Affinity Designer iPad Pro - Time-lapse & Breakdown (The Alchemist)

In this video, I'll take you through all of the steps I took to create my latest design using Affinity Designer on the iPad Pro. There's a little bit of Procreate used in this as well, but the majority is done in Affinity. I'll take you all the way from my rough sketch to the main outline, shading, texturing, hard shadows, highlights, and adjustments.
If you like this style of artwork and want to know how to do your own illustrations in this same style, check out my full tutorial over here:
• How to illustrate usin...
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:59 Rough sketch
02:58 Fine linework
07:39 Clipping masks
09:59 Texturing
10:56 Hard shadows
11:18 Hard highlights
12:50 Painting the rest
15:32 End result
15:52 Outro

[@Manu-il9cb]

This is the nicest thing I’ve ever seen

[@RSKT_art]

Haha thankyou so much :)

[@CypherOO7]

Thank you for this! Love the artstyle but even more - I love your way of guiding through the process behind your art! GJ!

[@RSKT_art]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the kind words, and I'm glad you found it useful :)

[@paulcurtis1392]

Absolutely love this, design, colour, video. I use your colour technique after watching other video and it's really helped me as a beginner. Thanks

[@RSKT_art]

That's awesome to hear man! Feel free to share it with me on insta if you wanna show it off :) Happy to have helped!

[@robertmcmahon823]

I’m looking forward to seeing your cartoon tutorials,so keep working hard 😅

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks! I had to put them old hold to make way for other projects, but they are definitely still going to happen some day.

[@keloloololek7310]

Truly amazing and so inspiring, I’ve been in an art block for a while. I’m so in love with your style!!

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks so much! :) Really glad you enjoyed it!

[@velnussablongarment]

i can’t belive this, so amazing..

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks! :D

[@baluray2]

Another sick video/design.. Already looking forward to the next one!

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks! :)

[@makerbiz]

This was an amazing drawing. Good job with sticking with Affinity :)

[@RSKT_art]

Haha thanks

[@tobe1359]

Love your stuff man! Thanks for sharing too!

[@RSKT_art]

No worries! Thanks for tuning in :)

[@brookethorpe1929]

I love your art style ❤️

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks :)

[@funkymaniak]

Beautiful work and really inspiring use of the tool. Thanks

[@RSKT_art]

No problem! :)

[@aplogaming3619]

Awesome work! A solid design for a DTG printing!

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks man!

[@Hey_me]

Master at work. So beautiful. Wow!

[@RSKT_art]

Thankyou :)

[@XcosmogenesisX]

Fantastic! Your work and the videos are very inspiring. Keep it up!

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks so much! Will do :)

[@robinthomsoncomposer]

Awesome image mate...Well done. Such persistence!

[@RSKT_art]

Cheers!

[@TorSkywalker]

Looks great, very interesting!

[@RSKT_art]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@perphu]

Great job. Nice video!

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks so much! :)

[@dtjnky4610]

This is awesome !!! Thanks for sharing

[@RSKT_art]

No worries! :)

[@niallcochrane3331]

Incredible work and great tutorial!

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks so much for saying that :)

[@chessforfunonly1586]

That's genius, man! Great job!!

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks so much :)

[@barrywebber]

Another great video. Thanks for sharing.

[@RSKT_art]

No problem!

[@SebuahID]

Great work, Rskt. Very inspiring.

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks heaps! :)

[@chiko8922]

Awesome man 🙌🤩

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks so much! :)

[@Mchildsart]

Amazing job guy

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks man! Got a new one coming out soon 😊

[@Ari-lp5bu]

Please make more tutorial about Affinity Designer using computer tablet.

[@RSKT_art]

I'll add it to the list! Have some tutorials in the works for Affinity Photo currently :)

[@agussupriatna298]

Man I HATE THIS! I'm literally thinking how the hell u did that! I'm so out of idea and don't know where to start. U're the coolest bro

[@RSKT_art]

Haha glad this was inspiring in some way. Being out of ideas is not a bad thing either! It means you have a completely fresh slate to start building something from. Look around for something that inspires you. Write down some things you like or things that are on your mind and build off of those words. Then see if you can draw something that incorporates those things. Hope this helps :)

[@HYOKSU1]

ّI came here for learning how to use Affinity Designer to design logos but man, I couldn’t leave the video. I actually enjoyed every moment and for me, that’s fine art. Thump up to your work and efforts! Now, back to my search and I hope to find what I came here for and not fall in another attractive video like yours.

[@RSKT_art]

Haha thanks for sticking around and watching it! It's funny, making artwork like this is my way of ESCAPING the task of having to make logos for people. Maybe I'll do an Affinity Designer logo tutorial some day.

[@ronsone8373]

Telling your thought process helps me so much in my own not so good art 😂. But its getting better now because watching some of your vids thanks for that

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks for the kind words! The fact that you're continuing to learn and practice means your art is already better than it was the day before, which makes it good! Compare yourself to your past self, not to others, and don't give up! Hope that advice helps in some way :)

[@mysteriousmansion1841]

looks great man!

[@RSKT_art]

Thankyou! :)

[@fullnerd7975]

Mate, another fantastic post. I get that too. Things can be perfectly even but it drives me nuts and I have to off-centre it and have it run over, or weird stuff.

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks! Yeah, it used to be a big problem when I learned cursive writing as a kid. I was constantly retracing lines and colouring in loops and gaps. Gotten a lot better at ignoring it but it still plays a role.

[@bjornfriis9265]

Wow amazing 😀 Thank you

[@RSKT_art]

No problem! :) Thanks

[@macmonk7]

F’ing amazing. Thank you for sharing!

[@RSKT_art]

Haha, no problem!

[@guy7622]

Very talented.

[@RSKT_art]

Thank you :)

[@ProfeZaren]

Holy 5h1t!!!! Bro!!! You'r work is amazing!!! You got a new suscriber... epic work!!!

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks so much!

[@jackmcentee]

Instantly made me think of the old Oddbodz cards xD very cool. I haven't watched your procreate stuff yet, but dont give up on it just yet. Procreate is great, and the tool I'm most familiar with to date xD always love learning new stuff.

[@RSKT_art]

Man...I just googled Oddbodz cards. Why do these things look so familiar? I feel like I've seen a couple of them before, but never heard of Oddbodz before. Must be something I saw as a kid. Either way, they look sick! A little more procreate is in the works, but I'm thinking of reworking those videos a bit so they're more suited to any app. Might be a huge tutorial in the works for that haha

[@Mina-V.]

You did an amazing job at this. Your commentary was great and the technique you used to layer texture and color was a pleasure to watch. I understand what you mean about OCD and going by feeling. I'm driven by the same mental process. I think of it as each element being balanced on a micro scale in my brain, measuring distances etc. As you were explaining it, I saw every line you drew and said,... yesssss.. lol. So thanks for sharing that, it's nice to know other artists feel/work the same way. In the end your work is hugely creative, satisfying (ocd wise) and overall beautiful. Great video and happy to sub this channel. Best of luck in your continued art career.

[@RSKT_art]

Hey thanks so much for saying that, it was a really hard thing to explain but I'm glad to hear there's someone else out there that really gets it. Thanks for all the kind words. :)

[@Mina-V.]

@@RSKT_art ... :)

[@TheChameleon2008]

damn, amazing work and you get my sub hands down! Hope to see more content like this and big thumbs up for sharing the process.

[@RSKT_art]

That's awesome to hear, thanks so much! Definately will be more like this in the future. Trying to push myself to do a design a month, but it doesn't free up much time for other projects. We'll see how we go :)

[@TheChameleon2008]

@@RSKT_art yea i can understand that it eats your time like crazy but i do hope your channel will grow tho and maybe you can monetize your channel

[@RSKT_art]

@@TheChameleon2008 lol, so do I! It's hard, I have a job (contracting to different businesses), a wife and 2 kids. Finding time to draw is hard enough, let alone making videos haha. Gotta keep trying though.

[@kavindudananjaya3290]

dude that's insane

[@RSKT_art]

Haha, thanks heaps! :)

[@Humberto240597]

Great!!

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks! :)

[@PeterRatcliffe]

Cool channel!!

[@RSKT_art]

Cheers!

[@SeventhPhoenix]

procreate is really good too!

[@davidseddon2702]

Love your work, can I ask your iPad details, storage size of something like this artwork, also do you screen protect your iPad for use with the pen etc or does this effect performance, big investment on the lastest ipad (albeit it’s for other things aswell) and don’t want to damage screen with wear and tear. My iMac screen started disintegrated just from normal use (closing the lid and the screen rubbing on the keys)

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks heaps! The iPad is the larger 2020 model. Not sure on the size of the artwork, I'm away for work at the moment and didn't bring my iPad or the design file with me. All I can say is it doesn't take very long to load, save, and there are no performance issues when working on it. Actually, that's something I love about Affinity. It's buttery smooth for me all the time, and with the latest video they just released, it looks like it's about to get even smoother. As far as screen protectors go - I don't use one. I did see a lot of chatter about the paper-like screen protectors. A lot of youtubers seemed to recommend them, but most of the time they were being sponsored, so I took to reddit and a lot of people really hated them. Some even said it wore down the tip of their apple pencils, and that they had to get replacements. I ordered a knock of version of one, had it on for about 5 minutes, and then took it off. My screen is still good, aside from one tiny scratch my daughter put there when she pushed too hard with the pencil (it was a lot of force). Overall, it's been a good investment. I use it all the time for various things. One piece of advice I'd like to pass on is if you use the apple pencil with it...don't ever, ever let that thing die. It's got a battery that needs to be charged all the time. If it ever dies, it actually starts to die and will never reach it's full charge again. I didn't realise this and now my pencil dies after about 40 mins of use. Fortunately it takes about 5 minutes to full charge, but still, it's a big pain in the arse.

[@psyadj]

i use both so do whatever you like :)

[@psyadj]

also, thank you.

[@RSKT_art]

Nice, always good to use a variety of apps to get the job done!

[@RSKT_art]

@@psyadj No problem. Also, nice username - big fan :)

[@Smoky1893]

Amazing work! But i have got one question. Are there issues if u will print your Art for example on a shirt? Because for the texture u use the pixel persona and not vector. Im learning right now how affinity works. some say u have do all in vector persona if u want to print it...- whats the right way for professional illustration?

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks! Sorry for the late reply. So this has been printed on a shirt using direct-to-garment printing. That way, all of my texture shows up. The main reason I do the linework as vector though is in case I ever want to get them screen printed. Then all I'll have to do is fill in the rest with flat colours and it will work. :)

[@simotylerr534]

great job man, how many layers did you creat for this illustration? thanks

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks so much! Honestly, there's too many to count. Safe to say it's in the hundreds, and possibly over 1000. Every vector stroke is on its own layer, as is every clipping mask. Then countless layers of pixel brushes thrown in between, not to mention all of the adjustment layers on top. I do my best to create "groups" as I go, so I can quickly see where my linework, masks, pixel art, etc, is at all times.

[@MuyLokoFL]

I need more videos like this bro, amazing artwork! I'm transitioning from Illustrator and I'm having a bad time trying to get used to affinity

[@RSKT_art]

Hopefully, I'll get more time to do another big art project sometime in early November. Been crazy busy with work and my music channel lately. What exactly are you having trouble with?

[@MuyLokoFL]

@@RSKT_artok, lots of things but what is making me going crazy right now is... in Adobe illustrator I use the brush tool, do some lines that trespass each other, turn those lines into shapes using expand or outline stroke, and cut or erase them, so they don't trespass each other anymore. I can't do this in affinity, I can expand a brush line only if that line doesn't have a texture, some times I have to think a lot before start a drawing, so I don't run into this. The brushes keep changing to their original size and previous colors that I was using. And I really want to know how to turn off the back and forth tool selection when u use the same hotkey... Like, I press N for pencil, and B for brush but if I press B again, it goes back to pencil, it's a good freature? Sometimes, but I got used to keyboard hotkeys way back when I learned AutoCAD, I get lost when accidentally press de same hotkey and it goes to another tool.

[@RSKT_art]

@@MuyLokoFL ah right. I think I understand some of your frustrations. I mainly do illustrations like this in Designer, and most of my graphic design work in illustrator. I'm away for a few days so I can't test out the expanding thing you're talking about, however, I so remember having some issue when expanding something in the past. I think the hotkey to switch back is useful, but it takes some getting used to. All in all, I guess the 2 big things about Affinity is that it's younger than Illustrator, so its feature list is a lot less. But it also has a very different workflow to Illustrator. They're definately comparable, but they're also their own seperate beasts. I hope you find things get easier soon. Sorry I can't be much more help right now..best of luck :)

[@MuyLokoFL]

@@RSKT_art No problem man, your videos helped a lot already. I think is a learning curve different than the illustrator in some aspects. Besides this, the ability to switch back and forth to designer persona and pixel, was the factor that made me buy the software, and is the characteristic I love most. Definitely going to put some time to learn more about the software.

[@RSKT_art]

@@MuyLokoFL thanks for saying that man, inspires me to make more content! :) Hopefully it all falls into place for you soon. I find watching Affinity's Creative sessions on their channel to be really inspiring for different workflows. I have one on there you can watch too, and it's a looot more in depth than videos I've made for my channel, so if you haven't watched that yet, just search for Affinity RSKT and it's the one with the guy who has a TV for a head. There's some other really great sessions on there too that follows completely different workflows to mine, so you may even find one of those suits you more. Feel free to reach out here, on Instagram or to my email at any time, I'm always happy to help. All the best :)

[@Jin-pt4en]

Wow.

[@RSKT_art]

Haha thanyou

[@evtonic3]

What Frankentoon brush set did you use? What were the brushes names too if you don’t mind sharing!,

[@RSKT_art]

Hey, so if you go to the frankentoon website, he has a brush pack called texturizer pro. That's the one you want. I think there's only a version 2 of it out now though, so the names.might be different. That said, I change the brushes around a lot, but one of my favourites is the Kitchen Sponge brush from that pack. Hope that helps :)

[@s7121n9s]

How do you record a time lapse when using affinity designer? You you just screen record then speed it up in edit or can you screen record a time lapse kind of how it procreate does?

[@RSKT_art]

So basically if I'm on desktop I use OBS studio to record my screen. If I'm on an iPad, there's a screen recorder built right into the notifications panel. It's a bit frustrating to use though. I've had massive lengths of time go by and not realised it's stopped recording and hasn't saved my video. Also, if the screen locks, it stops recording and you have to remember to turn it back on. Sometimes I'll use the time-lapse feature in Procreate if I'm using that, and time-warp it in whatever editing software I'm using at the time (Resolve, After Effects, Premiere Pro). Apparently Affinity Designer had a time-lapse feature implemented during the last Beta. You can see people talking about it in their forums. Only downside is there were a lot of bugs resulting from it, so I guess they just decided to leave it out. I reaaaaallly hope it makes a return in the future.

[@guiemink]

Which drawing pack from Frankentoon to,you use for the linear please? Thanks

[@RSKT_art]

Hey, just copying this from another similar question - The brush pack Texturizer Pro is really all you'll need for the textures. Also pick up the B-Sides brush pack (which is free) for some cool vector brushes. :) Honestly though, you can even get away with the texture and vector brushes that come with Affinity. It doesn't really matter. Hope that helps :)

[@RSKT_art]

Also, I got an email with another comment from you, but YT won't let me reply to it for some reason. I don't know what stabilisation settings I use, because honestly I keep changing it through the process. Depends how smooth or how detailed I want my strokes to be :) There's no right or wrong setting, just have fun with it!

[@madebymarco]

What brush are you using?

[@RSKT_art]

They're brushes from Frankentoon. Outline is using his "inks pro" brushes that are no longer available (from what I hear). The rest uses his texturizer brush packs.

[@inmintealucagula]

This is just a vector app…or it works with pixel too¿

[@RSKT_art]

It's BOTH! You have a Vector and a Pixel persona, which makes for a great combo when designing :)

[@jescogroszer]

Does it give a Testversion of designer on the Ipad?

[@RSKT_art]

I'm not sure if they offer a trial for the ipad version, you may need to check their website.

[@jescogroszer]

@@RSKT_art Ok thanks for answering

[@clairsullivan3540]

Hiya! Im a new affinity user and was wondering how you seem to hide the anchor points/nodes when creating your vector linework. I'd love to just draw and only see the points when I need to, if that makes sense. I'm hoping its a setting I can toggle? Like I think its cntrl h or something on AI. Thanks for any help

[@RSKT_art]

Hey there! I haven't used any setting tbh. Basically I do my linework with the vector brush tool, which doesn't show anchor points unles you select it with the node tool. The when I make the clipping masks, I use the pencil tool. Not sure why you're seeing nodes if you're using either of these. Just make sure that the node selector isn't on and you should be right. Hope that helps :)

[@clairsullivan3540]

@@RSKT_art Thank you for your reply. It turns out its only happening with the pencil tool. I used the brush before and it was fine. At least one works hah.

[@RSKT_art]

@@clairsullivan3540 haha true! That's really weird. Sorry I'm not much more help. Hope you work it out :)

[@clairsullivan3540]

@@RSKT_art Sorry I've run into another query I hope you can help with 🤣 So I used to use the warp tool a lot in AI, to tweak objects after duplicating when I'm making a pattern. I can't seem to find a similar tool in Affinity though. Does one exist? Thank you!!!

[@RSKT_art]

@@clairsullivan3540 ugh, man...it's my number one requested feature. I'm in the same boat as you. The only way around it is to open your file in Affinity Photo and use its warping tool. It's very basic compared to AI though, and it rasterizes your image once you've applied the warp, so it might not be what you're after.

[@Schreibaby]

May I ask how long it took you to draw that? It’s INCREDIBLE. ⭐️

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks so much! This was a while back, so I'm not really sure. I remember it taking just over a week of on-and-off work. Possibly about 8hours in total.

[@GSDesignStudioUK]

Who uses Procreate!?!?! ;-) no, I do have to admit I'm an Affinity user, and love watching these kinda vids, but I did enjoy your portrait video!

[@RSKT_art]

Hahaha. Yeah, I only have 2 other portraits I've done in Procreate, now I'm thinking of showing to to paint the same way in any app, using the same techniquesz and showing the portraits in that video. Not too sure right now, we'll see.

[@beardedelephant3023]

Hit up Supacolor bro

[@RSKT_art]

Been seeing it pop up a bit. My sister used to do a similar sublimation process, but this does look really cool. Thanks for prompting me to check it out further :)

[@hazdrubal5962]

Awesome Job! Superb! As a fellow artist to another artist, you over did it. You have way too much visual clutter and everything is oversaturated with details. Clear up some things. Give it space to breathe.

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks for the feedback! You are right, it is very busy, but honestly that's what I like doing. I've done plenty of artwork for other people that follows better fundamentals, but when I get left to my own devices I like to just cram in as much crap as I can like I used to in my schoolbooks as a kid. These sorts of busy drawings let me just switch of and zone out from more refined and better composed pieces. I definitely get what you're saying though, maybe I'll dial it back on my next one.