50 Inkscape tutorials for creating vector graphics
- August 20th, 2012
- Tutorials
Inkscape is a popular and highly recommended vector graphics program for designers who are looking for a free alternative to Adobe Illustrator.
Inksape is particularly useful for those who are on a tight budget and cannot afford more expensive design software. Despite being free, Inkscape offers many features that are similar to Illustrator, making it a great choice for designers who are familiar with Adobe’s popular software.
How to download Inkscape
To download Inkscape, simply visit their website at inkscape.org and get the latest version. Another free design program that is worth checking out is GIMP, which is a great alternative to Photoshop. We have compiled a list of the best GIMP tutorials that you may find useful as well.
Learning Inkscape
If you are looking to learn more about Inkscape, we have the ultimate resource for you. We have gathered 50 of the best Inkscape tutorials available and compiled them into one comprehensive post. The tutorials cover a wide range of topics, from basic features to advanced techniques, and are accompanied by easy-to-follow video tutorials.
We have included a diverse range of tutorials to cater to all skill levels, from beginners to experienced designers. We would love to hear your feedback on the post and any other great Inkscape tutorials that we may have missed. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us!
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1. Creating a Coffee Cup with Inkscape
A beautiful coffee cup and show off some of Inkscape’s features. You’ll mostly be drawing shapes and using the Gradient Tool to accomplish the desired effect. If you’re familiar with Illustrator or a similar program, you should be able to follow along relatively easily.
2. Text and simple styling
The following tutorial will attempt to illustrate a simple set of techniques and tools to stylize text. It will attempt to demonstrate how simple, quick, and effective it is to modify text stylings in Inkscape.
3. How to make simple clouds
A great short tutorial on how to create simple clouds using inkscape.
4. Quick Tip: How to Create a Cartoon Rocketship with Inkscape
This Quick Tip will teach you how to create a cartoon rocket ship with some nice lighting using only basic shapes like rectangles, circles and a triangle. This is a step-by-step tutorial for beginners. The icons from the inkscape toolbar are added to the images to make it easier to find the tool and function I am describing in the text.
5. Create a chibi Tux penguin with Inkscape
How to create an amazing character penguin illustration using inscape.
6. Learn to draw an eye in anime style
In this tutorial Maxim Grafskiy will teach you how to draw a classic anime-style eye. The technique was borrowed from an existing tutorial on Corel DRAW, improved and adjusted for Inkscape.
7. Drawing 3D objects in Inkscape
With this Inkscape tutorial you will learn to draw a 3D looking snowman, but ultimately you will get a grasp of creating shadows and reflections the right way.
8. Use Inkscape to Create a Grunge RSS Box Icon
How to create an Icon using new features of Inkscape 0.47, such as: gradients, blur, path effects, and mask on texture layer. We’ll be walking through every step involved in creating this grungy RSS feed icon box. There is some great vector material in this tutorial!
9. Draw a first-aid kit in Inkscape
The tutorial provides example of using 3D box tool in Inkscape to create a base for a complex object in perspective and explains drawing complex shadows.
10. Kokeshi Doll
11. Create a Realistic Candle in Inkscape
Discover how to draw complex shadows, highlights, and even flames in Inskscape. We’ll be using gradients, blurs, and clipping to simulate the effect of Illustrator’s gradient mesh in Inkscape.
12. Understand butterfly technique
The main idea in this tutorial is to make a half butterfly wing-like shape first, then duplicate and mirror it to make the simple butterfly shape.
13. Add an acrylic image effect to photos in Inkscape
In this tutorial babayasin explains how to create an acrylic looking picture from a photo using GIMP and Inkscape with just paths, gradient fills and gaussian blur.
The following tutorial will guide you step-by-step through the creation of a polished metallic chrome look.
15. Quick Tip: How to Create a Classic Handgun with Inkscape
This Quick Tip will teach you how to create a handgun using just basic shapes like rectangles, circles and triangle. This is a step-by-step tutorial for beginners. The icons from the Inkscape toolbar are to the images to make it easier to find the tool and function I am describing in the text.
16. Sketch To Vector Art
You will some times want or need to create elaborate vector illustrations but still want to keep the shapes simple. When the subject is complex, this can be quite a challenging task. In such cases, you can start drawing and sketching in raster mode (or on paper).
17. Draw A Realistic Vector Guitar in Inkscape
This tutorial will go over the techniques used to draw a realistic guitar from scratch using the free vector program Inkscape. To complete this tutorial, you should already have a basic knowledge of vector tools, such as: the Pen tool, Edit Path Nodes tools, and you should be familiar with the Fill and Stroke toolbox.
18. Drawing Mac like clock in Inkscape
This tutorial could be of interest for both novice and experienced Inkscape users. Basic Inkscape skills (objects manipulations, using Gradient editor) are required.
19. Pac-Man baddies with Inkscape
It’s a long time since I have in mind this PacMan baddies (bad guys and bad girls from the Pac-Man game, called “ghosts” in the game) tutorial, since I made months ago a silly cartoon dedicated to the Fedora Games spin. Indeed, the idea is that old, I delayed the writing because it didn’t feel right in the context of my other tutorials.
20. Urban Design
In this Inkscape tutorial It will provide a quick method of making a simple urban design by only applying a few elements: circles, clouds and swirls. It can use Inkscape as it is freely available and is very suitable for this kind of work.
21. How to draw Fall leaf with Inkscape
I’ll will show you how to draw fall leaves with Inkscape. Inkscape is open source vector graphics editor and can be downloaded for free.
22. Fasion Woman
It is a bit more advanced tutorial, and some knowledge of the Inkscape interface is assumed.
23. Postage stamps with Inkscape
In this easy tutorial you will learn to create postage stamps using Inkscape.
24. Illustrating 3D looking objects in Inkscape (Basic)
llustrating objects to give it a 3D look requires a few transforms, unions, differences & most importantly the gradient. Here is a simple circle you can draw. The technique used here applies only for basic shapes and that too for particular orientations.
25. How To Create a Jeweled Butterfly In Inkscape
You’ll create a sparkling jeweled butterfly that will shine without using any gradients. We’ll use various path operations and the powerful extension “pattern along path” to reproduce shimmering gold. If you’re an Inkscape user, then follow along with this tutorial.
26. Skecth and heart
I was finalizing some simple illustrations for use on e-cards and I figured that I might as well explain some simple tricks with great effects in Inkscape. All still in a Valentines theme, but I am sure you can find your own use for it!
A great tutorial on how to create a cute baby illustration.
28. Illustrating Chinese Dragon
This is less of a tutorial and more of a walk-through of creating a vector illustration of a Chinese dragon. I will be applying several techniques, which are posted earlier.
29. Creating a “Web 2.0 style” Badge in Inkscape v.45. 
How to create a very cool web 2.0 badge illustration.
30. Quick Tip: How to Illustrate a Saw Blade with Inkscape 
This Quick Tip will teach you how to create a saw blade with a shiny disc using just basic shapes like rectangles, circles and triangle. This is a step-by-step tutorial for beginners.
How to use inscape to create a vector compass.
32. Illustrating Hibiscus Flower
This will be a simple step by step tutorial on illustrating a Hibiscus Flower using Inkscape.
33. Design a Brilliant cut Diamond with Inkscape
This will be a simple step by step tutorial on illustrating a Hibiscus Flower using Inkscape.
A great tutorial which educates you on how to create a shiny arrow tutorial.
35. Draw a hackergotchi (or just people heads) with Inkscape
As a bonus, you will learn to draw those heads even if you don’t know how to draw, by using a photo as reference, anyone can do this, you don’t have to be an Inkscape wizard.
Illustrating vector art of chain and chain links is quite fun once you get the hang of it. The most important thing is to get the basic shape right.
Rainbow using Inkscape’s tiled clones tool.
38. Quick Tip: How to Create a Seamless Wood Grain Effect in Inkscape
In the following Quick Tip you will learn how to create a seamless wood grain effect. This is a step-by-step tutorial which is perfect for beginners to Inkscape.
39. How to Create a Vector Light Bulb Icon with Inkscape 
You’ll be learning how to create a vector light bulb icon with the free, open source vector program Inkscape. We’ll be following a Tango style of design for this project. Read on to learn more about the Tango Desktop Project and to learn how to create this icon.
40. Quick Tip: Make Eye Catching Designs with Inkscape 
Sometimes all you need is an abstract or intricate motif to beautify your design, but when you try to find a stock image you often have to pay for it or it’s not exactly what you’re after. Thankfully there’s some interesting tools in Inkscape suitable for this kind of work. In a few easy steps you can make abstract or floral designs in exactly the style that you need.
Video Tutorials
41. Inkscape Tutorial – Penguin
This Inkscape tutorial demonstrates how to make an image of a penguin. The tips and tricks in this tutorial can be useful for other drawings as well. This is a good tutorial for beginners. Inkscape version 0.48.2 was used for this video. Inkscape is not a bitmap editor, like GIMP, but rather it is a Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) editor. An advantage of SVG editors is that they allow images to be scaled without a loss of resolution. Inkscape will allow you to convert your created image into a PNG bitmap image, at the desired resolution, using the export function under the file menu. The resulting PNG file can be used in web pages or read and modified using GIMP. Note however that once the image is converted to a bitmap image, a loss of resolution can occur if the image is resized.
42. Inkscape Tutorial – Bowling Pin
This Inkscape tutorial demonstrates how to make a bowling pin. A bowling pin is a complex shape and this video shows a technique for easily creating the shape.
43. Inkscape Tutorial – Rusty Gear
This Inkscape tutorial demonstrates how to make a rusty gear. Various filters are used to give the gear the appearance of age and also to give it a rusty look.
44. Inkscape Tutorial – Eight Ball
This Inkscape tutorial demonstrates how to use Inkscape to make an image of a shiny eight ball. Inkscape version 0.48 was used for this video. This tutorial shows tips and tricks that can be useful for beginners as well as all Inkscape users.
45. Inkscape Tutorial – Clip Art
This video demonstrates how to make a clipart image of a shiny bug. You will see a variety of tips and techniques that you can use for making your own clipart images. Inkscape version 0.48 was used for this video.
46. Shiny Glossy Button with Beze l
This Inkscape tutorial demonstrates how to make a shiny glossy button with a bezel. The tips and tricks in this tutorial can be useful for other drawings as well.
47. Make an Owl Cartoon Character
In this tutorial, I will show you how to make a owl cartoon character in Inkscape (Version 0.48.2). It vaguely resembles an “Angry Birds” type of character, but that wasn’t my intent.
48. Inkscape Flourish
Some tips and tricks for creating a flourish in Inkscape.
49. Making a game terrain in Inkscape
Making a terrain for computer game.
50. Inkscape Drawing Tutorial
I demonstrate how to draw using Inkscape given a source. Obviously it’s fast-forwarded. There is a guide at TREZ that I’ve been meaning to make more public which covers this technique.
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