This week I became reacquainted with the almighty path. Not the proverbial path of life but the paths created in a vector design tool or, more specifically, the path tools available in my vector design tool of choice, Affinity Designer.

For those to whom vector art and paths aren’t familiar, a path is a line that’s defined as a series of points and curves (mathmatically) which, once drawn, can then be resized, reshaped, and otherwise used in a near infinite number of ways.

For example, I had an idea to draw a kind of “stained glass” window illustration of the field I run through every day. Kind of based on the below (and our own stained glass window):

Using a vector design tool like Affinity Designer, I knew I could draw paths that would define each section of the stained glass window and then manipulate each of those sections individually, so that’s where I started.

While I did the initial “sketch” using the Pencil Tool (which creates paths based on freehand drawing, perfect for my Wacom) I spent a lot of time learning how to use the Knife tool to cut paths up, then Join and Close them to create the individual “pieces”.

I knew it would be worth it though, because once you have those paths you can do anything!

You can move them around and apply effects to one piece or groups of pieces.

You can also use you as masks for images of actual stained glass.

I am by no means even close to being competent designer but, I think we can agree, I’m on the path.