Tag: Vector Based

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portfolio

164 of 365 is hot air balloons over dunes at dawn in #Inkscape #design

Hot air balloons over dunes at dawn
Hot air balloons over dunes at dawn

I love this sketch. I saw a photo by Soe Zeya Tun for Reuters that was of exactly this subject and topic as part of a photo piece at http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/lighter_than_air.html and decided that the image would be easy to emulate in Inkscape. (Apologies to Soe Zeya Tun)

In Inkscape, I created the dunes by creating 4 rectangles and converting them to paths and tweaking them into hilly shapes. I added increasing levels of blur to each receding ridge to add atmospheric depth and distance. I then created a single balloon complete with basket and connections, and when I was happy with it, I duplicated and resized two more.

The really great thing about creating this image from scratch is the ultimate control of placement and composition that Soe had to rely on the balloon pilots to provide for her.

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Illustration Inkscape portfolio

163 of 365 is a smack in the face

Smack to the face
Smack to the face
Smack to the face
Smack to the face

So, as someone who grew up watching 10 year old reruns of campy Batman shows, I was imprinted with the message of typography as softcore violence. Oh, you too? So anyway, I recently saw an article on the topic of typography in the 60’s Batman series, and decided to make some of my own.

In Inkscape, I added the text in a clear font, converted to path, and applied the bend live path effect. I bent the text (as a path) and then tweaked each of the corners of each letter with the node tool. I converted the bent path to a new path without the live path effect, and rotated it to fit better in the frame.

Using the shape tool, I created a star, converted it to path, and used the node tool to tweak it. I made the stroke a bit transparent on the star to give it a few colors at the edge. I duplicated the text and made it into a shadow by choosing a flat gray color and blurring it a bit. It was a lot of fun, and it took me back to a lot of childhood afternoons.

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portfolio

154 of 365 is a trio of flying armchairs in #Inkscape #design

Flying armchairs
Flying armchairs

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!

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portfolio

153 of 365 is a lot of bubbles in #Inkscape

Lots of bubbles
Lots of bubbles

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!

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portfolio

152 of 365 is a whale in the deep sea in #Inkscape #design

Whale in the deep sea
Whale in the deep sea

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!

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portfolio

150 of 365 is a 3D fish in #Inkscape #design

3D Fish
3D Fish

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!