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The course is teaching everything one should know to work efficiently with the free and open source graphic design program Inkscape. As a free program, there are plenty of short tutorials about Inkscape, but not a comprehensive video tutorial like this was made before. These lessons are not for solving individual tasks (like how to create a banner, how to draw a fish etc.) but rather going through all the tools one can need to understand and use Inkscape on an amateur or even professional level. Apart from sharing the tools, I also give my tricks and tips I developed myself as a designer working with Inkscape for years.
svg files are provided where needed, so students can learn and experiment.
New videos will be added to the course upon request.
In the introduction I will show you what is Inkscape and what it is good for. It is an open source program, what you can use to create illustrations, logos or any type of 2d graphics you wish.
In this lecture you will get help to find your way around the interface of Inkscape, and learn how to zoom in an out fast.(believe me, that is crucial for a good design!)
We start slowly and create our very first objects in Inkscape. Follow the video and draw amazing squares and circles everywhere! - promise we will draw more later on!
Saving your great work is crucial! You can save your work to .svg and edit later, or export to.png as a bitmap image.
As Inkscape is built around using objects, we need to know how to select and modify them - this is what it's all about after all.
You will create a lot of objects when you design with Inkscape, it is good to know the way to handle them.
You know how to create and modify objects, it is time to add some color!
What is the difference between shape and path? What are the basic path operations and how to use them to create shape? How to accidentally draw a duck? Learn it all from this lesson!
Let's use what we learned so far and create a mug.
A bit more complex but gives you more control over your design - edit path by nodes for a great result!
Colors are so much more than kust the tiles in the color palette! In this video I will show you the color wheel and tell you about RGBA - and how all these things will make your work faster and more creative!
If you want to create more than just flat colored shapes, gradients is what you need! They are very easy to create and modify in Inkscape.
Gradients and blur are great ways to create three dimensional looking lightning effects. This lesson is more about the proper use of tools than about the tools themselves. I will show you some lightning tricks that are useful in any illustration!
Clip and mask are essential in more detailed design work.
You can add text to your fliers, brochures, banners, business cards - and this is the way to do it in Inkscape! (The metallic text effect made in the video is in the supplementary file. Try to make your own!)
Layers are a great way to organize your work in Inkscape.
Sometimes you have to create ordered and organized work. This is when aligning objects to each other and using guides can be useful!
Going into a more creative direction, the spray tool is fast and fun to use and a good way to add details to your work. We create leaves and a starry night in the video.
The pencil (or freehand) tool is there to create freehand curves. But now I will show you how to use it as a real brush, and how to create your own brushes for added artistic value!
you can add more variety to your drawing with the sculpt tool!
You can use several path effects in Inkscape, in this video I will share my favorite with you.Look at all that fishes! :)
There are over a hundred filter effects and extensions in Inkscape, I will show a few example of use, and share my favorite (a very useful) one, perspective distortion!
You can import bitmap images into Inkscape, and convert them to vector. In this lesson I will show you some ways to do this.
In Inkscape you can use patterns on your objects insted of flat colors or gradients! I will show you how!
Layer blending modes are another way to make your work more colorful.
We start to create our Christmas card.
Following the process of creating an illustrated Christmas card, I will share my way of drawing a cute Christmas elf. As a good drawing takes a bit longer, I split this into two videos.
After finishing the elf illustration, we use the spray tool to create falling snow.
We put the text on the card, position and color it.
Finish and export our Christmas card!
New engine, bug fixes, and the mesaure tool!
Gradients just became easier to understand and use!
The powerstroke is a new tool to create dynamic outlines. You can use symbol library to acces free icons and pictograms whenever you need!
You can modify a lot of things in the Document properties. Changing the canvas color is one of the most useful of them. See it how to do it!
This tip is very helpful when you work with more objects creating a complex illustration. I can not post the original file I used in the video -as it is an illustration made for a client - but I added a little field of flowers so you can test this method yourself!
You know how to use the pattern tool, but how do we make an actual pattern? Here is how!
HEre are the basic shortcuts I use in Inkscape! Get familiar with them and make your work faster!
The clone tool is an easy way to create symmetrical designs. Check it out! :)
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