Playing with Inkscape

In the past I have dabbled with 'the Gimp' (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) and used it to good effect at work, making UI mock-ups, and altering screen shots to go into documentation. I also like digital photography and have used the Gimp to do artsy things as well as simple management of imagery to go onto the web. But, the Gimp is primarily a 'raster graphics' manipulator and not very good at 'vector graphics'.


Recently I have been playing with the vector graphics application 'Inkscape'. I have had some progress in making new art with the program. In my experience so far I am finding that vector graphics require more artistic judgment to produce. A good friend of mine teaches a colored pencil workshop and I think will enroll to get a better sense of how light and shadow work in drawing.


One of the issues with scalable vector graphics (SVG) files is that they store the image as arithmetic expressions. These equations are resolved over the number of pixels supplied (thus the scalable part) to create the best quality image possible. But, this means there is a computational engine that must execute the image to make it display. In computer terms this is a bit of a 'Pandora's Box', in that naughty instructions can be embedded in the image file that cause the interpreter of the image, called a renderer, to do things other than render the image. This can place files on a persons computer that they did not intend to be there. In extreme cases it could cause a persons computer to be accessed by people they don't know. While there are very smart people working on resolving the security issues with SVG files, they are not yet allowed on such sites as this one. So, here are a couple of examples of my doodlings that have been converted to portable network graphic (PNG) format.














Diana and Whitney came up with the idea for the skull when they found me doing a tutorial making the Sun image. We went to Wikipedia and found a picture of a skull and then started to draw it, switching back and forth from the drawing to the picture. The girls have a better 'eye' for what is wrong with an image than I do. It was a fun collaboration.

LandShark