We made this project in Affinity Designer, but it works just as well in Affinity Photo.
1. Background
Create a new document (ours is A4 landscape) and use the Rectangle Tool to draw a shape that fills the whole canvas, then use the Fill Tool (called the Gradient Tool in Affinity Photo) to create a subtle gradient of colour.
We then used the Xenon Galactic Brushes to create a starry sky look to the background.
You’ll also get the Artista Affinity Designer brushes by Pixelbuddha — a set of 60 brushes comprised of pencil, dry brush, spray, pen and all their variations in both vector and raster format (.afbrushes), plus 10 textures in.afasset, PNG and EPS format. All supplied with a commercial license. Worth (US)$38 in total. Making patterns in affinity designer; manipulation affinity photo; manipulation tutorial; mark timberlake; marquee tool affinity photo; mask layers affinity photo; master affinity designer; Master Affinity Photo; masterclass; material design color palette generator; michael bierut; mike locke; mini planet; mini world; minimalism; mockup; mockup. Affinity Designer vs. Which one should you buy? What's the difference between these two apps? Which one is better? Here is the quick and simp.
2. Circle
Use the Ellipse Tool to draw a circle shape which will form the main part of your dreamcatcher. We set the Stroke to 4.5pt and the fill colour to nothing for a transparent centre, this creates the ring that our ornate pattern will sit inside.
3. Feathers
Using the Pencil Tool with the stroke set to 2.5pt, freehand draw some curved lines coming down from the circle, these are the central staves of your feathers. Activate ‘Use Fill’ on the Pencil Tool and draw the feather shapes, using the Fill Tool to create gradient shadows to make the feathers appear to fall in front and behind one another.
Tip: Use the Pen Tool and the Node Tool instead of the Pencil Tool if you’re working in Affinity Photo or like more control.Affinity Designer Photo Publisher
Change to a lighter colour and deactivate ‘Use Fill’ to draw some details on the feather in a thinner stroke. The final touch is some beads which can be drawn in the same way as the feathers or by using the Ellipse Tool.
4. The dreamcatcher
Create a new Pixel Layer, switch to Pixel Persona and go to the Paint Brush Tool. Activate Symmetry and drag the centre point to the middle of your circle—you may want to create guides to help you position the symmetry line accurately. Increase the number of lines of symmetry to 8 (or the number of your choice!) and click Lock when you’re happy, this stops the symmetry lines moving while you are drawing.
Select the paint brush and colour you wish to use—we used Natural Pencil 4B from the Pencils category, in white.
Starting from the middle and working outwards start to draw a pattern to create your dreamcatcher threads. You can work across different symmetry planes seamlessly.
Affinity Designer Or Photo
Have fun experimenting with different colours and combinations of lines, the possibilities are endless.
Learn more about symmetry…
Affinity Designer Trial
If you would like to learn more about symmetry and mirroring in Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo check out this short tutorial: