Affinity by Canva for Beginners – Learn Vector, Pixel & Layout Tools in One Creative Workflow

Welcome to this beginner-friendly Affinity course, where you’ll learn how to work confidently across all three integrated studios — Vector, Pixel, and Layout — using the free Affinity suite by Canva.

Whether you’re brand new to digital design, a Canva user, an Affinity Designer, Photo or Publisher user or moving over from Adobe tools, this course will help you understand how the three studios work together and how to create beautiful graphics, illustrations, edited images, and multi-page documents using one powerful, unified workspace.

What You’ll Learn

Navigate between Vector, Pixel & Layout studios
Create, transform, and combine shapes to build characters and design elements
Use strokes, fills, gradients, color palettes & blend modes
Work with typography, font pairing, families & layout text flow
Correct images using color balance, blending & adjustments
Work confidently with layers in each studio
Use Bezier curves, selection tools, masking & cutouts
Set up and navigate a multi-page brochure or document
Use RGB and CMYK correctly for print and digital projects
Export your work in multiple formats for print, social media, and web

By the end of the course, you’ll know how to move freely between all three studios and use them together to create polished, professional-looking designs.

Who This Course Is For

Hi, I’m Tim — an Adobe Certified Instructor, designer, university lecturer, and creative software trainer based in London.

This course is perfect for:

Complete beginners learning Affinity for the first time
Canva users who wish to expand their creative skills.
Designers switching from Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign
Students and professionals wanting a free, all-in-one creative toolkit
Hobbyists, home users, and illustrators exploring digital creativity
Anyone who wants to learn vector, pixel, and layout design in one course

No experience required — everything is clearly explained step-by-step.

Tools We’ll Use

You’ll explore a wide range of Affinity Studio tools across all three personas, including:

Vector drawing tools, shapes & Bezier curves
Pixel tools, brushes, color corrections & compositing
Layout tools, multi-page setup, text frames & flowing text
Blend modes, gradients & color management settings
Selection tools, cutouts & image blending
Layers, masks & stacking order
Exporting to PDF, JPG, PNG, and more

All tutorials are short, clear, and easy to follow.

Course Projects

Throughout this project-based class, you’ll learn by creating a series of fun, practical designs, including:

An animal illustration built entirely from basic shapes
A poster design using strong typography, gradients & blending
A multi-image composition using adjustment layers, gradients and cutout tools
A multi-page brochure created in all 3 studios

Each project builds your skills progressively as you learn to work across Vector, Pixel, and Layout workflows.

What You Need

The free Affinity Studio installed on your computer
No prior design experience — perfect for beginners
A willingness to explore and have fun while learning

Everything else is provided inside the course.

By the End of the Course

By the end of this beginner course, you’ll understand the essential tools in all three studios — Vector, Pixel & Layout — and be ready to edit images ,create graphics, illustrations, posters, and multi-page documents with confidence.

Intermediate and Advanced classes coming soon!

Don’t forget to share your projects — I love seeing what you create!

Resources

All your resources are here in this Dropbox link.

Linda Rooney

Mixed Media Artist & Surface Designer

--

19