Author: lemsy

John LeMasney (lemsy) is an artist, graphic designer, and technology creative. He is located in beautiful Nelson County, VA, but works remotely with ease. Contact him at: lemasney@gmail.com to discuss your next creative project.

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portfolio

230 of 365 is a farewell from Library Garden [greeting card] #Inkscape

Farewell to Peter Bromberg
Farewell to Peter Bromberg
Farewell to Peter Bromberg
Farewell to Peter Bromberg

This is a public note to the renowned librarian and leader Peter Bromberg who was one of the original pillars of the Library blog Library Garden. He recently announced his amicable departure from the blog as an author. Peter invited me to join the blog about a year ago as a sometime author, and has (along with Janie Hermann) sparked most of my success in the New Jersey Library presentation circuit. I’m quite sad he’s leaving the blog, but I poked a bit of fun here because I’m not as a sad as I might be if I was likely to see Peter less. The fact is that he’s now working in Princeton, which means I’m more likely to see him now than ever. Cheers to you, Peter, and thanks for all the great work you’ve done and continue to do.

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portfolio

A set of monograms for friends by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #typography

A set of monograms for friends by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #typography
A set of monograms for friends by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #typography
A set of monograms for friends by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #typography
A set of monograms for friends by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #typography

So this was inspired by the recent sketch of my longtime monogram as well as a conversation with Sarah Badawy about how some combinations of letters work better than others. In order to do each of these, I went through the same workflow in Inkscape each time:

  1. Using the text tool, type the first and last initial and highlight them both
  2. Using the font dialog, flip through each font until the right font shows up. The right font is one that properly represents the subject, provides an interesting way to connect the letters, creates an interesting shape, and is visually attractive.
  3. After the font is chosen, you can use the kerning features of the text tool (alt plus arrows when you have the cursor inserted) to move the letterforms into the perfect relationship.
  4. If there is any part of your font that you don’t care for (I don’t like dots on the letter i, generally) you can use the select tool to select and convert the text into a path (shift-ctrl-c) and then ungroup the text (ctrl-u) in order to work with the letterforms independently and also use the node editor to directly manipulate the text turned paths.

You can do it. You can also extend this methodology to any string of text to make logos, wordmarks, and text based art and design.

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portfolio

228 of 365 is a self portrait #Inkscape

Self portrait by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Self portrait by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Self portrait
Self portrait

Yes, Inkscape is primarily a vector based editor, but I use bitmap or raster based images in it all the time. Inkscape gives you the ability to work in a light way with bitmaps but makes it more difficult to paint into, alter, erase, etc. with bitmaps, unless you do a bitmap trace. In this case, I imported my image, and set it in layer one. Then I imported another image of some rust into layer 2, and set that layer to mode: darken, and brought the opacity down a bit. Finally, I imported the third image, a kind of tech looking checkerboard, and applied the same mode, darken, and lowered the opacity. This is one example of how the layers menu can be really useful in Inkscape, where it is essential inside photo manipulation apps like the GIMP.

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portfolio

227 of 365 is a Pomplamoose lyric [illustration] #Inkscape

Fly fly away (Pomplamoose)
Fly fly away (Pomplamoose)
Fly fly away (Pomplamoose)
Fly fly away (Pomplamoose)

This is a lyric from a short Pomplamoose song. A jingle, really. It seemed perfect for a little 30 second commercial for an airline. Really fun, cute stuff from Nataly Dawn’s collaboration with Jack Conte. Check out the YouTube video below to see why I think they’re so great. The jingle is at the end of the video after the song “Another Day”

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portfolio requests

226 of 365 is a glossy button effect [design] #Inkscape #vector

Glossy button effect in Inkscape
Glossy button effect in Inkscape
Glossy button effect in Inkscape
Glossy button effect in Inkscape

So this is a pretty common effect, but it’s easy to master, and works beautifully in Inkscape. Thanks again to the crew on Monday night at Princeton Public Library who came for the fourth installment in the Inkscape Workshop series. To make this image above, do the following:

  1. Using the ellipse tool, create a circle and make it red.
  2. Select and duplicate (ctrl-d) the red circle, make it gray, and send it beneath the first circle using “lower selection to bottom” button in the selection tool’s options bar.
  3. select and duplicate the red circle again, and make it white, then send it above the red circle using “raise selection to top” button in the selection tool’s options bar.
  4. Using the same method, duplicate the white circle and make it orange. Then, move the orange circle so that it’s bottom is at the white circle’s center.
  5. At this point, make all of the circles into paths by selecting all objects (ctrl-a) then making selected objects into paths (ctrl-shift-c).
  6. Select the white and orange circles, using shift-click.
  7. With those two circles selected, use the path/intersection operation. You will have a football shape in white remaining.
  8. With the football shape selected, perform three path/inset operations.
  9. Move the football shape over the red shape. move the gray shape a bit below the red shape.
  10. Using the fill and stroke dialog, apply a blur of 1 or 2 to the gray shape.
  11. Select the white football shape. Using the gradient tool, apply a full white to fully translucent white gradient to the white football shape by clicking and dragging the gradient tool from the middle top of the football shape to just below the football shape. You can play with the gradient to make it just right.
  12. For fun, create a yellow start with the star tool. Place it between the white football shape and the red circle using the raise/lower tools.

That’s it. You can apply the effect to almost any shape as long as you use the instructions set out here.

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portfolio

A girl’s face made of out text by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #Inkscape #cc #typography #design

A girl's face made of out text by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #Inkscape #cc #typography #design
A girl's face made of out text by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #Inkscape #cc #typography #design
A girl's face made of out text by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #Inkscape #cc #typography #design
A girl’s face made of out text by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #Inkscape #cc #typography #design

This was an in-workshop creation for the Inkscape series at Princeton Public Library. We went and found an image of a young woman on Inkscape, and then I showed how to use the pencil tool to use text as a brush in Inkscape. Here are the steps involved:

  1. Import a picture with good contrast, of a highly recognizable face or other object. Contrast is key.
  2. Using Path/bitmap trace, create a vectorized version of the image and discard or set aside the original photograph.
  3. Choose a 50% gray for the bitmap traced vector in your palette and apply it.
  4. Type three words using the text tool. I think it’s interesting to use words that represent your subject. For this girl, the attendees chose innocent, young, and pensive. Each piece of text should be about half the size of the earlier piece; Innocent is 100 pt, Young is 50 pt, and pensive is 25 pt, for instance.
  5. For each string of text, separately, convert the text to path (shift-ctrl-c), ungroup the resulting paths (ctrl-u), then combine the paths into a single path (ctrl-k).
  6. Select your first, largest word (now a path), and copy the path to the clipboard (ctrl-c)
  7. select the pencil tool set to Spiro paths, 51% smoothing, and shape: from clipboard.
  8. test your pencil to the side of your page. You should now be painting with text.
  9. Now, working first with the largest piece of text, paint until you have covered the largest areas of gray in your image. You are essentially tracing and filling the image with the widest strokes first. Avoid the smaller areas as the large brush will be clumsy for that purpose.
  10. Copy your next word (path) and move back to your pencil to fill in finer details, being aware of the limits of the amount of detail that you can fit in with this size brush.
  11. Finally, copy the smallest word and use the pencil to fill in the finest details. When text covers all of the gray, you are finished your painting work.
  12. Select the gray bitmap traced image and move it off of your page, as it is no longer needed.
  13. Feel free to add a rectangle behind the image for background color, and to apply color to your text strokes you’ve applied. It helps to make the background a lighter color and the foreground marks you’ve made with the pencil a darker color. The more contrast, the better. In fact, black on white is a fine combination.
  14. Extra points if you grab a fabulous color combination from colourlovers.com as the basis for your color scheme. I searched for the keyword innocent to find the palette I used in this sketch. Look for the preview image link on the palette page and download and import the image into Inkscape. Then select the part of the image you wish to apply the color to and use the dropper tool to apply the palette’s colors.

Special thanks to workshop attendees for their inspiration in creating this sketch, and to you for stopping by!

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