Inkscape for Beginners Vector Checkered Flag Video Lecture - Inkscape Design

this is Nick with logos by Nick comm and
in today's tutorial I'll be
demonstrating how to create a checkered
flag like this with 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 we'll close out
of that and get started the first thing
we'll do in Inkscape is set our view to
custom and then we'll zoom in at a
hundred percent we'll open up our align
and distribute menu with this button
right here and make sure you have less
selected chosen from this drop-down on
the right and then we'll open up our
edit objects colors gradients and Stroke
menu with this button right here and the
first thing we're going to do is draw a
square so we'll go to the create squares
and rectangles tool and we'll hold ctrl
and shift on the keyboard and click and
drag on the canvas to create a perfect
square like that and then we'll take the
opacity and drop this in half about in
half now we'll go back to the Select
tool I'm actually going to enlarge this
a little bit I'm just gonna hold ctrl
and grab this bottom arrow and make this
a little bigger maybe about that big
that's pretty good and the next thing
we'll do is I'll click off of the
graphic to deselect it and I'm gonna go
to the Edit the draw bezzie a pen draw
Bezier curves pen the Bezier pen so once
we have that tool selected we'll bring
this up here to the left and start this
point just outside of this box and click
on that then we could hold ctrl on the
keyboard and bring that line straight
across the box and end it on the other
side over there and then click let me
collect go of control and press ENTER on
the keyboard and it has created a line
there and now we'll go to the edit pads
by nodes tool and click on that and
we're gonna grab this line and just drag
that up a little bit up here and then
we'll come over here and click on this
node so we get these handles I don't
grab this handle and just drag that down
like that I take this line and bring
that up a little bit we want to create a
fluid line that goes up dips down and
then comes back up just like this
something like this I'd say that's
pretty good
once you get it there we can go back to
the Select tool
and we're gonna convert that from a
stroke into a path so we'll go to path
stroke the path right click that go to
duplicate hold ctrl on the keyboard and
click and drag this copy down to about
here until the space between those two
lines represents a good height for what
you'd think a waving flag should be I'd
say that's pretty good right there I may
even move this up a little bit that's
pretty good and once we do that we could
hold shift and click on the other line
so we have both of those lines selected
and go to path Union and then we'll hold
shift in the keyboard and click on the
black square in the background so you
have them all selected and go to path
difference and what we'll do now is go
to path break apart and that's gonna
break that up into three different
pieces what we could do now is hold
shift in the keyboard and click on this
piece in the middle that's going to be
the flag we'll click on that to deselect
it and we'll only have now we'll only
have these top and bottom pieces
selected we could press Delete on the
keyboard to get rid of them and here you
can see we have the shape of our flag so
the next thing I'm going to do is I'm
gonna click on this and I'm going to
right click it and go to duplicate and
I'll turn that red and then I'll
right-click it and duplicate it again
and turn that blue and then I'll hold
ctrl on the keyboard and click and drag
this copy down just a little bit maybe
about that much maybe a little further
about that much that's pretty good
and then what we're gonna do is hold
shift and alt and click on that blue
flag again to select the red copy behind
it and once we have them both selected
we'll go to path difference and what we
can do now is right-click on this and go
to duplicate hold shift in the keyboard
and click on the flag graphic and let's
align the bottom edges so click on the
button that says align bottom edges and
there you have that we can click off of
the graphic to deselect everything and
then let's click on just this bottom
stripe down here
we'll right click that and go to
duplicate and then while holding ctrl on
the keyboard we can click and drag this
copy up about this much and while still
holding ctrl press the spacebar while
holding down the left click and the
control at the same time press the
spacebar and it's gonna create a copy
beneath it and we're holding ctrl + the
left mouse click the whole time we're
just gonna drag this one up press
spacebar again to create another copy
drag this one up spacebar and then
finally we'll leave this one right here
now let's click off of the graphic to
deselect everything and then we'll hold
shift in the keyboard and click on each
of these red stripes so we could have
them all selected and once we have them
all selected we could space them out
evenly by coming down here to the to the
distribute panel and clicking this
button that says make vertical gaps
between objects equal go ahead and click
on that and then we'll go to path Union
and then we could take this graphic and
move it off to the side over here and
I'm gonna press down on the mouse wheel
and move the mouse in order to pain the
pen the page over if you don't want to
use the scroll arrows down here the
mouse wheel pressing down on the mouse
wheel is a nice way to do that and the
next thing I want to do is create a long
rectangle going vertically maybe about
the same thickness as these lines right
here but going vertically so let's come
to the rectangle tool and let's create a
rectangle or vertical line maybe about
that thickness that's pretty good then
we can go to our Select tool hold shift
in the keyboard and click on those red
stripes and we're going to align that on
this on the horizontal axis we're going
to Center it on a horizontal axis and
then we're going to align the left edges
and then click off of the graphic to
deselect everything then we'll click on
just this blue line right here we'll
right click that and go to duplicate
hold shift in the keyboard and click on
those red stripes and we'll go to this
button right here that says align right
edges go ahead and click on that and
it's going to put a copy of that blue
line over to the right and then we can
click off of the graphic to diesel
everything and what we'll do next is
we'll click on just this Rhett this this
uh blue stripe right here will right
click that and go to duplicate and again
we're gonna hold ctrl and click and drag
this copy over about this much and while
holding ctrl in the left click button on
the mouse the whole time we're gonna
press spacebar and just move this along
and pressing spacebar to create copies
at every individual point so once I get
it to about there I'm gonna just let go
of everything and leave that right there
and then I'm gonna hold shift in the
keyboard and click on each of those blue
lines so I have them all selected and
once you have them all selected we're
gonna space them out evenly but coming
down to the distribute panel again and
we're gonna click the button that says
make horizontal gaps between objects
equal go ahead and click that and it's
gonna space them out evenly and then we
can go to path Union and what we'll do
now is we'll click on this flag this
black flag graphic will right click that
and go to duplicate and then we'll hold
shift and click on the red stripes right
there and let's align the left edges and
Center it on the horizontal axis and
then click off of the graphic to
deselect everything now let's click on
these blue stripes right here and then
hold shift and click on that black flag
copy we just created and we'll go to
path intersection and then we can click
and drag over both over this whole
section of the graphic right here both
the blue stripes and the red stripes so
we have them both selected and go to
path Union and what we'll do now is hold
shift on the keyboard and click on that
black flag graphic right there and we'll
Center that on the vertical axis and the
horizontal axis and I'm gonna press down
on the mouse wheel up and the page back
over and you can see what we have set up
here I'm gonna click off of the graphic
to deselect everything and then click on
just the red this red grid object right
here and you'll know
you have that selected because you'll
see a red stripe down here at the bottom
left-hand side of your screen and with
that selected we'll go to path break
apart and then we can click off of the
graphic deselect everything and if you
zoom in you could see what what that did
that broke that up into a bunch of
individual little pieces so once we have
that broken up let's actually zoom back
in over here to zoom in you could use
the magnifying glass tool or what I like
to do is hold ctrl on the keyboard and
roll upward on the mouse wheel so let's
click on just this this red part right
here and let's press Delete on the
keyboard to get rid of it and then we
could zoom back out to a hundred percent
by pressing one on the keyboard and what
we're gonna do now is we're gonna go and
delete every other box from each row and
we're gonna alternate which box we're
deleting on each row to simulate the
pattern on a checkered flag so I'm gonna
start with this one up here I'm gonna
click that press Delete on the keyboard
click that delete that one delete that
one delete and I'm gonna go through and
do this whole thing I'm just gonna go
and delete every other one every other
box to simulate the pattern of a
checkered flag and once you're done it
should look something like that
and what we can do now is we can click
and drag over the whole thing so we have
everything selected and then hold shift
on the keyboard and click on that black
flag graphic up here at the right corner
to deselect it so we just have these red
boxes selected and with those red shapes
selected we'll go to path Union and then
we can come over to the opacity we could
bring that all the way up and we could
turn that white and then we can click on
the black shape beneath it bring the
opacity of that all the way up and we'll
leave that black and the final step is
to give this flag a pole so we'll just
come and we'll come over here to the
create rectangles the squares tool click
on that and we'll click and drag on this
graph we'll click and drag right here to
create a rectangle you're not going to
be able to see it on my screen because
it's white by default because that's the
color I most recently used so once I
draw it I'm just going to turn it black
with this
with the color selector down here and
then I'll turn on the snap to cusp nodes
tool and I'll go back to the select tool
and I'll grab this Breck tangle up by
the upper left corner and make sure that
it snaps into that corner right there
the upper left corner of the flag
graphic and I'm going to lower that one
step to put that beneath the white
checkered pattern then we could turn off
our snap to custom nodes tool and press
one on the keyboard to zoom out oh we're
already zoomed out what I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna click and drag over this whole
thing group it together hold ctrl and
shift and scale it down so we could see
it a little better and there we have our
checkered flag graphic so what I'm going
to do just to add a little more to this
I'm just gonna click this a second time
to get the rotation handles I'll hold
ctrl on the keyboard and just rotate
this thing around to maybe this much and
then I'll right-click that and go to
duplicate and then I'll flip it
horizontally with that button and then
hold ctrl on the keyboard and click and
drag this off to the left and as you can
see we now have two different checkered
flag graphics so that's how you can
create something like this using
Inkscape if you have any questions let
me know and as always thank you for
watching