Need tips for sketching on Ipad

[KC82]

I ditched Adobe over a year ago for Affinity due to the price and the lack of compatible mobile app. I got Affinity designer recently because it seemed  as close to Illustrator minus the trace feature which disappointed me but I was willing to overlook.My issue with drawing is being able to free sketch. I prefer to draw out ideas like I would on paper which I’m finding to be annoying with Affinity due to the nodes. I’m wondering is there a better way to go about this or do I have to draw in another program like procreate and import it.I have a lot of brushes I’ve gotten for Affinity and it seems like a waste not being able to use them.

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @KC82.

1 hour ago, KC82 said:

I have a lot of brushes I’ve gotten for Affinity and it seems like a waste not being able to use them.

If you’re free sketching with brushes in the Designer persona I presume you must be using the Vector Brush Tool. How do you see nodes while drawing with that tool? I only see nodes when drawing with the Pen Tool or the Pencil Tool.

[KC82]

I’m completely new to this program so  I was basically thinking I could draw with any tool like I used to in others.

[Alfred]

13 minutes ago, KC82 said:

I was basically thinking I could draw with any tool

Although you can draw with any of the tools I mentioned, I wouldn’t say you’re “able to free sketch” with the Pen Tool (which creates Bézier curves). The “free sketch” curves produced by the Pencil Tool can have brush textures applied afterwards but even without the nodes being displayed that would scarcely make for a natural drawing experience.

[walt.farrell]

I've been watching a number of tutorials lately, and one approach I've seen several times seems to be sketching with simple brushes in the Pixel Persona, and then refining the sketch later using the vector tools in the Designer Persona on a new layer. Then hiding or removing the original pixel sketch layer.

[KC82]

14 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I've been watching a number of tutorials lately, and one approach I've seen several times seems to be sketching with simple brushes in the Pixel Persona, and then refining the sketch later using the vector tools in the Designer Persona on a new layer. Then hiding or removing the original pixel sketch layer.

I haven’t really seen that.It’s been hard to find videos that aren’t about using the tools, there’s way more drawing videos for Illustrator and Procreate.There also aren’t a lot of commercially available brushes for Affinity compared to other software.The two major companies I’ve seen created some of their better brushes for pixel persona which to me defeats the purpose of using a vector program.