I forgot how to cut holes in things and use the gradient tool – but it didn’t take long to figure it out again. I may use this as part of a larger piece later.
Monstera leaf
Category: Inkscape
Aspens
I think this is the final but I may add more tiny branches and some detail in the far background.
Night forest and landscape painting
I have several uncompleted works now. I’ve joined some friends to try to learn oil painting – something I’ve never done before. I’ve hardly handled paints at all. But since the oil painting takes so long to work on and I only try once or twice per week, I’ve been sketching, and now putting some inkscape art together. Here’s what I’ve got.
Oil Painting – Week 1 
Oil Painting – Week 3 
Pencil sketch of original 
pencil doodles 
doodle tree 
Blackberries
I spent a surprisingly long time arranging the berries. I may still go back and add the little hairs to them and possibly a shadow. It may not be noticeable, but each berry is a slightly different color because I wanted to make it clear that they were distinct even when they were on top of each other like this.
The hardest part of the thorns was getting the lighter color to run down the middle. I’m still not 100% happy with it, but after spending hours trying to fiddle with ‘mesh gradient’ until I gave up, I’m going to call this good enough for now.
Edit: here’s my soap label made from the above images.
Inkscape Marbles
I followed an online tutorial to make this. I’ve got a few Inkscape images I’m working on, but this one is the one that’s complete right now and it was fun trying to get a glass effect.
Sandalwood Tree
Or at least – ‘artists impression of a sandalwood tree’. I admit it looks more like a madrone (and like all my other trees so far), but I’m happy with it.
A little break from photos of France. I am getting ready for my fall soaps and thinking of new labels in color. I wanted a wood grain, but when I tried looking for photos of that I was disappointed in the results.
And if you are thinking “what is a madrone tree?” They have a very striking cinnamon color bark that peels. The outer bark can get rough and darker, the inner bark is smooth, flowing and can be orange to green. They are a broad leaf evergreen that lives in the pacific northwest.
Blue Sun Art
I’m going to need a business card and a label template for 1oz soap samples, which means it’s time to play with logos.
This is fun, although I’m glad I don’t have to try to please anyone else with my designs. I am going for an Art Deco look.
#33-34/365
Sneaky fox
I’ve been trying to come up with a very stylized fox to fit with the tree & owl and so far that’s not been working out so great. I may need to go back to some sort of ancient technology like paper and pencil to get the sketch done first!
Instead I made another color-block fox. This time I tried to use simpler lines, but I may need to ‘cartoonify’ him even more to get him to fit the scene. Still, I like him.
#27/365
Millefiori
Just messing around with Inkscape again. There is a glass technique called “millefiori” that means “thousand flowers” and this is my (incomplete) attempt to recreate that look.
I showed it to my husband and he thinks I need to turn down the screen brightness.
#19/365
A Forest in the Making
I made another tree with a more oak-tree shape than my first. The ferns are present, plus a few of the little ferns that grow on the trunks of trees in the rainforest. This oak had a large horizontal branch that needed some owls.
The first owls were based off a movie – but I wanted to draw my own version this time. As it turned out the cartoon owls looked the way they did for a good reason: this is just what owls look like. My own owls are very similar. If I change anything it will to make the eye edges more distinct from the white face and perhaps to make the feet more fuzzy.
#16-17/365
