http://hereshowididit.com Open Source Graphic Design Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:13:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I spent a couple of hours working on a graphic of a dandelion the other weekend and I thought I would share how it was done. The design is simple. Using Inkscape, I began by drawing the dandelion stalk using the Freehand Tool (using spiro for that nice curve) and coloured ... http://hereshowididit.com/something-ive-been-working-on/ Now you have your development version of Inkscape running, let's have a look at the Spiro option. Select the Freehand (Pencil) Tool. You'll notice an addition to the toolbar: Make sure the "Create Spiro Path" mode is selected as shown. This will correct your freehand lines to smooth curves which ... http://hereshowididit.com/inkscape-exploring-spiro/ When I first read about the new spiro feature on Andy Fitzsimon's blog I thought it was so cool I had to have a go. Spiro is a new feature in development for Inkscape which is an add-on to the Freehand Tool. It modifies your stroke path into spirals giving a ... http://hereshowididit.com/inkscape-previewing-spiro-getting-started/ In my absence I've been working on a design for something I'm going to have laser cut. Who wouldn't love to have their very own laser cutting machine? I know I would but until then I'll be sending my work off to a specialist company, so I'll keep you posted ... http://hereshowididit.com/inkscape-leaf-skeleton/ I've been AWOL again. Here's why; I've recently acquired a car. The problem is I can't drive, so it's taken quite a bit of my free time to learn and for the past couple of weeks I've been working on a big new project for my business. It's taking a ... http://hereshowididit.com/absenteeism/ Following on from yesterday's faceted diamond shape, I'm going to show you a few ways to tidy up the edges without the need for time consuming node editing.       Here's our shape from yesterday. In order to make it look more diamond-like we'll need to get rid of those sharp edges and ... http://hereshowididit.com/inkscape-using-clips-masks/ 10 days and no posting. I spent most of last week in Ireland and I couldn't bring myself to look at a computer. It's nice to have a break sometimes. Anyway, I'm back with my semi-regular 3 posts a week. Today I'm going to show you a technique for making faceted shapes ... http://hereshowididit.com/inkscape-faceted-shapes/ I really like magazine layouts. I like those little boxes with additional information or quotes inside the main body of the text but if you want to do something similar in your web pages it can be extremely frustrating to get it looking good. Here's one method for creating a quote ... http://hereshowididit.com/adding-quotation-marks-to-your-web-page/ You'll remember last week I started a pretty large photo restoration project trying to piece together an old photograph. This week I'll show you how I go about "healing" the tear line and removing some of the major blemishes from it. When you're working on something particularly heavy-going it can be difficult ... http://hereshowididit.com/gimp-restore-a-torn-photograph-part-2/ How often do you opt for a solid or gradient fill for your Inkscape drawings? Have you ever used the Pattern Fill? Here's an example of a star shape filled solid pink next to one filled "Ermine". This is as simple as setting any other fill. You can change the opacity and blur ... http://hereshowididit.com/inkscape-filling-with-pattern/