Inkscape for Beginners Vector Battery Icon Tutorial Video Lecture - Inkscape

this is Nick with logos by Nick comm and
in today's tutorial I'll be
demonstrating how to create this very
simple flat style battery icon using
Inkscape and at any point in this
tutorial you could look down at the
bottom left hand side of my screen to
see which mouse clicks and keystrokes
I'm using so let me minimize that and
we'll get started the first thing we
will do in Inkscape is make sure that
our view is set to custom and then we're
going to zoom in at a hundred percent by
going to zoom zoom in at 1 to 1 and then
we'll open up our align and distribute
menu with this button make sure you have
less selected chosen from that drop-down
and then we'll open up our edit objects
colors gradients and Stroke menu at that
button so the first thing we're going to
do is create an oval so let's come over
to these circles and ellipses tool and
then we can just click and drag on the
canvas to create an oval about that
shape and size we'll go back to our
select tool I'm gonna take the opacity
of this and drop this down about in half
and then I'm gonna right click this and
go to duplicate and hold ctrl and click
and drag this down to about there and
what I'm gonna do next is let's go to
our bezzie a pen you can click on it
there you just press B on the keyboard
that's another way to get the bezzie a
pen and let's turn on our snap 2 pads
and we're gonna snap the cursor onto the
far left side of this oval and click and
then hold ctrl and bring this line
straight up until it snaps to the left
side of that oval and then click and
I'll still holding ctrl we're gonna
bring this line straight across those
snaps onto that edge and then click and
still holding ctrl bring this line
straight down until it snaps under there
and then click and then we can let go of
control and connect it to the starting
point and we'll turn that red and we'll
get rid of the black outline by holding
shift and clicking on the X and then we
can take the opacity of this and drop
this down about in half and then we
could turn off our snap two pads because
we don't need that for now so let's go
back to our select tool and let's click
and drag over this entire graphic and
right-click it and go to duplicate and
then unify it together by going to path
Union and we'll turn that blue and we'll
come up here to where it says lower
selection to the bottom we'll click on
that and we're gonna give this a blue
outline otherwise known as a stroke so
we're gonna hold shift in the keyboard
and click on the color of blue down here
to give that a blue outline and that's
called a stroke so well come over to
this stroke style tab and make sure you
have joined you want a round to join in
a rounded cap and the width the stroke
width we want this to be a little
thicker than that so I'm gonna try
actually a lot thicker that I'm gonna
try 50 and see how that looks okay
that's pretty good you want it to be
about that much thicker than the rest of
the graphic so once you have it set at a
good thickness
well let's convert that to a path by
going to path stroke the path and then
we'll go to path break apart and then
path Union and what we could do now is
let's click on this black oval down here
and then hold shift and click on this
red rectangle and let's unify them to go
there by going to path Union and then
we'll click on this black oval up top
we'll right click that and go to
duplicate and we could hold shift in the
keyboard and click on the black shape
beneath it and go to path difference and
with that selected let's go to our edit
pads by nodes tool and let's click and
drag over those top three nodes right
there so if you have all three of them
selected and then hold ctrl on the
keyboard and just click and drag one of
these nodes and bring this down to about
here then we go back to our Select tool
let's right click that and go to
duplicate and turn that red and then
we'll right-click it and duplicate it
again and turn it green and then I'm
gonna hold ctrl on the keyboard and just
click and drag this green copy up about
that much and then hold shift and click
on the red copy beneath it and go to
path difference and then I'm gonna hold
ctrl I'm gonna move this red object up
to about here and then I'll right click
that and go to duplicate hold ctrl click
and drag this up to a
out here I'll do that one more time I'll
right-click that go to duplicate hold
ctrl click and drag that up to about
there and what I'll do now is I'll hold
shift that I'll click on those other two
red objects so we have them all selected
and we're gonna make sure they're spaced
out evenly by coming down here to the
distribute panel to the to the icon that
says make vertical gaps between objects
equal we'll click on that and then we'll
unify them together by going to path
Union and then hold shift in the
keyboard and click on the black object
beneath it and let's make sure that's
centered on the horizontal axis and then
click off of the graphic to deselect
everything so what we'll do next is we
will grab our our rectangles tool and
let's just click and drag and create a
rectangle going over those red stripes
about that much let's get rid of that
blue outline by holding shift and
clicking on the X and then we go to our
Select tool I want to position this
rectangle so that there's just this part
of the red shape sticking out right
there and so that the right side of the
rectangle is completely covering the
whole thing and then I'll hold shift in
the keyboard and click on those red
objects and go to path difference and
then hold shift click on the black shape
and go to path difference and then we
can take this blue object up up here in
the background we can right click that
and go to duplicate and we'll turn that
red and I'll hold ctrl and just click
and drag this up to about here so it's
going into that oval a little bit and
then I'll hold ctrl on the keyboard and
just click and drag this top I rode down
to scale this thing down maybe I'll
bring this down a little more and we
don't we don't need that to be that tall
so let's go to the edit pads by nodes
tool and let's click and drag all of
these nodes of top and then hold ctrl
and just click and drag one of these top
ones down to bring this down about that
much and this is going to be the
positive end of the battery right here
then we'll go back to our select tool
I'm actually going to move this up a
little bit like that and then I'm going
to right click this and go to duplicate
hold shift and click on the oval in the
back
and go to path difference and then I'll
click on our red shape right here hold
shift click on the blue shape and go to
path Union and then I'll click on this
shape hold shift click on that shape and
go to path the union and then hold shift
and click on the blue graphic in the
background and go to path difference and
then we could bring the opacity all the
way up and you can make that whichever
color you'd like and that is pretty much
it we have now created a very simple
battery icon using Inkscape so if you
have any questions let me know and as
always thank you for watching