I'm trying to draw a pig's tail. I want a spiral with a pink fill and a black stroke. But I want it to overlap and partially occlude itself.

Is that possible? What am I missing?

Basically like this as an example: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m912c ... o1_400.jpg

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

There are a couple of ways to approach this, depending on how you're drawing the image. Here's a screenshot to help illustrate (hopefully):



It's a little exaggerated, just for clarity (it won't work if you do it exactly like I've drawn). I can think of a couple ways, if you're using a regular stroke and fill. The red path represents your pink color for the tail. The blue path represents the black outline. For myself, I would draw the pink part (pink fill, no stroke) first. Then I would duplicate it, add a stroke and remove the fill. Then I would do a little node editing -- break the stroked path where you see my blue path starts, and extend the other end into the little curlyQ. The rest of the pig's tail is a separate object.

Another way would be to draw the path I've indicated in red, using Pen/Bezier or Pencil/Freehand. Give it pink fill and black stroke. Then use one of those tools to draw the black curlyQ line over top of it. Or another way would be to draw all the black lines with Pen or Pencil tool, then use Paint Bucket tool to fill in the pink areas.

However, if you're using the Calligraphy tool to draw the black outlines, or some one of the pattern along path options for Pen or Pencil tools (These options allow for a varied line width, while using a stroke, the line is always the same width. The pig drawing you showed us would be made with one of these options.).... So if you used one of those, all you have to do is make sure that you have a closed space. Then you could use the Paint Bucket tool to fill in the pink color (be sure to move it below the black in z-order).

Others may have different ideas about this, as well