This is another quirky look at what happens when you take one ordinary object and another ordinary object and put them together in an unexpected way. I want one, myself. In Inkscape, I used the rectangle tool and node editor to quickly sketch out an armchair. Then, I used the calligraphy tool to create wings. Hope you like it!
I really love the new spraypaint tool in Inkscape’s 0.48 beta, likely to be released this summer. I’ve begun using it quite a bit to create spontaneous backgrounds and textures, such as this one. Normally, you’d have to create an item, then drag it about the canvas, choosing where to lay duplicates with the spacebar, rotate them all individually, then choose to bring all of those shapes together withe the combine path operation. With the spraypaint tool, you can do all of those steps in one movement. It’s amazing for a certain kind of productivity. Hope you like the effect!
I’ve been drawn to recreating some of these silhouette images in Inkscape, and a deep sea scenario works very well for it. The colors and darkness add drama and depth, and the silhouette of what we imagine to be this massive animal is at once awe-inspiring and frightening. In Inkscape, I used a dingbat font to get the silhouette of the whale, then worked with the calligraphy tool to create blurry ridges of massive rock formations. I also used the calligraphy tool to create an overhead light. Hope you like it!
This was fun. I saw a 3d image as I was looking on recently, and thought I can do that in Inkscape! I took a dingbat font based fish and placed it in Inkscape on the canvas. I duplicated it twice and placed each slightly apart from one another. I used 3d glasses colors with transparency to set the tone for the 3d feel. I placed it on a slightly oxidized paper background. I added the text, played a bit with each letter’s relative kerning and spacing, and when I was happy with it, I duplicated it, and made a shadow of the duplicate. Hope you enjoyed it! If anyone has 3d glasses, let me know if it pops in the comments!
This is another example of the wonderful and new Spraypaint tool in Inkscape. I took a single stroke of the calligraphy tool, then used the spraypaint tool in order to create all of the other shapes you see just by swiping the mouse on the canvas. A truly powerful and simple to use tool.
I started making these calligraphic lines many years ago as a way of making shorthand notes on movement while watching a video of ballet. As the dancers turned and spun in the air, being thrown and jumping, I’d record the motion with a pen on a page.
It turned into a primary form of my mark-making ever since that first moment. I have thoroughly enjoyed moving from analog mark-making on paper and canvas to the digital canvas. Inkscape has been a beautiful analogue for that process. The things that I learned in one have definitely influenced the other, and I feel privileged to be among those who had a foot in each pool (digital and analog mark-making).
I never get tired of making things glow, shine, have depth, reflect, or stand out in Inkscape. In this case, I took my Wacom tablet, and with the calligraphy tool, I made the key 3 marks you see. Then I duplicated, applied a yellow, and applied a blur to the duplicate, sending it behind the first marks. I added a deep red background, and to create some depth I made a pill shape and used the spray paint tool set to single path to create the texture.
Have you ever practiced making marks on a page? Do you doodle in corners? How would you like to see the ways in which you could turn those marks into art using tools like Inkscape and the GIMP? Contact me at 6095539498, or john@lemasney.com to see how you could get started!
Design | Covert to Inkscape illustration software now