How to create an Enso/zen symbol? (Uncomplete circle)

[themandalorian]

Hi all, 

I'm a noob, having just bought AD (feels great to stick it to Adobe!) I've attached two screenshots. One is what I want to create, and another of my best attempt so far. How can I get a better result? specifically

1) How do I make the Enso shape a perfect circle?

2) How can I find a better brush? I've explored all the standard options and none of them look very convincing. Is there somewhere I can download more realistic looking brushes?

[firstdefence]

Welcome to the forum @themandalorian

Use the ellipse shape tool and create a circle; hold down shift while doing this, you can also hold down Ctrl/Cmd to pullout the circle from the centre.

Then apply a watercolour stroke.

[Fixx]

Creating a perfect zen circle takes years of practicing and daily meditation. 

You can though do a very good fake using firstdefence's method.

[themandalorian]

Thank you @firstdefence you are a true Jedi! ❇️

[firstdefence]

You're welcome Mando

[themandalorian]

@firstdefence I just made the foolish mistake of closing my AD files without saving them (I had a few windows open, which I forgot, and I was trying to close down one I didn't need). Is there any way I can recover the files? ❇️

 

[firstdefence]

You can try closing the app down and opening back up, if you are lucky it will ask if you want to restore a file. Other than that I think there is an autosave folder, which Operating System are you on?

macOS:

Affinity Store version: 
Affinity Photo: ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Photo/user/
Affinity Designer: ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Designer/user/
Affinity Publisher: ~/Library/Application Support/Affinity Publisher/user/
 
Mac App Store version: 
Affinity Photo: ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinityphoto/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Designer: ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Publisher: ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitypublisher/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
 
Mac App Store version ( Big Sur ) :
Affinity Photo: ~/Library/Containers/Affinity Photo/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Designer: ~/Library/Containers/Affinity Designer/Data/Library/Application Support/user/
Affinity Publisher: ~/Library/Containers/Affinity Publisher/Data/Library/Application Support/user/

Windows:

Affinity Store version:
Affinity Photo: %appdata%\Affinity\Photo\1.0\user\
Affinity Designer: %appdata%\Affinity\Designer\1.0\user\
Affinity Publisher: %appdata%\Affinity\Publisher\1.0\user\
 
Microsoft Store version: 
Affinity Photo: %appdata%\Affinity\Photo\1.0 (Store)\user\
Affinity Designer: %appdata%\Affinity\Designer\1.0 (Store)\user\
Affinity Publisher: %appdata%\Affinity\Publisher\1.0 (Store)\user\
 

[themandalorian]

Thanks @firstdefence. I'm on a Mac. It turned out I didn't need the old ones after all - the job's requirements changed so I just started again. 

This time I sent my efforts to Shifu but he said he wants the Enso symbol and the path to all be made from the exact same brushstroke (Previously, I created a different vector shape for the path and then just used freehand brush strokes to fake it - see first screenshot)

So my plan is to create a vector shape, apply that watercolor brush stroke to it, but have it get narrower once the path begins (second screenshot). So questions is:

Is it possible to vary brush stroke width within the same vector shape?

[themandalorian]

It's OK - I've found a workaround. From the research I did it seems AD doesn't offer this feature. The pressure workaround doesn't work with this kind of brush (watercolor).