Okay, so sometimes a sketch is just about playing with text as shape. I started typing out the words “something brilliant” in the hopes of coming up with something brilliant, and brilliant or not, this is what I made. Inkscape works with text and shapes in amazing ways, and with some nice fonts and colors, you can make something fun and interesting out of literally nothing but a phrase. Hope you enjoyed it!
Today is David’s birthday (and Michael LeMasney’s and Lynette Day Young’s) so I thought I’d make a sketch about birthdays today. I’m coming down off a cake high, so forgive the simpliity of the sketch.
In Inkscape, I imported David’s image, and I placed a large bold block form 2 on the page and resized it to fill the page. I made sure that the z order of the two items had the 2 up front and the picture in the back. I placed them in such an arrangement so that David’s eye was placed in the center of the stroke of the 2. I selected them both and did a object/clip/set which gave me David’s face in the shape of a number 2. A very simple operation with a very interesting outcome.
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.
A simple idea that I need to focus on right now. 😉
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!
If you know me, really at any level, you know how important design is to me. You know that I feel like it surrounds us, a physio-visio-spatial fabric that helps to define a space, a culture or a community. I would also say that once you are past the idea that it requires magic or some gift of birth, you understand that you can do it too, given the right tools. Many of the designers I know who are asked to design each day are flummoxed not by the blank page, but because they are using Word or Publisher or PowerPoint to design, and for no other reason other than familiarity.
Let’s stop that where we see it, okay? Inkscape is one answer, but others exist. Oh, there’s one other requirement for design: You have to love it. You have to have a passion for having the right outcomes. You have to care about it. Otherwise, it will just be text and pictures on a page. You need to be able to be inspired by sites like and even if you feel like your work doesn’t belong there.
The desire to help people learn is the key skill in being a great trainer. Legitimacy, transparency, and patience are definitely important too. My experience has been that getting past the fear of one’s own designs is really about getting your designs in front of the eyes of others, gaining feedback, improving, and growing. This project has really helped me to do that!
Hope you enjoyed today’s sketch!
Design | Covert to Inkscape illustration software now