Inkscape Bezier Pen Beginner Tutorial

i'm rick johansen and this is the iron echo design channel today we're going to go through an introduction to the bezier pen in inkscape and there are two types of people when you're beginner in an inkscape everybody is a baby cheetah because you want to go fast and then you try the bezier pen and you either feel like this or you feel like this huh so that's how i felt i felt like both of those so i wanted to make this tutorial so you can go through the absolute basics and we're going to reference this in future tutorials on bigger projects so to begin the bezier pen is this icon right here and the mode that you want to be in so click on bezier pen for now for the beginning for the basics is create regular bezier path if you've played with the bezier pen before you know it's it's very powerful but it's not super intuitive so let's just build our skills with some simple exercises to start all bezier pen actions end with double click so as they get more complicated just remember double click completes it exercise one let's make a straight line so if you have your bezier pen selected click and release that's just a regular left click then you can drag out a line any length you want any direction you want from the starting point and then double click and that's just a straight line so click and release drag out your line any direction you want any length double click now if you're playing along and your line is hard to see on your screen this menu is the fill and stroke menu so up here this paint brush in the corner make sure you have that selected and then go to stroke make sure your stroke paint is on and then stroke style you can change the width i have it set to millimeters whatever your whatever your default is is fine just just get to a point where it's nice and thick and easy to see okay next exercise two we're going to make a curve with the bezier pen and if you watch these tutorials they go so fast and they can manipulate the curves any way they want but let's just do the most basic so bezier pen this time click and hold don't let go of the left mouse button draw out your line and then when you release now you can make your curve and then double click to complete it and then what's this i've got a fill and this is how the bezier pin in the beginning can be frustrating this is literally your learning curve so if your curves have a fill go back to your fill and stroke menu on fill x d still deselect the fill let's try it again so click and hold drag let go of the mouse button and you can create your curve double click and that completes it you with me exercise three we're going to add on to the curve just the simple straight line after the curve so click and hold drag it out release that gives your curve then click and release and then no rush you can pull out another line double click ends it okay try that again so i'll keep the instructions there click and hold release there's your curve then click and release and then drag out a line any direction you want then double click do you feel your confidence building let's go to the double curve so click and hold drag it out release to get the first curve then click and hold ooh that's what you see in the tutorials they go fast with this and then double click ends it okay and we'll talk through this one so keep the instructions there click and hold drag release to get your first curve then click but keep holding the mouse button drag and then you can make your second curve double click to end it that was exercise four for exercise five what if you just want straight lines a lot of times in practical application you just need straight lines with the bezier pen so for the pc it'll be shift so hold shift click and release then drag out a line click and release but keep holding shift this time and then you can click and release drag out a line double click to end it let's try that again so hold shift click and release drag it out click and release keep holding shift click and release click and release and there you have an interesting shape there okay there's a shortcut there's a shortcut you can also get a little bit more complicated if you're on the bezier pen up here there's different modes so this one right here is called create a sequence of straight line segments so click on that and this is a lot more intuitive this feels like every other program you've ever used just click around that will and it'll go straight so i'm going to put this in the basic tutorial because it's actually the simplest way to do straight lines next exercise actually before you go on go back up into the mode area and go back to create regular bezier path all right so how do i create a vertical or horizontal line so a lot of times in practical application you want to stay flat or go straight up and down so hold ctrl at least for a pc and then click and release and then now you'll notice it kind of locks in that horizontal axis and it goes up in increments like that's 45 degrees and then here's uh straight up and down so then just keep holding control the whole time that'll keep it locked into one of those increments and then double click to to complete the action okay let's try that again so hold ctrl click and release and then you can feel it locked in any direction you want double click to end it all right so i put together this exercise which i thought would be easy and it's not easy so i practiced a little bit it's all your everybody's a work in progress no matter what level you're at and i'm still learning too so but let's go through what i thought was going to be a simple exercise to end this basic tutorial but now we're kind of like moving into intermediate but let's let's just try it so go to your bezier pen we're going to we're going to create using the skills you just learned duplicate the five and actually no joke no joke if you are really not feeling up to speed yet control d will duplicate your number you can you can do uh you can do one you can do one curve and then one straight down but i'm going to try the five okay so go to your bezier pen all right so to make the flat top i'll hold ctrl i'll click and release and then bring it across and that locks in that flat i'll click and release and let go of control super easy i'll come down the the neck of the five and then i'll just click and release so that's that's just real simple if you want to go try and do the belly of the five it's just like tracing letters when you're learning how to write so i'm going to bring it out here but now i'm going to click and hold and then i can arc it so that looks pretty good and then let go and then i know i'm going to have to arc this big belly of the five so that's why i'm coming down here and then i'll click and hold let's see how close i can get so it's all right and then if i come up so see i went out of the lines i went out of the line so that's a fail ctrl z let's try it again i'll do control bring it across come down one more turn one more try let's click and hold make a nice bend come down here bend it bend it and then come up oh that's much better all right it's still pretty bad but you get the picture this is a beginner tutorial i'll practice later all right for the one if you feel more comfortable with the one i will do the hold ctrl and then draw up that keeps you locked in the perfect vertical then click and release here you have an active line and then bring it down maybe halfway and click and hold and then lets you bend to the end and then double click that's a little bit better oh you get the picture so basically the bezier pen it's uh it's something that takes some practice but it has a lot of good practical applications when you're playing with thanksgiving so hopefully this helps actually before you go i just watched this back and i think i'd be remiss if i didn't mention when you draw your bezier path you can further manipulate it so up here it's called edit paths by node if i click on that you see how i didn't i just didn't do quite perfect on my five if i wanted to fix it click on some of the nodes and then you can you can manipulate it further to get it a lot better and that's actually very common you don't have to draw things perfectly i just thought i'd mention that as an editor's note edit paths by node but my intention was as a beginner's tutorial just to get a feel for drawing maybe five was too ambitious but even on the one if you click on this you can then see how you can you can go you can make it a reverse r you can do anything you want with you you can delete it let's cut it right there

Channel: IronEcho Design

Views: 3,980

Keywords: Graphic Design, Inkscape, Affinity, Photoshop, Startup, Design, Tutorials, Tips, Logo, Bezier Pen, Bezier, Rick Johanson

Id: ABVLbqeZO6Q

Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 15 2021