Some time back i tried a new approach to draw. It basically came down to use Inkscape for the fine contours and Gimp for the gradients and other stuff. In my previous works i tried to use Inkscape alone. It also worked, but the filters have a heavy price, turning your new PC to look as if you tried it on a 286. In the following picture i used Inkscape for the outlines and basic fills. After that i added shading and other stuff with Gimp, which is very easy since you can export the different layers as PNGs and combine them in Gimp again.



I uploaded the original to Commons and Deviantart: Commons, Deviantart

Thinking back, i still hope that filters will get a drastic speed improvement. I really would like to draw something like this in Inkscape alone, without the need to hide layers, since everything slows down so extreme that you can't edit it anymore. But thumbs up for anything that works as off now. It still is a great tool.

This is simply amazing, the background is fabulous, love the clouds, the shadings and tones, and the feelings it evokes. The tree is great and the waterfall graceful. This must have taken a long time, it looks like it came out of an illustrated book! wow is all I can really say, thanks for sharing. (um, re: the girl, my personal preference is modest, the face of the girl appears younger than um, other parts of her, lol).