- Software: Inkscape
- Level: Beginner to Intermediate
- Subject: Tomatoes
The other tutorial on painting a tomato has become quite popular and I have got quite a handful of request on how the approach would be for illustrating tomatoes. In this post, we will be looking at how to illustrate a tomatoes (or more than one) using a sketching program and Inkscape (or any other vector editors like Adobe Illustrator or Corel DRAW).
Sketch
Draw a sketch of the tomatoes and get it as a image file. You can either sketch it on paper and scan it in, or sketch it using a software. I used GIMP.
Basic Shape
Import the sketch into Inkscape.
Use the pen tool to mark out the rough shape of the different parts. Take care to correctly order the different shapes one above the other. This depends on how and from which angle have you sketched the different parts. Some of the parts may need to be split into more than one shapes when the interleave between other shapes.
After you have gotten them in proper order, you can then shape all the paths and then give them the basic flat color.
Details
You can then bring the sketch above all the shapes, reduce its opacity and then start using it to outline the different parts, taking care of the inner details of each part.
As you mark out the different areas using the pen tool, shaping them, add fill colors to them.
Start giving in more details. Some shadow area may need special attention and you can put in some faint gradients. Do not over do this, if you want that ‘vectorized’ style.
After working on one part of the illustration, move on to the next. Smaller parts do not need a lot of steps from dark to light.
Also, if you do not want to bring in too much focus on some part, just leave it at two or three color steps.
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Use the comment section below if you have any specific questions, or to post links to artworks you created using this tutorial.
Tags: Intermediate, Tutorial, Vector
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Nice work, I like the effect…looks like a “coutout as done with photoshop filters!
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Glad that you liked it, Will. Not really aware of that ‘cut out’ filter in Photoshop, will explore.
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Excellent example!! Thanks for taking the time to write up this tutorial!
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You are welcome, Pavan!
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nice tutorial for me.Thank you very much
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seems more like a pepper to me
still pwnage though
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pls explain to idiot&new user how do you make those black lines easily so lively — i mean they are not same thickness everywhere ! ?
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Well, mattdaem, there are no ‘black lines’ in the end product. If you observe from the first set of pictures, we just go about placing layer and layer, the smaller layers in front and the larger shapes behind.
The last two at the very behind are almost identical, but for the slight difference that shows up as a ‘dark line’ with varying width. Since both shapes are created from bezier shapes, they come out ‘lively’.
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Hi,
What font you use in example ? How i made an line equal in up picture ?
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Just came from http://inkscapetutorials.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/using-inkscape-to-illustrate-tomatoes/
to say thanks for the great tut!! -
hi hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii alsome tutorials
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lol peoples nice drawlings
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thanks for the tutorial, really good!
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