We absolutely LOVE what the guys are doing over at RetroSupply Co., even more so since they started making brushes for Affinity Designer!
What’s more, their popular vector engraving brushes, ‘Grave Etcher’, are now available on the Affinity Store.
In this article, we will take a closer look at what is included in this brush pack and provide you with some tips on using the brushes whilst also giving you some creative inspiration…
So what is the Grave Etcher brush set?
The Grave Etcher brush set is a collection of 118 brushes, designed to help you create engraving style vintage illustrations in vector with Affinity Designer.
What’s included:
- 26 short multi-line etching brushes
- 26 medium multi-line etching brushes
- 26 long multi-line etching brushes
- 10 extra short single line etching brushes
- 10 short single line etching brushes
- 10 medium single line etching brushes
- 10 long single line etching brushes
- 1 Affinity Designer file of the preview artwork to get ideas and inspiration
- 1 quick reference brush guide to quickly preview every brush up close
How should I use these brushes?
As they say, ‘actions speak louder than words’, so check out this video from RetroSupply Co. showing you how to get the best out of these vector brushes…
Top tips
Some good tips to take away from this video are:
- These brushes work best when you use the Pen Tool to make your strokes.
- Use the single-line brushes to create your defining lines.
- Use multi-line brushes to fill larger areas. You can use shapes to mask strokes too.
- We’ve found that using two colours only in your illustration works best for this engraving style. One colour for your background and brush strokes, and one colour for the main shapes in your illustration.
Any other creative inspiration?
Well, we’ve been messing around with these brushes in the office and we have to say we really like the effects you can create using them with text too!
I’m sold, where can I get hold of these brushes?
The Grave Etcher brush set by RetroSupply Co. is now available to purchase on the Affinity Store. These brushes are compatible with Affinity Designer for desktop and Affinity Designer for iPad.
About the maker…
Dustin Lee, the founder of RetroSupply Co., didn’t become a designer because of deep love of kerning (who does?), but sites his childhood in the 80s comprising of Saturday morning cartoons, the original Nintendo, comic books and cartoon lunchboxes being his main inspirations.
“I fell in love with design because it was a way to create my own neat stuff. I could find inspiration in the sugary sweet, absurd, and novel products I grew up with and make my own little world.”
RetroSupply create premium products for designers with the aim of bringing them something special. They create brushes, fonts, templates, actions, and tons more for Adobe apps, Procreate and Affinity Designer.
If you’ve already purchased your set of Grave Etcher brushes for Affinity Designer, why not check out their store for some more inspiring content!