Tag Archives: Affinity Designer

Reclaiming My Creative Life With Vintage Macs: The Cigar Box Mini Stack

Posted on March 30, 2026 by Joe_Williams

After months of tinkering, I finally built the Murciélago Mini-Stack: a 2010 Mac mini sitting on top of a 2022 M1 Mac mini, all resting on a cigar box. Two Macs, one keyboard, and zero subscriptions. Here’s how I reclaimed my creative life with vintage hardware I already own. Continue reading →

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He Lurks Beneath The Paris Opera

Posted on October 20, 2025 by Joe_Williams

As we plunge DEEP into the heart of the Halloween season, I couldn’t resist reviving my vector rendition of The Phantom of the Opera with a chilling encore. This iconic figure, shrouded in mystery and menace, deserves a fresh twist … Continue reading →

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The Countess Amarela

Posted on May 15, 2025 by Joe_Williams

As I am working on my digital illustrations and vector graphics I often save versions of my files as I go along in case I have to backtrack. It might be that I have turned down a creative blind alley … Continue reading →

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Digital Doodles

Posted on May 14, 2025 by Joe_Williams

Of late the internet has proven to be fairly tedious so I fire up Affinity Designer on my old laptop and fiddle around with shapes and colors. In the time between my first cup of coffee and when I have … Continue reading →

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The Diplomat from Grorfleplotz

Posted on April 23, 2025 by Joe_Williams

Once again I am ricocheting back and forth between analog and digital illustration. Today I am back in the digital domain with my latest Halloween Head which I call The Diplomat from Grorfleplotz. I’m not sure what the specific honorific … Continue reading →

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1980年代の東京の吸血鬼

Posted on April 16, 2025 by Joe

Tokyo Vampire Circa 1980s It seems that my series of Halloween Heads has started anew with the completion of a Japanese vampire on the heels of last week’s Phantom of the Opera. Halloween Heads are illustrations of monsters I’ve created … Continue reading →

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Phantom of the Opera

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Joe_Williams

Although Halloween is 204 days away, I have been working on a new Halloween Head in the superlative vector art program Affinity Designer!

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Tuesday Digital Doodle • Comin’ At YA!

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Joe

Today’s digital doodle was a happy accident I made while playing with Affinity Designer’s step-and-repeat feature. I was playing around with a logo I worked up a while back for J.L. Curtis’s series of science fiction books and seeing how … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Design, Doodle Tuesday, Illustration, It Came From the Sketchbook, Vector Illustration | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tuesday Digital Doodle • Automaton Powers On

Posted on March 19, 2024 by Joe

This is another vector doodle I did in Affinity Designer. In preparation for the occasional science fiction book cover I illustrate, I will play with metallic tones and mechanical shapes. I am figuring out how I may approach that starship … Continue reading →

Posted in Doodle Tuesday, Illustration, It Came From the Sketchbook, Stuff Joe Likes, Vector Illustration | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments