Illustrate a Genie Lamp

• Software: Inkscape (or Adobe Illustrator)
• Level: Intermediate
• Subject: Genie Lamp

By the end of this tutorial, you would be able to create a vector artwork of a Genie Lamp. You should be familiar with the tools of Inkscape or any of the other vector editor you use (like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw).

Base Shape

Use the ellipse drawing tool and create two of them one below the other and overlapping. Align them so that their centers are exactly above each other. The blue ellipse is the base shape of the main lamp body. The red one would become the stand of the lamp. Create two more ellipses (green) on either side of the red one. Use the subtract operation to chop of this area from the red ellipse to get the base shape.

Use the pen tool to create a roughly trianglular shape on the left (or right - your choice). Note that the tip of the triangle pointing outside has been chopped off and it is actually a four sided polygon (green). Use the node edit tool to curve them as shown above.

Create two more smaller, concentric ellipses and tilt them a bit. Subtract the inner ellipse from the outer.

Position it to the right (or left), opposite to the curved triangular shape.

Base Color

Make a copy of all the shapes you created and paste it exactly over the original. With the new set of shapes still selected, perform the union operation. This creates a single shape. Layer it to the back of all the original shapes (use Page Down or End in Inkscape) and give it a very dark brown fill and stroke color. A dark brown has a good harmony with the yellow metal color we will be using.

Increase the stroke width to around 3 to 5, so that it bleeds around the original shapes. This will give it a nice thick outline when we are done.

Now start filling all the four original shapes with the yellow color. Before turning the outline/stroke off, you should be ordering the shapes as shown above. Once you are done, give it a basic shading.

Ensure that you have turned off the outline before proceeding with the shading. Once you start shading, it can be a bit of paint to turn them off later. The process of giving the basic shading is something as follows.

1. Make a copy of the basic shape
2. Paste it exactly over the original. Use [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[v] in Inkscape.
3. Give the copy a darker brown color
4. Use the gradient tool (or format color option) to give it a gradient

Details

Once the base shape, color and shading is done, you can start detailing. Let the creativity take over - I went for a minimal approach to make it easy to explain.

Take the pen tool and out line the intricate pattern as a contour of the shadow area. Use the pen tool to create the shape and adjust using the node edit tool.

Switch off the stroke/outline of this shape and give it the outline color. Reduce the opacity to around 50%.

You can go over this process any number of times adding details. Draw the new shape and then apply a union operation with the other to give it a uniform coloring/opacity.

I added some glossy highlights by creating some blob like shapes, and giving it a whitish-yellow color.

As I said, let the detailing be guided by your creativity. Do post links to your works that you did with the help of this tutorial below.

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