I've done a little 3D work and wanted to learn vector art. Inkscape caught my attention, and I've been having fun learning the program. I guess I'm pretty proud of my first serious "self-tutorial" using a lot of different methods to model a cartoon character. I worked out a lot of little solutions to shading and path management using clones. The character is fairly modular and easy to edit. The only thing I wish Inkscape had a little more streamlined interface for is applying a common clip path to a lot of new paths as you create them (especially new paths on different layers than the original clip path). I found using the XML editor to set "clip-path" attributes to be the fastest way to do this for a lot of objects. Such a feature would make adding clipped shading and highlights a lot faster.

I also learned a lot about emulating another artist's style (I'm not an art student nor do I claim any qualifications as an artist).



Larger version here:
http://picolink.net/images/inkscape/erin_00_normal.png

If you're not familiar with this character, Phil Robinson created the original character "Erin Esurance" for Esurance. This is 90% traced from a screen capture from one of their TV commercials (one of the more famous action poses). Trademarks property their respective owners, yada yada.

Nice work. I remember how difficult my first vector was--it can be a lot to grasp path management and how to properly colour with it. You seem to have a very good grasp already

hbomb wrote:The only thing I wish Inkscape had a little more streamlined interface for is applying a common clip path to a lot of new paths as you create them (especially new paths on different layers than the original clip path).

If I understand what you are saying, there is a good solution that I use when working with clips.

Let's say I have two objects, one will be used as the clip-er and the other is the clip-ee. Before applying the clip, I'll select the clip-ee and group it (as of 0.46 you can create group containing single object). Then I clip the group with the clip-er. Because I've clipped a group, you can add objects to that group. You do this by "entering" the group. Once you enter a group you can manipulate its contents, or add to it.

You can enter a group by pressing Ctrl+Enter. Note that in my example, before you can enter the group you have to enter the clip. So you select the clip and press Ctrl+Enter and we are now in the clip. You should then be able to use your mouse to select the group (or you can use Tab). With the group selected press Ctrl+Enter again and you'll enter it. Now you can select any object within the group within the clip. You can now draw new objects in the group. When you want to back out you can press Ctrl+Backspace for each level you've entered, or select an object on the canvas that isn't a part of the groupings.

This might sound complicated (esp since Inkscape doesn't provide a GUI so you know where you are in an hierarchy of groups) but you get used to it and it's so much easier than trying to manage multiple copies of the same shape.

That's an excellent idea. It seems to accomplish my goal fairly painlessly.

What I've been doing with any major path is to create a "stem" path with unlinked properties on its own layer. Then I clone it once for the regular fill path on a layer above it. Once I've drawn my first shadow or highlight that needs to be clipped, I clone the "stem" path again, set it to clip the shadow and copy out the "url(#clipPathXXXX)" property for the shadow's "clip-path" attribute. Then, on each new path that needs to be clipped, it's Ctrl+Shift+X, type "clip-path" into the attribute field, paste the clipboard contents into the value field, Ctrl+Enter, and Ctrl+F4. It stays straight in my head, and it's pretty easy to look up later when making changes. This gives me the ability to go back and edit the "stem" path to make tweaks, and the fill path and clipping path follow along. Depending on the style, I can also clone a stroke path above everything so the stroke isn't altered by shading, and still follows changes to the original.

It sounds like your method is similar to Flash's nested stages. I'm going to give that a try on my next project. Thank you very much for the advice!