We challenge you to:

Draw a Crystal

If you are new to Inkscape, feel free to keep it simple.

Multiple entries are welcome, and please do stick around for the chat!

All abilities are invited to get involved. The complexity of your entry is down to you.

Please post your finished artwork below. 

IMPORTANT: If you would like to know what you could do to improve your artwork, add the phrase to your comment: "Brutal Feedback" --- only for those with nerves of steel! (Please include a brief description of your process, difficulties you have experienced and your desired outcome).

Because of limited resources, moderators may not always be able to give feedback. However, other participants may be able to offer advice.

Please spread the word!
#inkscapechallenge

Please see CHALLENGE RULES before submitting your artwork

Instructions/Information

• To submit your artwork, scroll to the bottom of the page and while logged in, click the paperclip (bottom-left) to upload your image, add a description in the text box (optional) and click "Submit Reply".
• If you'd like to post work-in-progress artwork, create a thread in the "Work in Progress" section of the forum, and post your images there, with the title "[Month] [Year] [Challenge Title] WIP - [your artwork title]" (you are welcome to ask for help there if you get stuck). When finished, post the final graphic to this thread.
• There are no winners (HOWEVER, WE MAY SHARE ARTWORK WHICH STANDS OUT WITH THE INKSCAPE COMMUNITY). These challenges are intended to inspire, to encourage you to share your work and to build a supportive community.
• If you post your artwork here, you agree for us to share your artwork and use your artwork to create a banner for social media - to opt out, add "Please don't share" to your post.
• Please don't post artwork containing AI generated graphics or 3rd party images. as it can be hard to see what you (the artist) has produced using Inkscape.
• You're encouraged to discuss and offer feedback/constructive criticism to others, but please be respectful.
• Most importantly, be creative, give your best, and have fun!

We look forward to seeing your entries!

Challenge entries (so far)

I’ve gone for a simple look this time 

@Paperacrobat That is nicely done. Thanks for sharing.

@pacer thank you 🙏 

First time "competing", messed around with the 3D tool and the dual tone filter. Not entirely sure what I made but it looks cool to me atleast.

I didn't saw so much implementations of this tool those years. I almost forgot how cool things can be done with it.
Does anyone remember this ?
https://inkscape.org/~inkscape/%E2%98%85about-screen-inkscape-046+1

This one is also made with cuboid tool. maybe a fluorine cristal :

Another one more sketchy (all clones of the original at the bottom right) :

an attempt

@pjschleitwilerfcm I love the dramatic lights and this dark zone where we can see through the crystal !

I think this is the first time I'm officially taking part (done one or two but never finished on time, once it was a year later, I think ^__^). Anyway, keeping it really simple this time as well … I'd be happy about tips and suggestions.

EDIT: Ok, cool another try without slight transpareny in the border, hopefully +___+

@jlow Great work ! I think you could improve... Juts nothing in fact !

The only glitch I can detect is a weak point of most vector software with gradients : human eye see fringes in transition area between very similar colors.
Adding a paper texture or some subtle noise can sometimes hide it.

@1981 Ha, thanks so much! Yeah, the gradients are pretty bad, you are absolutely right. Interestingly I just didn't see that at all, that's so weird ^__^ I tend to not like adding noise / texture to vector graphics since it it makes the exports bigger in filesize (which is a super arbitrary reason, I know ^__^) but this one is .5 mb anyay so I'll give it a go, thanks for the tipp!

My first attempt.

@parsar Beatiful work, I like it a lot!
@jlow To reduce even more the size of your files, try to upload jpg (or webp) files instead of png's. Your cristal looks really great!

@parsar That looks lovely. Welcome to the challenge. Stick with us. I'd love to see more of your work.

Pacer
Challenge Coordinator

@Inkonic

@pacer

Thank you very much!

This is my illustration of the challenge. At first, I was going to do something else, but as the days went by and I combined several ideas, this came out. I hope to continue improving.

This month's challenge gave me an idea for a drawing I'm working on for a contest in October. The theme is "Brave New Worlds", my picture will be called "A new hope for humanity", and features a dead astronaut on an alien planet. This is the working version with a few of the more mature components attached.
The crystal idea is perfect as I was going to include a rock in the foreground which the astronaut grasps in his death throws. But now I'll use a crystal and to his left will be a huge alien beast, whose "egg" the astronaut has grasped.
The components have been created in separate files, and brought together for the first time in this file. For the glove and helmet I photographed a ski glove and motorcycle helmet to get the perspective then used them as references for the drawing.
Things to do - the rocket will be 50's retro style, lots of work left. The alien will be a cross between a praying mantis and spider. I need to work on a lot of the detail in the ground, plus put a Saturn looking moon in the sky above the astronaut.

Feedback welcome. At this stage not too brutal because work in progress.

 

Its been a while since I hung out here, so happy to be able to contribute to this months challenge!
I made the drawing of the amethyst crystal mainly with the pen tool and layering multiple gradients and blurs in an attempt to represent the internal reflections in the crystal, but boy there are so many of them!

@parsar I love the facets on your crystal really cool!

@m1981 So impressed you managed to wrangle a design like that out of the 3D box tool, I always feel that the box tool hates my guts!

Color Diamond 

100% cut and polished with Inkscape💎
X-Rayed🧐

What if a sword could split the air, leaving behind a trail of crystals ?

And this is my entry for the month. It became a kind of textbook example because I wanted to include a drawing of the crystal lattice.

@razr According to their crystalline mesh, it could be quartz, with pyrite on the matrix.

@m1982 Yes, exactly! 👍

Decided to go with pyramid salt, even though it was not as easy as I first expected, so they are all just clones.

@Gaillycool As you worked pyramids, I may suggest this tool : Extensions > Render > 3D > 3D Polyhedron.

In Model file : Octahedron (a bi-pyramid)
Then you will be able to play with angles, scale, and so on to generate them

@m1981 thank you for the advice, I will try that, there are so many tools that I have lots to discover.

Submit To The Mystical Crystal!
A pseudo-occult image based on a photo of my own hand.
I tried to give it a more organic look by using the Roughen LPE. For the shadowing of the hand, I made line-like shapes that I first copied
and then used those with the bezier pen in Bend From Clipboard mode. Most of those "zillion" little lines are extrapolated from point to point, divided in several areas..
My Workspace

 X-Rayed
 

One more image from me, blue crystal cluster.

This challenge helped me understand (finally) how mesh gradient actually works. I played with it so much that I got lost in discovering new and exciting (!) shades and shapes. The hand is intentionally sketchy looking and the colouring not precise, but I wanted to give it kind of an old school zine look while the crystal was more the focus. Not sure if I accomplished that. To be honest, I don't feel this is all that great and I'm slightly disappointed with my final outcome. Not to say that I won't keep it for future tweaking as I have with some other works. 

Looking at some of the other entries, I will say that all of them are quite nice! Well done everyone. It's so cool to see how everyone interpreted this challenge and what tools you used. Some, I didn't even think to consider. 😃

I was just a made aware of the data quota limit I have at 60MB. (second attempt to upload both the rendered PNG. The last time the browser froze when uploading the SVG.)

After I was critical last month about uploading images other than SVG files, my experience this month proved the sound reasoning. 
There are screenshots in the work in progress from various browsers and OS methods when used to render the SVG file.

@Spwiggles This is beautiful! The colors of the crystal and the shadowing on the hand are really great. Well done, Spwiggles!
Yes, the Mesh Gradient tool can be magical! Try also the difference between Coons and Bicubic mode with the Smoothing option. For my diamond here, I used the Bicubic option. But for a another challenge, a time ago, I prefered the Coons option to color leaves. -See Here
 By moving the grid's handles, you can create the desired shape of the object itself. Plus, you can always add grid lines by double clicking on the grid and place those wherever you like.

@dhouston1000 Hey dhouston. Nice colors and I like the use of filters! If you have any issues with the edges of your filtered objects, here's a solution (click this link)
Also, another trick (actually two tricks) when filtering noise-grain, e.g., HERE  
Try to upload jpg or webp images instead of png's to reduce the size of your files. Ask @pacer for extra quota if you don't have enough.

Thanks for the feedback @Inkonic and links. I've often wondered about the bounding box of certain objects when filters are applied but never took the time to investigate or ask.

Cool, Here's a bright blue crystal. Note: Click on the picture to enlarge it.