My very first online tutorial is
an adaption from Chris Design Drawing Hairs article using both Path and Path Editor tools which requires Inkscape 0.47 or newer. Start-up Inkscape application which
should open a new blank page and set the document into landscape.
Create a path
- Select the bezier tool or press either Shift+F6 or B on the keyboard.
- Draw a line to approximately 800px or more. You can also use rectangle tool (R or F4 as shortcut key) as a thin line illustrated in grey.
- While the line is selected, convert into path from the menu Path -> Stroke to Path or press Ctrl+Alt+C on the keyboard. For the rectangle, Path -> Object to Path or Ctrl+Shift+C. The result will show grey diamonds on each corner.
Create a pattern
- On the menu, Extensions -> Modify Paths -> Add Nodes. Set the Max Segments Length to 5px.
- On the menu Extension -> Modify Paths -> Jitter Nodes. Leave the default settings and apply effects.
- You will have about thousands nodes which can be reduced with simplication (Path -> Simplify or Ctrl+L)
- Resize the new generated patterns to about 20px width and 200px height, copy one of them with Ctrl+C or Edit -> Copy.
Setting a path effect
- Create a new curve using bezier tool mentioned above and select it (bow anr S curve below).
- We will use a path effect editor which can be accessed thought either Path -> Path Effect Tools or Shift+Ctrl+7. This editor should appear docked on the right side of Inkscape application.
- With either a bow or S curve selected, apply new effect by choosing “Pattern along path” inside the list field and press Add. Pattern along Path should be listed inside Effect List.
- Inside Current Effect field, you can either paste your created path or link to path which give finer control of the pattern we created earlier.
- Notice the path is horizontally stretched giving a strange result illustrated above. To fix the issue, check "Pattern is vertical" inside Current Effect field.
- Now we got a mesh that looks like hairs. To finalize, we applied the same effect on the S curve. If you have linked the pattern, you can adjust its width.
- With more practice, you can create a nice hairstyle with a combination of clipping.
Happy drawing and leave feedback about mistake or other stuffs. A big thank you Máirín Duffy (Mizmo) for encouraging me to write this tutorial.
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