[Are you adding variable fonts anytime soon?]

Another vote again for this feature. Just came by a delicious typeface I want to use, and it is available only as a variable font! Usually I've been able to get around this well and good, but now, I am actually feeling that I'm missing out and instead of what I'd prefer, I have to go with something else instead because the variable font support ain't there. 

Camoon! 

[My bad - issue figured out.]

Had issues with digital painting feeling jagged and laggy with strange behaviours. Assumed it was a bug, but turned out it was just me. Hand't noticed that brush size change drag direction could adjust the brush hardness as well and accidentally kept using other tools with same keybinds of B & E. Reconfigured the keybindings and now it works smoothly. 

[Arbitrary canvas rotation (angle) without trackpad]

Back at trying sketching on AP with training fast croquis pieces from quickposes.com. 

And oh my do I miss the photoshop's R+mouse drag flow. In Corquis, where every second counts (idea is to sketch a picture from reference in 30s-2min), it really shows how long it takes to move your hand to magic pad and back, and the imprecision of using keyboard hand to rotate canvas with the touch controls.

 

Please consider adding this as it is crucial in digital painting workflow for many artists. Point being that it is easier to draw curved strokes just as you want if your hand is at right angle towards the canvas, and also useful getting the brush rotation just right when it matters. 

 

As two-point based rotation/scaling already works with the touch-paid, maybe it might not be that large task to add similar support for mouse/pen. I truly wish to see this within the 1.x cycle.

[Affinity Photo for concept artists]

Having just recently found the program, how is the state of the brush engine now in 2018, have the issues mentioned above improved since?

[Arbitrary canvas rotation (angle) without trackpad]

I agree on the need for the arbitrary canvas rotation usable with keyboard+mouse/pen input. When I work, my left hand is set on the keyboard and right hand draws on the wacom. While I can somewhat do it on the macbook the left hand hand to magic pad and rotating fingers there, it is clumsy and unprecise in practice. My compromise has been to create keybindings to have rotate left and rotate right buttons on keyboard, but you'll have to slam them multiple times to get where you want. That workflow is slower than it should be, as when I'm painting, I'm constantly rotating to the canvas to align optimally towards my pen. I would love to have it improved as proper tool, so that you just press the key once and use the mouse left/pen to define rotation angle on the go, similarly as it is with the magic pad. That will improve the desktop painting workflow significantly.