Niko Kiirala on Filters: Tutorial Three - Composite

Here is the next tutorial in the filters series by Niko Kiirala, This tutorial covers the composite filter.

“Composite is, as the name states, an effect that can composite images together. It uses the Porter-Duff blending modes named after the writers of the paper, where it was published.

The Porter-Duff blending modes are basically logical operations applied to images. For example, you can go and take an exclusive or of two images. In the original paper there was a table showing an example of each mode and some variation of that has been included in most places, where these modes are explained.”

Niko Kiirala on Filters: Tutorial Two - Color Matrix

Here is the second tutorial in Niko’s Inkscape Filter Effects series. Today’s tutorial focuses on the color matrix filter. The quote below (taken from the tutorial) best sums it up…

Color Matrix is an interesting filter, that can mix up the colours in your image in many ways. Blanc and white images, sepia toning, hue rotation and removing one of the basic colours from image are a couple examples, what kind of modifications this filter can do.

Niko Kiirala on Filters: Tutorial One - Blend

Inkscape developer Niko Kiirala is doing an awesome, in-depth tutorial series looking at the complex area of SVG filters in inkscape. The first tutorial, which covers the blend filter is a great introduction to the inkscape filters and their use.

using inkscape to illustrate tomatoes

here is yet another awesome tutorial from kalaalog, this subject of illustration this time is a bunch of tomatoes.

a simple drop shadow tutorial for inkscape

If you are looking for a simple technique for creating shadows of simple objects, this is your tutorial.

drawing chain links in inkscape

here is a nice little tutorial on illustrating chain links using inkscape.

Creating Icons with an on the table perspective.

One of my fellow fedora artTeam members, Martin Sourada has created a great tutorial for creating icons with an ‘on the table’ perspective.

This particular tutorial links closely to the echo icon theme that the fedora artTeam are working on at the moment, but contains useful elements that can help with all icon design in inkscape.

drawing gears in inkscape - a howto by nicu.

UPDATE: Nicu has been posting incremental updates on this tutorial on his blog… to date there are 3 parts in total:

1. Drawing the Gears
2. Colouring the Gears - Golden Gears
3. Colouring the Gears - Gears on Old Paper

After the last few posts not being actual tutorials, today the inkscape tutorials weblog is getting back into the swing of things with an awesome little howto from nicu.

Nicu demonstrates how to create gears in inkscape, vary them and build them up to create complex “mechanisms”

How to Illustrate A Reddish Pink Hibiscus Flower Using Inkscape

here is another awesome tutorial from the equally fantastic kalaalog. This tutorial demonstrates how to Illustrate A Reddish Pink Hibiscus Flower in Inkscape. As always, the link to the tutorial is after the jump…

creating icons with inkscape - a basic workflow

Updated: This tutorial has been updated and enhanced, so be sure to check it out again!

Here is another great tutorial for everyone’s favourite open source vector graphics editor. (that would be inkscape…)

Today’s tutorial outlines a basic workflow for creating, tweaking and exporting icons with inkscape. If you need some more icon tutorials check out the icon category

Create an impressive stick man cartoon character / avatar

Here is another tutorial / in depth guide on creating cartoon characters by one of my favourite inkscape tutorialists, David Shaw. A while back, he published an awesome guide to creating a simple cartoon character in the tutorial Slime to Start.

This time he has created another in-depth guide to character creation with Inkscape, and this time the goal is to create a cute cartoon stick man with a style similar to the Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew. Once again, David goes into immense detail of his entire creative process, and the result is a great introduction to inkscape with an awesome result.

For those of you interested in cartooning in inkscape, make sure you check out the following screenshot by Inkscape artist / developer, John Bintz (of Moment of Clarity fame.) It outlines the workflow that John goes through tracing, tweaking and inking his cartoons. Note that the screenshot is done before the 0.46 paint bucket tool came out (which i am pretty sure john had a hand in developing) so cartooning in inkscape is even easier.

howto illustrate a chinese dragon using inkscape

here is another great tutorial from kalaalog, in this one the entire workflow to illustrate a chinese style dragon, from concept sketches to finish product is outlined. This tutorial is in two parts, the link after the break links to part 1, and there is a link at the end of that to part 2 of this tutorial.

creating fire / flames using inkscape (and the new SVG filters!)

Please Note: This tutorial uses features that are not currently available in the most recent stable version of inkscape (0.45.1). To achieve the effects in this tutorial, you will need to download an unstable version of inkscape, or wait until the 0.46 release.

Here is a great tutorial that demonstrates how to use the new SVG filters feature in inkscape to create fire / flames.

Drawing a compass graphic with inkscape.

Here is a neat workflow showing how to create a fairly detailed compass graphic by adding and editing simple shapes. This is a great tutorial for inkscape beginners, as it is well communicated, and intoduces simple inkscape operations like node editing. As always the link to the tut is after the break.

Abstract Effect using paths and markers

Please Note: This tutorial uses features that are not currently available in the most recent stable version of inkscape (0.45.1). To achieve the effects in this tutorial, you will need to download an unstable version of inkscape, or wait until the 0.46 release.

This tutorial describes a neat little technique for creating impressive abstract images using paths and markers. As usual, the link to the tutorial is after the break. An impressive result of the tutorial is shown below.

Shattered, Smashed and Grungy Text in Inkscape

here is a step by step howto on creating a shattered text effect.

view this tutorial

Create a Metal Orb using inkscape

Here is a great tutorial on making a metal orbs from chrisdesign.

pac-man ghosts / baddies tutorial

nicu has outdone himself again. Not only has he created a tutorial for creating cool pacman baddies, but he has again put his results into the public domain for all to download, and this time he has also done a screencast of his process… enjoy!

inkscape text tricks

This tutorial covers the following useful text tips and tricks:

• Applying bold and italic styles
• Changing the vertical baseline
• Manual kerning
• Rotating letters

chrome text effect

Here is a detailed tutorial that demonstrates how to create chrome text using inkscape.

Official Inkscape Tutorial: Using the Interpolation Extension

This is a new official tutorial for inkscape, and it covers in detail how to use the powerful interpolation extension (effect) in inkscape.

How to make RPG map elements with inkscape.

Here is yet another awesome tutorial from Nicu a great tutorial for creating RPG map symbols using inkscape. In this “How it was made”, Nicu outlines a workflow for creating a simple jailhouse RPG element. Nicu is a major contributor to the Open Clip Art Library, and he has placed a large collection (50+ drawings) of these RPG map symbols into the public domain. You can also download the whole package from his own clipart gallery. Comments and praise should be left at Nicu’s Blog post for this tutorial.

all languages:

draw a snowman with inkscape

this is a simple tutorial that shows you how to illustrate a simple snowman using inkscape.

create a desktop background by tracing bitmaps and overlaying them

Render a bitmap Image using Tiled SVG Clones to create a nice effect