# Working with Vectors on Your iPad - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies

Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/working-with-vectors-on-your-ipad/

[← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Graphic Design · Solid intro · Rated 7 /10

# Working with Vectors on Your iPad

 Updated August 2026

 Liz Kohler Brown · artist | designer | teacher | author

 Intermediate · 66 min

 Three practical ways to build vectors on an iPad turn a common client requirement from a blocker into a routine step.

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## What it actually covers

 Liz Kohler Brown structures this class around a simple, sensible arc: what a vector is, three ways to make one, and how to get it out the door. The class opens by dismantling three specific objections she says she hears constantly, that vectors are hard, that they cannot hold detail, and that AI files are impossible from an iPad. Rather than just asserting these are wrong, she backs each with a visual example, including a vector lemon pattern with dense leaf detail and a watercolor floral piece run through a tracing app to show exactly how much texture gets lost in the conversion.

 The middle section is where the real instruction lives. First comes a walkthrough of Affinity Designer's core toolset: pencil, pen, brush, and shape tools, plus the housekeeping habits that separate clean vector work from messy files, closing open paths, avoiding crossed lines, and checking stroke width before exporting. Then the class pivots to conversion, taking a black-and-white Procreate bird drawing into Adobe Capture, exporting as SVG, and rebuilding it inside Affinity by merging fragmented shapes with the Add and Divide commands so the result is a handful of clean, recolorable layers instead of a thousand tiny pieces. The same process repeats with a paper sketch photographed on a phone, and again with a watercolor painting run through a stylized tracing app called Vector Q.

## Strengths and gaps

 The strongest material is the conversion workflow, since it solves a problem anyone who has tried autotracing a drawing will recognize: the raw vectorized output is a chaotic pile of shape fragments. The demonstration of grouping bird parts, deleting duplicate solid fills, and hand-patching a missed gap with the pencil tool is the kind of practical troubleshooting that separates a course from a marketing demo.

 The closing stretch on exporting, resizing documents versus canvases, and producing AI files for clients rounds out the practical value, since file format literacy is exactly what trips up artists new to vector work.

 Where the class thins out is depth. Each of the three creation methods gets enough time to demonstrate the concept but not enough to build real fluency, and viewers wanting to actually master the pen tool's Bezier handles or Affinity's brush studio will need to look elsewhere, a gap the instructor acknowledges by pointing toward her other classes on geometric vectors and pattern design. The closing lesson, which asks whether the viewer even needs vectors, is honest and useful framing but adds little new instruction.

## Who it suits

 This works best as a survey for artists already comfortable on an iPad who need a clear map of their options rather than exhaustive command-by-command training. Given the 66 minute runtime, it earns its intermediate label less through technical difficulty and more through pacing, it assumes familiarity with iPad art apps and moves briskly through demonstrations. Anyone hoping for a deep dive into a single tool, or a true beginner still learning basic iPad drawing apps, should expect this class to raise questions it does not fully answer within its own runtime.

 The standout

 The full workflow for converting a hand-drawn Procreate bird into a clean, layered, recolorable vector by merging shapes with Add and Divide is the single technique most worth the runtime.

## What you will learn

- · How raster and vector images fundamentally differ and when each format is required
- · Drawing vectors directly with the pencil, pen, brush, and shape tools in Affinity Designer
- · Cleaning up open paths, crossed nodes, and stray strokes so shapes stay tidy and recolorable
- · Converting a Procreate line drawing into a vector using Adobe Capture
- · Converting a paper sketch or watercolor painting into vector art, including stylized tracing with Vector Q
- · Resizing canvases and exporting to SVG, PDF, and AI file formats for client delivery

 Best for: Working illustrators, surface designers, or print-on-demand sellers who already draw on an iPad and need client-ready vector files without switching to a desktop.

 Skip it if: Complete beginners to iPad art or anyone wanting deep, granular training in one specific vector app rather than a broad overview of three methods.

 Clarity of Instruction Helpful Examples Engaging Teacher Organization of Lessons

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