Affinity Designer has a new ***PRO*** feature!

[handrawn]

no need to be sorry acorn and I was not getting at you

long time ago everone said how quick xara was and how it was not bloatware; I don't see it that way any more, in fact the more I learn the more i think it maybe never was, no reason to disagree

the teaspoon analogy only works if there is a much better way of doing it that is easier and faster; I am inclined to think of ernie-f as being closer to a fine-art painter [such as dali] that sometimes uses a brush with only one hair because it gives more control of fine detail; I don't do fine detail, it is very hard to animate

both approaches work; the artist chooses

[handrawn]

from my perspective, if I were to ask it would be both as they both have their uses...

[Egg Bramhill]

It would be possibly nice to have but in no way a ground breaker as it's fairly limiting in the brush type you can make in my opinion. I prefer the Xara brush which is far more flexible.

[handrawn]

not really sure how brushes crept into this thread - sure you can use the tool to make a profiled line and make a brush from that, but it is the making of a profiled line that it is for; design it on the fly, change it on the fly...

[Egg Bramhill]

Which seems to be the same exercise as using a Xara brush. I'm changing over to a new PC & haven't got AD installed at present. I'll give it a try when I have.

[handrawn]

egg:

take a short line, of fixed weight which it has to be in xara, made with the line tool - then imagine just a quick drag on the end with the mouse/pen to bring it immediately to needle point - hey presto, an eyelash

imagine what you could do with such a tool when say, changing the expression on someone's face in a cartoon, or any such drawing situation, quickly, easily, expressively; no need to redraw it, no need to make a new brush, just change it

no need to use a brush at all

[Acorn]

egg:
take a short line, of fixed weight which it has to be in xara, made with the line tool - then imagine just a quick drag on the end with the mouse/pen to bring it immediately to needle point - hey presto, an eyelash
imagine what you could do with such a tool when say, changing the expression on someone's face in a cartoon, or any such drawing situation, quickly, easily, expressively; no need to redraw it, no need to make a new brush, just change it
no need to use a brush at all

@handrawn, methinks you are splitting hairs here.

Take your same line. Apply something line a Raindrop profile.
Now, switch to the Eraser tool and click-drag through the line in several places. You get lots of little eyelashes.
Each one with its own control points that can be adjusted anyway you like.
Now, change the Softness to a small value 0.1px and when erasing you are instead working with an Opacity Mask so that you can actually split hairs.

Most of these operations are just a click away as well.
Definitely harder to achieve, more so with Lines around Shapes (where Brushes can come into play) but there is an untapped richness here.

Acorn