Painting raster brush strokes

You can use the Pixel Persona to add raster textures to your vector designs using pixel brushes. You can also choose to perform raster painting exclusively in Pixel Persona from scratch.

Before
After
Before and after adding brush textures clipped to vector shapes.

Pixel brushes

Affinity Designer provides an impressive selection of pixel brushes for use with your Paint Brush Tool. Each category contains pixel brushes of varying properties and characteristics.

Your last used brush will be remembered the next time you use the Paint Brush Tool. Any alterations to brush settings made via the context toolbar for a specific brush will be remembered the next time that brush is used, i.e. every brush can have its own customised context toolbar settings. If altered, you can reset any brush's context toolbar settings back to brush defaults at any time. Recently used brushes are stored in the Brushes Studio's Recent Brushes category.

You can also create your own pixel brushes to assist with your design work. If you want to save a brush, these can be stored in the Brushes Studio as a custom brush for future use.

Mirror painting

Using the Symmetry and Mirror options found on the context toolbar, you can create variable repeating patterns with radial or Mandala-style symmetry.

Pixel Persona Paint Brush Tool To paint pixel brush strokes:
  1. Use the Layers Studio to select the vector object or pixel layer that you want to work on.
  2. From the Pixel Persona, select the Paint Brush Tool.
  3. From the Brushes Studio, select a brush thumbnail of your choice. The tool uses a soft-round brush by default.
  4. Adjust the context toolbar settings.
  5. Select a stroke colour from the context toolbar or Colour Studio.
  6. Drag on the page in the direction that you want the brush stroke to follow.
To smooth brush strokes as you paint:
Erase Brush Tool To erase brush strokes after you paint:
  1. From the Pixel Persona, select the Erase Brush Tool.
  2. (Optional) From the Brushes Studio, choose a brush thumbnail that you painted with.
  3. Adjust the context toolbar settings.
  4. Drag on the page in the direction that you want the erase brush stroke to follow.
To mirror brush strokes for symmetrical effects:
  1. From the context toolbar, tap the numerical value displayed in Lines and change it to the number of times you wish to mirror the brush stroke.
  2. Ensure the Symmetry option is selected if you want to produce symmetrical mirrored brush strokes.
  3. If required, reposition the centre axis point by holding and dragging it.
  4. Lock the symmetry line by selecting Locked to prevent it from moving accidentally.
  5. If the direction needs to be mirrored, select the Mirror option on the context toolbar.
To reposition the mirror origin:

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