Paintbrush versus Blob brush in Vectornation by Zaweba
When to use the Paintbrush, with pen pressure, and when to use the Blob brush with its oval nib in Vectornation by Zaweba, plus tips for clean, editable marks.
Drawing by hand in a vector app can produce two very different kinds of result: a stroke that runs along a path, or a filled shape that you build up like ink. Vectornation by Zaweba has a tool for each. The Paintbrush (B) draws stroked paths and responds to pen pressure. The Blob brush draws filled shapes with an oval nib, and merges what you paint into one outline.
Knowing which to pick saves a lot of tidying later.
The Paintbrush and pen pressure
The Paintbrush lays down a path with a brush applied to its stroke. With a pressure sensitive pen, pressing harder or lighter changes the stroke as you draw, so you get the swell and taper of a real brush mark.
Because the result is a path with a stroke, it stays easy to change. You can swap the brush, change the colour or thickness, or edit the path's points and the mark redraws. That flexibility makes the Paintbrush good for sketching, inking line art and lettering that you expect to adjust.
The Blob brush and its nib
The Blob brush works differently. Each stroke becomes a filled shape rather than a stroked path. The nib is an oval, and you can set its angle and roundness. A round nib gives even marks; a flatter, angled nib gives calligraphic marks that are thick in one direction and thin in another.
When you paint over an existing blob of the same colour, the strokes merge into one shape. It feels a lot like inking with a marker: you build up areas, fill gaps and shape edges by painting more.
Merging inside groups
The Blob brush also merges inside groups. If you are working in a group, new blob strokes join the matching shapes there rather than landing outside it. This keeps your layers and groups organised as you paint, instead of leaving a trail of stray shapes at the top of the stack.
Which one to choose
Use the Paintbrush when you want lines: outlines, hatching, hand drawn lettering, anything where the stroke is the point and you might change its weight or style later.
Use the Blob brush when you want shapes: solid areas of ink, chunky lettering, cartoon fills, silhouettes. Because it produces filled outlines, Blob brush artwork is ready for cutting and for any process that needs closed shapes, and it is easy to recolour as a block.
Many illustrations use both. Ink the line work with the Paintbrush, then fill the larger dark areas with the Blob brush, which joins up into tidy filled shapes.
Working tidily
Draw at a comfortable zoom. Very small strokes drawn while zoomed far out tend to be wobbly; zoom in for detail and zoom out for big, confident marks.
With the Blob brush, keep colours consistent while you paint an area. Strokes only merge with matching shapes, so a slightly different colour will start a new shape instead of joining the old one.
When a Paintbrush stroke is close but not right, edit it rather than drawing it again many times. Adjusting a few points is usually quicker and keeps the drawing clean.
Pairing with the eraser
The Eraser tool, which removes parts of artwork, fits naturally with both. Paint generously with the Blob brush, then erase back to a crisp edge. That push and pull between adding and removing is how a lot of confident hand made vector artwork gets made, and it is quicker than trying to get every stroke perfect first time.
Between them, the Paintbrush and Blob brush cover most freehand drawing in Vectornation, from sketchy line work to bold inked shapes.
