Drawing With Inkscape

Wondering how to get that great idea of yours from the random thoughts in your brain to the computer screen? Pen tablet makers would have you believe that their products will let you just plug in your brain practically and at last allow you to express yourself digitally. Unfortunately, in my experience, pen tablets are not useful. I actually prefer a mouse most of the time.

I started out with illustration tools a long time ago, long before I could really do anything good. I guess that's logical. Anyway, my breakthrough came when I stopped using 'precise' tools and used Flash 4, certainly designed for drawing but not really illustration. The limitations and constraints made it a fun, often unexpected, tool.

Since then I've moved on to other things, though Flash can still be fun. Inkscape, which grew out of Sodipodi, on Linux is an example of a great tool. Lineform on Mac OS X, too (that's the one I use now).

Here are a sequence of images outlining how I illustrate on my computer. These are using Sodipodi but the steps would work with just about anything.

Using a freehand sketch tool, simply sketch the general shapes for what you're going to do. If you can't do a simple sketch like this... well, keep practicing.
Zoom in to work up close.
Change the opacity down so it's very transparent.
One by one, outline the elements of your illustration with connected, straight lines. You don't want to spend too much time on this part, but you want to be sure these are solid shapes that you can apply fills to etc. Use a very thin line to make it easy to see the original shapes.
When you're finished your original shapes should no longer be needed- delete or hide that layer.
Thicken the lines, start filling the shapes. I like gradients myself.
Now start drawing shapes (still keeping to straight lines) that we'll use for shadows on the image.
When you're finished drawing shadows, start smoothing out some of the lines you want to have curved. Here's where making solid, connected vector shapes pays off. A lot of artists draw lines and then fills beneath the lines. I find that that wastes my time whenever I need to make a change.
Add in more details now that all the basics are covered.
Zoom in as needed to fine tune the image. Keep details on separate layers of the image so you can easily hide them to decide whether you really like them or not.
Add some more color tones to the image to make it a bit nicer.
I like the effect of tracing the outside of the image to create a solid, semi-translucent shadow for the whole thing.
Finished shadow.
In this case we'll change the desktop to be turned on (because where's the fun in it being turned off?).
A couple more details to make it nice.
Finished image.