Hi,

This started as a question, but I think I answered it.

I wish to create a look similar to this:


My skill set included two inkscape tools which could help:

1. Pencil + Path Smoothing + node editing = Allows me with a little patience to create a symmetrical path identical to the picture show
2. Calligraphy Brush = Allows me to draw a line who's width varies depending on direction, automatically achieving width tapering we see above

But I could not figure out how to use them in unisen to draw the image shown.
The Calligraphy brush does not seem to allow me to edit it's "path". It doesn't seem to have smoothing available either. So while it automatically creates the width tapering I want, the tool demands that I draw perfectly on the first try.

So today I discovered that you can add 'pink nodes' to a power stroke!

1. Ctrl + left click a pink Node. A new node created on top of old node, but it looks like nothing happened
2. Left-click drag on the pink node, this drags the new node away from it's parent
3. drag new pink node along path to where it's needed

Just covering one of the shapes in the above image:
I draw a path, closed it and tweaked the nodes till it looked right:


Then I added a Power Stroke effect, and multiplied the 3 default pink nodes into 16.
I Walked the pink nodes around the shape, and tweaked their distance from the path to control width:


The result is not perfect, but very close to what I wanted to achieve:


Can someone add some refinement to this method?
I noticed that I get sharp corners when the width transition is too dramatic:

But that went away once I changed the Interpolator type from linear to this:

Hi.

Just a note that the cores of those curves can be plotted with paramteric curves and/or with the spirograph extension too.
One of them is a lemniscate, the other one is a stretched hypocycloid.

If the stroke was drawn with a flat nibbed pen -with translational transformation only- the trace could be constructed theoretically.
Since it is more of a copperplate calligraphy, the tools are more limited.


Another note, that you can draw only a half of the pattern, and rotate a duplicant of it 180° if you are after more consistency.

Norsak wrote:So today I discovered that you can add 'pink nodes' to a power stroke!

1. Ctrl + left click a pink Node. A new node created on top of old node, but it looks like nothing happened
2. Left-click drag on the pink node, this drags the new node away from it's parent
3. drag new pink node along path to where it's needed

Yes. In case there are more people out there who didnt know (like me), here is the documentation:
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php ... th_Effects