Oct 2021 DM: Day 01

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Oct 2021 DM: Day 01

Try out a vector program and create a simple line/shape illustration. (Inkscape is free.)

(These prompts are meant to be challenging, not impossible. Feel free to adjust as necessary to suit your skill level. You are always welcome to use a graphic from this site if you can't create one yourself.)

Again I want to remind everyone that this is a challenge, but also fun, so if the days prompt seems too hard, feel free to use a template.

Also, this is the first time I've done this so if the prompts seem a little confusing, I apologize. Any way you choose to interpret things is fine. We just want to have fun and make digital scrapbooking designs smiley

And don't forget to join us in Discord (Directions for joining are here), especially if you have any questions as I'll see them quicker there.

Okay, I've been awake since 2am, unfortunately, so I downloaded Inkscape in the middle of the night. Wow, was I ever intimidated by that program! I can't draw worth 2 cents. LOL I ended up using the calligraphy tool and made a flourish with the mouse, then turned it into a glitter sticker. Resized to fit here:

So cool! Looking forward to seeing what else people make.

I needed to give myself a time out from school, so I made this.

I also tried a textured version, since I'm trying to figure this program out.

I guess I'd better get back to school time now!

@Becky Your acorns are so cute!

I made arrows

Thanks, Christina!

This might help, Christina: https://inkscape.org/learn/

All vector programs are intimidating at first, when you're only used to raster images. If you've ever worked with the Pen tool in Photoshop or another graphics program, that's your biggest asset in learning to create vectors. The advantage of vectors is that they're infinitely resizable without losing quality (getting blurry or jagged, especially), so they're fantastic for making your own templates. You can use the pen tool with a mouse and be able to adjust the points until your lines are perfectly smooth, too, which makes it great if you don't have a graphics tablet or an iPad to let you use a stylus for input.

If you remember the concept of tangent lines from geometry class in high school, a tangent line only touches the curve at one point; in a vector graphic, adjusting the "handles" on a specific "node" of a vector shape lets you adjust how far out from the node that tangent line affects the outline of the shape. To make a corner node, just click the mouse; to make a tangent node, you click and drag the mouse while still holding the button down until your handle going forward is where you want it. Make the very rough shape and join the loop. Then you can click the point on the end of any handle and adjust it further, or click on a node and move it around, to fine-tune the shape. I recommend starting out by clicking 4 points to draw a square, then using the node conversion tool to convert the corners to tangents and trying to make them into a smooth circle. That sounds pretty simple, and once you get the concept of how to adjust points and curves, it is...but it's a good first challenge for learning to work with vectors, not so complex as to be intimidating, but teaches a lot of the absolute basic techniques that will let you start being able to draw anything you want.

Feel free to ask questions anytime; my Discord is almost always online, and I don't mind jumping into a screen-share to demonstrate something, or have you screen-share and talk you through how to make a given shape.

smiley I download inkcape just now smiley hope I can use it .... never use this sort of program smiley
21h40 in France ... too tired for try it this night LOL and hope the langage can be on French smiley

The language can definitely be in French!

Good luck to everyone with their drawing. Looking forward to seeing more doodles.

my hill - still learning to draw

Thanks for this challenge, Marissa - I'm really looking forward to it!

I created a cup and saucer. It's been ages since I've used Illustrator, so I basically had to research each tool and function that I wanted to use, but I got it done, so I'll consider that a win for the day. smiley

I don't have a blog, so I'm not quite sure how I can create a URL to show what I've done, so I guess you'll have to trust me that I actually did it! smiley

Pinecone

Annette - I don't have a blog either (at least not for scrapbooking, since the one I've had for ages is sewing related.) I've been uploading them to Dropbox and linking from there.

Cute pinecone, Lisel!

smiley Aha - thank you, Becky! I will try that.

Very nice glitter sticker, Christina. I really like that idea.

We also have instructions here for sharing images in the forums.

Ok, I tried working with Inkscap, and ... too much trouble to understand, even the software oops. So I went back to the vector work of my paintshop pro and here is a sheet with my shape on the left (made with the vector tool) and on the right, my finished leave. I haven't been trying vectors for long time so not overly satisfied, but I'm doing my best LOL
On the other hand, I will come back to Inkscap later, it takes me a long time to adapt and understand a software, oops the age of my neurons makes me work very slowly smiley

Thanks, Marisa! I did look, but apparently not hard enough or in the right place. I will definitely read those instructions! smiley

Do vector shapes even work in Photoshop?

ok, here we go...

well, this is embarrassing, the image didn't show. smiley (I uploaded from from Dropbox and obviously did something wrong.)

Annette -- does the link it created end with dl=0 ? I had the same issue at first, and found that if I changed that to raw=1 , and then do the web link like for gallery pictures, it worked much better.

Thanks so much, Becky! I think it probably is a 0.

"and then do the web link like for gallery pictures" -not quite sure what you mean. I'm guessing that you're suggesting using the 2nd icon from the left above the reply box (the world with a link, labeled insert link) instead of the first button on the left (the tiny mountain & sun button that's labeled as insert image)?

I'll fight with this more in the AM - really should be heading to bed. I really appreciate your help though - thanks again!

Becky, I had same issue and this worked! THANK YOU! Could not for the life of me figure out what I was doing wrong and never in a million years would have figured that one out.

Thank you for explaining further. I've never used the pen tool in PSP before, so I'm really lost here.

I just copy paste my layers from illustrator into Photoshop. I like drawing in a vector program because it’s smoother and you can resize as needed. I make my patterns in Illustrator as well. Then I export the image to Photoshop to make a finished element.

Again, remember if the actual drawing is too difficult, just find a template that you can work with.

I defiantly need to view the tutorial. It has heen so many years since I tried Inkscape.

Leaf on commons:

My computer is not letting me download and install this app. It keeps saying it could be harmful to my computer...grrrr.

OK...FYI...the .msi version downloaded and installed but not the .exe version. I'm running windows 10 in case anyone is interested.

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