explode if you click the "wrong" button!

@Raymond If you want to get the Designer app for a 90-day trial, drop me an email and I'll give you the links for it.

@AprilDawnYou are very good with your acrylic painting! Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried to apply those skills with digital painting?

@Linda RexfordThe leaves around your owl, were they meant to be stretched? Although it does look interesting to have them stretching in both directions, I was curious if it was on purpose.

@Susan EwartI PROMISE that if I hear of any sale of the Affinity suite, you will all be first to know!

Keep them coming. Some of you are just getting the lessons a little behind, but that is okay. When you get the link to the survey, make sure to fill it!

Carole, the leaves are more like a vine so they are longer.  It was made from a tutorial and it is a vector image brush.

[Linda Rexford]

8 hours ago, Jeni Simpson said:

I like using certain filters in PSP, eg FilterForge and AlienSkin Eye Candy Impact. I wonder whether any can be used in Affinity. I haven't looked into that yet.

I have the Nik collection and a couple from Topaz in Photo.  I am pretty sure that FilterForge also works.  I don't have AlienSkin so I can't answer that.

[Linda Rexford]

On 5/30/2025 at 3:26 PM, MoniqueN. said:

Lesson 5

Was fun to do 🙂

The spacing was in part 2 ok, only 2 characters needed spacing, so I selected them and that worked too. 🙂

 

(And now I would like to learn how to cut out the circle 😎) I bought myself an Affinity book yesterday 🙂 it's such a fun program I would like to learn a lot. I've got far too many hobby's 😉

 

Monique, if by cutting out the circle, you mean you just want the green in the circle only, it's just like putting the photo's into the templates for scrapbooking.  Drag your the layer with your green background on top on the circle layer and it should pop it in.

[Cassel]

Thanks to Linda, she pointed out that the quiz was incorrect. And she was right. I made a mistake in selecting the right/wrong answers on one question. 

I have fixed it, so if you are interested in taking the quiz again, you might have a better score!

I am sorry for this.

Thank you, Linda!

[Jeni Simpson]

9 hours ago, Linda Rexford said:

I have the Nik collection and a couple from Topaz in Photo.  I am pretty sure that FilterForge also works.  I don't have AlienSkin so I can't answer that.

Thank you, Linda. I have Nik and some Topaz. My AlienSkin is quite old, and I'll check it out.

[Susan Ewart]

12 hours ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Thank you and I too hope that designer will be on sale. I only have the 7 days free trial and I don't think Affinity will give me another 90 days because I already had 90 days for Photo which I bought after the trial period. At the moment I probably won't ask Carole for the link and will try to learn more for Photo; I'm a bit pressed for time, my husband isn't well so I have to do more housekeeping, shopping etc. Besides all of that it will be summer and I want to spend time outside too; the summers here are not always great and you have to grab the opportunity when it is there. I'll see how it goes the coming weeks.

I sorry to hear your hubby isnt well.  Hopefully it's a shortlived and he's on the mend.  I agree about time outside.  I like that it's light till after 10pm right now.  I seem to have more energy when it's lighter out longer.  

[Susan Ewart]

10 hours ago, Linda Rexford said:

I have the Nik collection and a couple from Topaz in Photo.  I am pretty sure that FilterForge also works.  I don't have AlienSkin so I can't answer that.

You are so lucky.  I wanted Nik Silver Efex but it comes with the whole collection now and it's a bit out of my budget right now.  

[Euka]

Finally finished D7  - This has been an interesting workshop and certainly Affinity is friendly to vectors!  I still need practice working with the nodes but find these easier to manipulate.  The left side of the T is a vector brush I already had and I found it interesting that in the letter E font it actually placed the rope around the centre flower and stars as well.   I struggle a bit with getting the 'gaps' to fill in but practice will help with that I guess.

Thank you Carole for this Workshop on Vectors and thank you to all for the amazing results and the tips and suggestions given.

 

[Linda Rexford]

10 hours ago, Susan Ewart said:

You are so lucky.  I wanted Nik Silver Efex but it comes with the whole collection now and it's a bit out of my budget right now.  

Mine are old but they still work.  They are all expensive now!