Hi,

I do some artwork in inkscape and before using inkscape, I have been doing it just on paper with a pencil. However, I needed to replicate my art and initially I decided to just scan the work but that turned out to be quite tedious due to the size of the sheets I was using etc. So, I decided to go to vector graphics and drew out my work in inkscape. Now, the problem is this: my work looks way too artificial and perfect. I feel like when people see it, they will think that I just used computer to auto-generate the artwork. This is of course not true because everything I have drawn in inkscape is also drawn by hand before.
Now, this is what I am thinking: Can I apply some tweaks to make the inkscape linework look like it was drawn by hand on a paper or on canvas or something like that.
My level of inkscape knowledge is this: I know basic interface, creating lines, duplicating, ctrl+shift+f, ctrl+shift+d options etc. Not an expert.

Thank you in advance for your help.
PS: This is my first post on this forum!!! YAY

Yay indeed! Welcome to InkscapeForum

I don't quite understand why it matters whether people think you drew in on paper or on the computer. It doesn't change my impression of artists whether they work on paper or on the computer. But maybe if we could see an example of your work -- like if you could post a drawing you scanned in, and the Inkscape version? Or small portions of same, maybe I could understand better. Also if you can point to specific examples of areas that you don't like and why.

Have a look at the images in this topic: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9424. He's an amazing artist, who usually sketches on paper first, then he Inkscapes it. I don't think any less of his work because he recreated it with Inkscape.

There may be some ways to make things work better. But it's hard to say without knowing specifically what that is

Oh boy,

My work is NOWHERE nearly as complicated as the ones shown on that page. All my work involves plain lines thats all. I think you are right. I may be should not worry too much about this stuff. However, I still have two followup questions

1. How can I atleast add a texture to the entire background, instead of plain white (or other plain colored) background? Say canvas or drawing paper etc.
2. As I said, all my work involves line work. When I drew out things on inkscape, on occasion, I have overlapping lines. This sometimes happens inadvertently. The two lines would be of exact same color, same stroke width and same length and right on top of one another. Now when this happens, these lines appear slightly darker/thicker or something but I can notice it when I export a bitmap from inkscape. Is there any way to avoid this? Can I somehow set an option which will say: if you have two lines exactly on top of one another, just treat it just like a single line? Not sure if this is a valid question but I can see how one might want this!!!

Thank you for your help!!!!

For a background texture, draw a rectangle the same size as your image border. Give it some color (even if it's white) then apply a filter. Or you could manually draw some kind of texture, rather than use a filter.

I don't think there's any such option to avoid overlapping lines. I guess you just have to pay attention to what's happening in the file, as you work.

Hi,

Thanks. I found this tutorial on textures and that is what I am playing with now (which is kind of a good and bad thing. Its fun but after sometime I realize that I just spent several hours playing with this!!! haha).
About the overlapping lines: for something I am doing, I have a repetition of shapes and during it, its almost impossible to avoid partial overlap. If I think about it, this is what I feel. If I draw a line of some width and black in color, and then I draw another line of the same width on top of that, (both snapped to same gridpoints for their start and end) then technically, in 2-D, why should anything look visibly different between a single line and double line? I feel like my expectation is valid!! What does inkscape do when treating these cases? Does it nudge one of the lines a tiny-bit so that the overall width seems larger and hence the line appearing bolder in a bitmap export? I feel like two lines on top of one another should be same as one line if both are opaque! right?
I actually dont know any technical details of implementing vector graphics. I am just expressing my gut feeling.

Thank you again!

When exporting a bitmap Inkscape has to force a theoretically perfect line to fit into a grid of pixels. Consider what happens when a line doesn't fit exactly into a row of pixels, but rather straddles two rows. Should Inkscape only colour one of the rows? Both rows? In practice it uses what's called "anti-aliasing" which adjusts the colour of the pixels to approximate the weight of the original line. The result is that your precise line is actually rendered as a very slightly fuzzy line.

This happens independently for each object, so when you lay one fuzzy line over another fuzzy line, the fuzzy translucent parts combine to give the appearance of a thicker line.

There are a number of approaches to avoiding this problem, including changing the way in which you draw objects to avoid overlapping parts, or ensuring they're drawn to a grid that ensures the lines will match the pixels in the export (this approach is often used for drawing small icons). If you can attach a small example file showing the problem you have, we might be able to better advise on a way to work around it.

(As this has moved onto another topic, you might be better off starting a new thread to ask about the anti-aliasing problem, to ensure that the right people see it).

Hi,
I will start a new topic and will reply to some of the things that you have mentioned here on that new topic.
Thank you