Illustrate A Sword

August 21, 2008 in Artwork, Tutorials, Vector by Vyoma | 3 comments

Illustrate A Sword

  • Software: Inkscape (or Illustrator)
  • Level: Intermediate
  • Subject: Sword

This would be a cursory look at an approach to illustrating a sword. Remember that there are many types of swords, and hence, there are many ways you can approach its illustration.

The Blade

Draw a long rectangle, and then covert the object to path. (Path > Object to Path). After that, use the node edit tool. In Inkscape, you may need to delete the duplicated nodes at the corner. After that, bisect all the sides, so that you have eight nodes instead of four.

Illustrate A Sword - 0 - Blade

Delete off the bottom corners, and move the two mid nodes of the (earlier) vertical line further down towards the tip. You can leave it at this or make if more interesting by adding some more detail to the shape.

Curve the vertical lines inwards. Next, create a perfect square, and rotate it by 45 degrees.

Illustrate A Sword - 1 - Blade

Convert the square object to a path, and use the node edit tool to pull down the bottom corner node.

Squeeze (scale down) the object horizontally and line it up with the main blade using alignment option. (Object > Align and Distribuite).

Illustrate A Sword - 2 - Blade

Subtract the smaller shape (cut it out) of the larger blade. To do that, select both the object and choose Path > Difference.

Hilt

For drawing the hilt, take two rectangles roughly the same size and place them perpendicular to each other. After aligning them vertically, use Object > Union to combine the two shapes. This will also automatically convert the objects to a single path object. Use the node edit tool to remove any duplicated nodes.

Using the node edit tool, bring the top edges of the hilt a bit above, and the bottom corners a bit inwards.

Illustrate A Sword - 3 - Hilt

After that, curving the different segments/edges should give you a nice shape of a hilt.

Assemble

Illustrate A Sword - 4 - Assemble

After this, there is not much to assemble the parts. Just align them vertically and you are free to explore your creativity in rendering it up.

Here is my version.

Illustrate A Sword - Final

Use the comment form below to post links to your version.

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  1. riza hylviu’s avatar

    riza hylviu on February 17, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    thank you very useful

    Reply

  3. Vyoma’s avatar

    Vyoma on February 18, 2009 at 4:18 am

    That looks great, Riza!

    Reply