ergo

Right you are, that does the trick. I didn't have that option turn on in V1, so I never saw its effect.

Center lines of strokes will be hidden if the Pan (View), Zoom, Color Picker or Measure tool is selected, but reappear once another tool is selected even though no objects are selected. Center lines of strokes are not shown when a document is initially opened, only after being selected. This issue is not effected by stroke width or visibility or even if the objects opacity is set to 0%. Designer V1 would only show the stroke center lines (in blue) for a selected object(s). Once an object was deselected the center line would disappear. Using macOS Monterey, V 12.6.1, Mac mini (Late 2014)

I've been using Affinity Designer a lot for doodling. I never have preconceived notions of where I'm going, just start drawing and experimenting with the options. In a way, the illustration develops on its own and I just watch it unfold. Since I use the Dark UI Style setting, most of my projects, like this one, don't look as good when placed on a white background. The starry background is a raster image, but the rest is all vector.