Affinity Designer Tutorial - How to use the Pencil Tool

[@poncardas]

Wow! Affinity's pencil control is much more intuitive vs Illustrator 😮Great tutorial as always!

[@ArtistWright]

Thanks, I use it all the time. I don't even think of illustrator anymore. It's like a distant memory

[@arsom5552]

Thank you for this tutorial 😊

[@ArtistWright]

You’re welcome my friend

[@nikkilesley2525]

Thank you! I don’t think I’ve seen such an in depth tutorial on the Pencil tool. 👍😁

[@ArtistWright]

Cheers, I tried my best to give all the important info

[@jimnjoroge]

Affinity Pencil tool is a BEAST 🔥🔥🔥

[@ArtistWright]

It's great 👍

[@pdrg]

Always love your videos, demystifying and encouraging!

[@ArtistWright]

Thank you so much! I try to make it as clear as I can so I appreciate it

[@หน่อยคริส]

Thanks for your help very clear 🎉

[@ArtistWright]

No problem

[@meinhendl]

I can't say enough thankyou for your brilliant work and teaching !

[@ArtistWright]

That's lovely to hear!

[@tmw_62]

Thank you, very helpful

[@ArtistWright]

Cheers

[@nordiclightphototours153]

Just another excellent tutorial. Your teaching skills are second to none! Thank you!!

[@ArtistWright]

Thank you 👍👍

[@ronallen2458]

Your tutorials are so good and engaging. I’m always on my toes for easter eggs!

[@ArtistWright]

Ha that's awesome! Cheers

[@WimVeen]

This is a very good tutorial. I learned quite some of this. All elements of the pencil tool are shown here. Thanks for the great work.

[@ArtistWright]

You're very welcome!

[@ing_great_art]

Thank you for your step by step and clear tutorial.. it's really helpful! Big Thanks!🙏🙏🙏

[@ArtistWright]

No problem, check out my latest videos (all Affinity Designer)

[@ing_great_art]

@@ArtistWright Btw can we transform weight of stroke effect to be node? (to make sure no prob when we convert it to pdf and open it on AI)

[@ArtistWright]

@@ing_great_art I'm not sure as I don't use illustrator, wouldn't take long to test it out.

[@brazzilianboy]

this is so wholesome to watch, thanks for this, m8

[@ArtistWright]

No worries 👍

[@martinh4982]

Nice! You've inspired me to dig out my (Huion) graphics tablet which hasn't seen much love lately.

[@ArtistWright]

Yeah do it! I love the look of the huion tablets

[@martinh4982]

@@ArtistWright Blimey - what a battle! So I dug my tablet out, grabbed the pen and... no response from the pen. Re-installed drivers, did fault finding, but no luck. Then I remembered it's a powered pen and I might need to change the battery. Spent ages trying to figure out how to do that, to then remember it has a rechargeable battery! I then spent ages looking for the cable - a USB to a very thin barrel jack cable. By some miracle I hadn't thrown it out and it eventually turned up. Plugged it in and got it charging... but the charge light wouldn't go off, even after hours. Unplugged it and tried it... but still no response! Tried it plugged in and that worked so... I guess the battery had gone bad. Ordered a new pen, which arrived today and, finally, I'm able to use the thing! Sometimes I think the universe is trying to tell me something. I don't suppose you have any tips on using a graphics tablet with Affinity apps? My tablet has hard and soft buttons you can bind to keys/key combinations. Do you have any bindings you add if your tablet has the same features? Any other tips also appreciated!

[@user-KoreanJB]

great. thanks

[@Lida22]

@ArtistWright - thanks! You make some of the best Affinity tutorials available on KZbin. You explain things clearly and use excellent examples, and do a very good job of zooming in where we need to see what you're doing or selecting. Here's something that might make your tutorials even better and more useful: Change your interface to the LIGHT mode for the recordings. I know many people prefer the dark mode (as you do) for actual work, but it is VERY difficult to see in the tutorials. Medium-dark grey on a black background is very low-contrast and sometimes impossible to make out which element on the interface you're talking about. It is a very simple thing in all Affinity apps to change to the light mode for recording, then back to dark mode if you need it for your work. If you do this, it will be ever so much easier for us viewers to see what you're doing. Thanks so much for your excellent tutorials, and keep up the good work.

[@ArtistWright]

Thank you so much Lida, Wonderful feedback! I have never used light mode in all these years 😂 Will try on the next one, thanks for the tip

[@ArtistWright]

Hello Lida, check out my latest tutorial, with light mode thanks to you. Let me know if it's better this way. Cheers

[@carlcasparo]

best tutorials ever! Thank you so much!

[@ArtistWright]

Thank you I'm glad you think so

[@carlhughes1206]

Another cracking tutorial!!!!Thank you!

[@ArtistWright]

Cheers

[@miro_juric]

Thank you!! Great work! Cheers!

[@ArtistWright]

Cheers Miro!

[@rapidraga]

What an amazing tutorial! Thank. You so much.

[@ArtistWright]

No problem, also the new 2.5 update has made a big difference, way less nodes on a curve

[@leythecg]

learned a lot! Thanks a lot :-) Really awesome in content and presentation!

[@ArtistWright]

If you learned something then Im happy! Thanks

[@leni1029]

this is such a great tutorial! thank you so much!

[@ArtistWright]

My pleasure,also check out the stroke width tool tutorial. Very handy

[@leni1029]

@@ArtistWright uhh, thanks! I will definitely do that!

[@MaknaOnlineStore]

Thank you so much!! Great content👍

[@ArtistWright]

Glad you liked it!

[@kdeuler]

Thanks for this vid. I was wondering if you have, or are planning to have, tutorials on how to use a drawing tablet with AD.

[@ArtistWright]

I've not made any on that subject yet. But you're the second person to ask now. Perhaps I will, although I honestly use it in the most simplest of ways. I hardly ever press the buttons on my graphics tablet except for the buttons on the pen which I've mapped to certain shortcuts

[@JC-xx6rr]

Really helpful thanks.

[@ArtistWright]

No problem JC

[@Marsupioll]

This helped me sooooo much 🤯 Thank you!

[@ArtistWright]

My pleasure

[@gregorioportela]

muito pratico , bem explicado

[@ArtistWright]

Gracias !

[@dkickelbick]

Cool. Thank you!

[@ArtistWright]

No worries

[@cchung3311]

Thanks for the Pencil Tool Tutorial, I been looking for a long time for freehand drawing as opposed to just shapes! Also would you recommend Logoist 5 as a Vector program for fast illustration? (if you use the program)

[@ArtistWright]

No worries! I've never heard of that software, I would stick with Affinity as you have photo and publisher that work seamlessly together with designer

[@cchung3311]

@@ArtistWright Thanks for your reply, I only stumbled upon it on researching Vector programs hoping one app would allow freehand painting vector export and not just export as bitmap,

[@ArtistWright]

@cchung3311 ah yes I see your point. One important point you might want to know, in Affinity Designer the vector brushes are not real vectors. They are bitmaps along a path. The basic brushes are vector though (basic outlines)

[@morizanova]

Affinity stroke studio/editor indeed the main reason I'm converted from other brand . That's possible in another apps but what AD offer easier for me

[@ArtistWright]

So useful

[@MrDistracted]

Hi great tutorial thank you! Can I ask what model of Wacom you use with your Mac setup please? Thank you!

[@ArtistWright]

No problem! I used a wacom intuos pro medium. I also have the smaller wacom intuos (but I usually only use that when I don't want to pack alot on my travels)

[@MrDistracted]

@@ArtistWright awesome thanks for the quick reply! I use a Mac mini mainly so would mostly be desk use so medium would probably be a good bet for me then. Just looking at them now - really appreciate the feedback! Thank you!

[@ArtistWright]

Yeah I think that's a good call! It's going to make your design life better that's for sure

[@djmaddogffm]

First of all thanks for the great video. One Question: I don't have the "autoclose" on my screen. Where can I find it?

[@ArtistWright]

It will be there in the context tool bar, you will see it when you have the pencil selected. Sometimes on smaller screens some of the options will be hidden and there will be an arrow you can select to see the hidden options

[@CBM64]

Wow amazing tutorial! I am just now trying this pencil+pressure controller on my MacBook trackpad and notice that the pressure sensitivity is quite extreme. With only a light touch the size goes from 1 to 1000. Is there any way to calibrate the pressure max/min?

[@ArtistWright]

Thanks, yes try the pressure profile and you can set min and max

[@jillwirsing7544]

I enjoyed this video! Thank you! Are the pressure profiles that you save available when you open other files, or just for the file that you save them in?

[@ArtistWright]

That's a good question actually, I believe it only works on the document you are working on. There is an annoying workaround though. Draw out a line, use a stroke profile you made. Then create a style. then in a new document you can just apply that style

[@jillwirsing7544]

@@ArtistWright Thank you! That is good information to know!

[@johnlepore1562]

Thanks!

[@ArtistWright]

You bet!

[@ДенисКам-ъ8о]

Please tell me how to draw closed contours with this tool. Because if I draw a complex contour and use the sculp mode, then the auto contour closing does not work. I have to do it manually. And it is very sad that such a program cannot do such elementary things.

[@ArtistWright]

HI, i've just tested this out and you are completely right. I cannot auto close the curve whilst using sculpt mode. Perhaps they don't know about it. I will let them know. Thank you

[@ДенисКам-ъ8о]

@@ArtistWright thanks for the quick response. I just started learning this program, I want to find an alternative to Adobe Illustrator for creating vector illustrations. When rendering a sketch into vector format on a graphics tablet I often use pencil in Adobe Illustrator, it's convenient and fast, but in Affinity Designer at the moment it's a problem. I hope they hear you and fix it

[@ArtistWright]

@user-uq3vc1ts4n no problem, I made a video of it and posted it to the official forum. Hope they can sort it. Not sure how that one slipped by me to be honest 😂. Affinity is definitely the way, they seem to be updating it and a much more rapid rate these days

[@ronaldsmith8354]

how do set up my Affinty user interface to be the as here online

[@ArtistWright]

I teach you how to do this in my new video -Affinity designer the comprehensive guide under the light dark mode section

[@biggertree7063]

Adobe Illustrator ad while I'm trying to learn Affinity Designer. 😂

[@ArtistWright]

It's awful isn't it! I have noticed that too. Adobe have their tricks

[@biggertree7063]

@@ArtistWright 🤣

[@oo0Spyder0oo]

No need for the music inserts when introducing the options, it’s annoying af. Save your self some editing time too.

[@ArtistWright]

Cheers for the feedback, the less time editing the better

[@AllanLobo]

Hey man how can I contact you?

[@ArtistWright]

Hi, my links are on my KZbin channel homepage. So either my website or X