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I was working on the Paisley Motif tutorial and right at the last step I
decided to add a floral motif to it.
And there it happened again, my short and easy tutorial became a lot
longer! So I decided on a spin-off again.
This tutorial is short and sweet and only focusses on creating a simple
decorative flower ornament that can be used in many designs,
including the paisley motif.
I assume little Inkscape knowledge, and the tutorial should be easy to follow for a beginning Inkscape
artist.
Before we start
Inkscape remembers by default the last settings of a tool. Therefore objects you draw may differ from
the screenshots in this tutorial. Help on how to correct the most common settings can be found on this
page: Inkscape Beginner Tips (opens in a new window).
The bezier tool is one of the most important tools in Inkscape, but most beginners find it a bit hard to
master it.
Ó So lets use an eay way out - 4 simple clicks on the canvas to create an approximate triangle:
Click on the canvas and move the mouse cursor to the left and a bit upwards.
Click again to form the top left sharp corner, then move the mouse to the bottom
right.
Click to form the bottom right corner and move the cursor to the start point.
Click at the start point and finish by pressing the Enter-key on the keyboard OR
click with the right mouse button at the starting point.
Ó Select the 2 outer nodes by dragging a selection window (rubberband) around them, or select
one node, hold down the Shift-key and then click on the other:
Ó Open the Align and Distribute dialog (Ctrl+Shift+A) and align the nodes vertically .
Ó Use the Select Tool .
Ó Give the shape a black fill by clicking on the black swatch in the colour palette at the bottom of
the screen.
Ó Remove the stroke (outline) by holding down the Shift-key and then click on the X in the colour
paletter at the bottom of the screen.
Step 2 – Duplicate the Leaf
Ó Duplicate the shape via menu Edit > Duplicate (Shortcut: Ctrl+D). The duplicate is created
exactly on top of the original.
determines whether "Align left edge of object to anchor right edge" or "Align right edge of
object to anchor left edge" has to be used. Just try the other if you do not end up with
below shape .
Ó Use Path > Union from the menu. This unions both objects into one.
Step 3 – Duplicate and Resize the Leaves
Ó Make a duplicate again: use menu Edit > Duplicate (Ctrl+D). Remember that the duplicate is
created on top of the original.
Ó Move the duplicate with the mouse or arrow keys above the initial shape. Hold down the Ctrl-
key to constraint vertical movement if you use the mouse.
Ó Hold down the Shift-key and squash the duplicate shape horizontally by dragging the middle
handles. The Shift-key ensures it resizes from the centre:
Ó Use Path > Union from the menu. This creates one path from both objects:
Ó I decide to stretch the object a bit further vertically, by dragging the bottom centre handle:
Ó Select the 2 objects and combine them (Ctrl+K). This makes them into 1 path, exisisting of 2
subpaths:
Step 6 – Duplicate and Flip
Ó Make a duplicate via menu Edit > Duplicate (Ctrl+D) and flip it vertically pressing this button
Ó Use the mouse or the arrow keys to move the duplicate downwards. Hold down the Ctrl-key to
constraint vertical movment if you use the mouse.
Step 7 – Group, Duplicate, and Rotate
Ó Select both objects and group them via menu Object > Group (Ctrl+G).
For the preview pictures I added a simple rectangle to the background, and gave that a radial fill with
turquoise.