Just trying out a 'style' of caricature type drawing using a news photo for reference. I imported the images and drew on a new layer with the photo layer opacity down to 60%. I then 'hand' coloured the outlines I had drawn and added a few gradient fills. I would work on them some more if I thought it warranted the effort by I'm unsure... (cue: encouraging noises )



I would probably choose a different gradient for the background below now I see it again...



Does anyone have experience of the fill bucket tool in this context? I find it pretty confusing and I can't seem to get the setting right it seems to leave gaps especially around hand drawn lines...



Disclosure: I don't have any affiliations with the people portrayed, their parties, or an other criminal organisations.

Interesting!
I think I like the one without the strokes, the top one, better. Although I agree, the white spaces caused by the bucket tool are kind of annoying. I don't know if you could use Fill instead? But getting rid of the white spaces would be an improvement.

The top one is Barrack, right? The cheek, chin, eyebrows and lip areas seem a bit stark, to me, like they don't belong. The rest of the image is soft and subdued, and I guess I'd like to see those facial emphasis with gradients, less opacity, blurred, or something, so that they blend in with the rest of the image a little more. I like that effect with the tie, though. Other than that, I really like it. It's a great idea, and nicely done.

Thanks for your comments Brynn,

I agree with all of them! They are literally 'works in progress' but as with all computer 'sketches' they tend to have a veneer of the 'finished article' when they are not. I'm not really trying to defend myself here. I do want to get some opinions on what was a few hours experimental work.

I guess with the fill bucket issue; I did end up using fill instead, as you suggested. I was just hoping then the tool would be a short cut but I just didn't find it helpful as it seems to create a new path rather that really filling what is there already. Not sure on that will have to do some more playing.

All the best Dave

I love the second one. It's very stylish.

The seems to be causing confusion among new users. Simply put, you should avoid using in favour of the fill property. My advice is it forget it even exists until you absolutely can't do something without it. That's when you'll realise what is really for and you'll use it properly.

Having said that, is meant to make you life easier, but not perfect. It's expected that you'll have to manually tweak its shape to make sure its accurate--It's still a lot easier than when we had to hand create such an object from scratch. Read http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... ucket.html to get a better understanding about this tool.

Hi Charles (?)

Stylish, Gordon Brown hahaha

But thanks, I did go visit Tavmjongs Bucket-Fidelity page and it cleared things up a lot for me. Specifically that the zoom factor you are using affects the way the works, which was a surprise. It just don't fill outside your visible area on screen. But also the Grow/shrink setting is probably what I need most. The was a tip in there too about putting all the colouring in on a separate layer which I had just about got figured out by the time I got to the end of these two try outs.

As you suggest you don't really learn how to do these things until you are in a corner and need to use them in anger.

I'm still looking for a good short-cut cheat-sheet. There maybe one out there. I know the page that is referenced in the help menu but a more graphical sheet might be nice. Something to print out and stick on the wall? I'll have a go if there is nothing on-line...

Talk soon. Bstrgrds Dave

I created one some time ago, (before 0.46 and the paintbucket tool) which you can find here - http://www.microugly.com/inkscape-quickguide/ (bitmap version here)

Nice work, It would be great if this or something like it was linked into the help menu instead or as well as Tavmjongs guide which i find a little too in depth for quick reference and I find the short cut keys web page referenced in the help menu makes me go cross eyed with the tag cloud and all the centred text.

it's great you have all the Icons displayed as that is what sticks in my mind and I find I can easily find and memorise the short cuts.

Just my 2c worth

Dave