WTF CONCEPT

Hoping you were like me two months ago, [someone that knew nothing about Inkscape] I have decided to make a small tutorial that will hopefully help anyone starting out on Inkscape. If you consider yourself somewhat decent in Inkscape then this tutorial isn’t for you. this is for absolute noobs!

The Inkscape Logo

What will you learn in this tutorial : The basics of Inkscape, “Fill and Stroke” using “Objects”, basic shapes, “Coloring”, “Savings As” and creating a simple design.

————————————————————————————————————————————————–

The Design : This is the design I have created using Inkscape, and hopefully you too will be able to create this and many other designs! This design took me about 40 minutes to create because although it seems simple. Getting it to be symmetrical takes time and patience.

Tools to be used : The two main tools that will be used will be the Sphere/Circle tool and the Star/Polygon tool. Those will be used to create the basic shapes of the design. Although you could free hand draw the design using those two will make your design look more professional. Another tool worth mentioning is the Select tool, worth mentioning because it took me about a week to fully understand how essential this tool really is. In the “File, Edit, View” bar you will be using Object quite often, and View only once. The picture below should help.

TIP: Zooming in/out will be very important while making designs using Inkscape! I zoom in/out by pressing CTRL + Mouse scroll up/down.

Step 1 : Go to View scroll down to and click on Grid. You should now see grid lines throughout your Inkscape screen. This will help you have a more symmetrical design. After you have your  Grid lines, go to Object and click on Fill and Stroke… This should open up a tab on the right hand of your screen. This tab will be important in determining the color (fill) and if you would like the outlines/borderlines to show a color (stroke)

Step 2 : Using the Sphere/Circle tool, create a circle the size is up for you to decide, it can be made larger or smaller once the circle has been made. Using the Star/Polygon tool create three stars, create a large one, then create a smaller one. Using the Select tool select the smaller star and press CTRL + C on your keyboard, then press CTRL + V. This will copy and paste a new star identical to your small circle. You should now have a Large Circle, a Medium Sized Star, and two smaller Stars. Using your Select tool, select all these shapes and click the “Black” color on the color chart below. (if its not already colored black)

TIP: After you make your desired circle simply click the Select tool to grab the circle and move it around or make it larger/smaller, from there you can click the Star tool.

Step 3 : After you you get the three stars and the large circle, use the Select tool to arrange the stars to look like the final outcome (shown above) by click on the Star you can drag it anywhere you want, you can also make it larger or smaller. If you would like to tilt it, or change in degrees (60, 80, 90, ect) then simply click on the shape TWICE, you will see the little arrows around your shape which will allow you to rotate your shape to your desired location.

Select Tool

Step 4 : At this point you should have the basic layout of the head finished, perhaps you made it look different to your likings. In this step I will show you how I achieved the eyes. For the eyes I simply used the Circle tool once again. Except this time I edited the circle to make it look like the eyes. Simply go to your color chart, select a Gray color then make a medium sized circle. Now using the Select tool click the Gray circle three times, untill you see a small open circle at the bottom of your circle; or to make it even more simple below the Select tool there is a tool called “Edit Paths by nodes” you could just click on that tool and then select your circle. Grabbing the smaller open circle move it around so you achieve the desired “half circle”

Step 5 : Once you have completed step four click the Select tool and select your half circle/kat eyes TWICE. Clicking it twice will allow you to rotate the kat eyes to your likings. Once you have done this create another identical copy of the eye using the Copy and Paste method talked about in Step two. Place the eye on the Kat head using the Select tool, now the second eye is facing the same direction as the first eye, to change this select the second eye using the Select tool go to Object tab and click on “Flip Horizontally” Now place the eyes accordingly.

Step 6 : by this step you should be able to create the mouth and nose on your own, especially his “3 half circled” little body, but I’ll guide you in the right direction, for the kat’s nose select the Star tool once again. However you wont be making another star, this time you will make a pentagon. How do you get to make a pentagon? Once the Star tool is selected click on the Pentagon just slightly below the “File, Edit, View” bar. Place the pentagon on the head as it’s nose.

Step 7 : For the mouth, you will be creating two small pentagons using the Star tool and the Create Rectangle tool which is two spots above the Star tool. Not to be confused with the 3D box tool – Don’t use that. Make a long slim rectangle as it’s mouth. and for the ending mouth curves use the two pentagons. Adjust the size as desired and make sure the pentagons and rectangles fit accordingly to each other. Make it’s body by using the half circle method like in step five.

Step 8 : GROUPING! you’ve now finished the design! maybe it looks nothing like my alien kitty kat, but you did learn a thing or two by using the tools! well the final step is Grouping. You may look at your design as a big mess! a bunch of shapes overlapping one another well with Grouping we can fix that! Using the Select tool, select your whole design by clicking and dragging, once it has all be selected go to Object in the File, Edit, View tab, and select “Group” your design should now be grouped into one shape instead of many shapes on top of others.

Ungrouped/Grouped

FINISHED! : I hope this tutorial was somewhat helpful, I realize this is a very simple design but I believe the tools that were used in this tutorial are stepping stones to more complicated/complex designs. I will be making more designs using Inkscape, If you would like to see me upload them and make tutorials from them then simply say so in the comments below. Thanks for reading.