We challenge you to:

Have a go at letter illustration.

Let's see what you come up with!

While we know we are going to get some stunning artwork, we also want to encourage beginners. 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!

All entries to be submitted by 31 March 2023.

Please do spread the word!
#inkscapechallenge

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 "March 2023 Letter Illustration 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. These challenges are intended to inspire, to encourage you to share your work and to build a supportive community.
• 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)

Pacer, once again you have thought of a great challenge. And you have shared a creative and

fun piece of artwork. Thank you. Let's roll!

Too soon.

So, honestly, is this an entry or an...

#inkscapechallenge Letter Illustration 

Why Y? Why not?

I liked the Go above, so I tried a different approach 🙂

Wow! Great start! It looks like we hit the ground running on this one.

@ken10001000 Thank you. I appreciate that.
@AlgotRuneman Nice work, 4 letters, and FAST!
@RayCoshow Creative, but it doesn't look like it was done in Inkscape.
@pjschleitwilerfcm I like the idea of using a tree for the letter Y. Great work.
@mrks9 Very tidy. I like how you linked the letters and incorporated a pattern in the letters.

Funny how my mind works. I was 60 percent done with another project for this challenge when I recalled  that for encouragement I commented st the start to Pacer "lets roll".

Then the idea came about trying to make some letters from dice like objects.

Near the end of this "creation" I realized I made it four times too big!

So I reduced it down and remember a verse from Proverbs. So I added it at the bottom and saved it as a jpg file.

The quality has suffered but I am done with this one. It took much longer than I anticipated.

Anyway I am back to my original idea and hope to finish it in a day or two.

Great entries from your highly creative Inkscapers by the way!

Hi. "Boogie Woogie". A simple pattern used and the dance of Pattern Along Path effect  using the mouse.

Whoo!

Talk about "hit the ground running". The submissions in just two days amaze me.

The "Go for it" by @mrks9 proves how far I have to go.

Almighty A!

"Closer". Known by the company we keep snd how we stand beside one another.

B adventurous!

Caught in Her Coils\

My M was broken, but I did rebuild it... more or less  😁

@ken10001000 I like your lettering. Good use of path effects. Would be interesting to see other shapes used on the same letters
@pjschleitwilerfcm Some fun examples. I like the snake. Thanks for sharing
@mrks9 That is really good work (M). The second graphic is so finished. Slick! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, @pacer I got some artifacts at the bottom, but I left them off because I think they bring to the image.

Kicking K!

Nice entry exit, Algot, that's my favourite of all the other very nice submissions right now (and I like them all).

Just playing with the letters i, l an x for this accordion, or maybe XccordIon? There is no other letter, nor any kind of drawing. And I made three version, the first is in solid colour. I used filters for the others, Relief Print for the second and Rough Canvas for the third.

Playing with the scatter extension.

Now the letter J

Brutal feedback

@pjschleitwilerfcm

Brutal feedback: Clearly, this is the best challenge submission I've seen from you so far. Anatomically, this is well balanced, skin tones are realistic and the face is well formed. Skin highlights are well placed, though I would reduce opacity on highlights on the forehead and chin and include some shadows (generally, on areas hidden from your light source) to balance light and shade.

The J shape wasn't obvious to me at first, but I do see it. Twisting the tail to the rear (shrinking into the distance) may achieve this more obviously, but that is not an easy task.

Scales are well depicted, hands are well-formed and the hair flows realistically. The hair could be improved with more subtle coloring and detail, but hair is always challenging.

I would remove the black outline on the chest strap and the shells (I'd recommend generally avoiding outlines, except in special cases) and focus on their coloring and shadows to demonstrate form and depth.

Overall, a good piece of artwork. Thank you for sharing.

"E" attempts.

@Pacer

"The hair could be improved with more subtle coloring and detail,"

I am not satisfied with the hair myself. I'll probably redo it from scratch. The outline of the shells is necessary for delineating their form/ but maybe not for the strap. Might do that over in a different color.

The other submissions were a different style, less detailed. I am going to try to do the whole alphabet and other styles as well, i.e. more calligraphic,illuminated, etc..

Thanks for the critique.

Hi. I wanted the capital letters to have a resemblance to one another and the lower case "k" to be slightly distinctive from the other lower case letters.

All from my imagination and Inkscape. It is not perfect but I like it.

I want to learn also. So - brutal feedback, please.

@ken personally I would have drawn the low part of the A (the descender?) like the left one of the K. And also I would have tried  to have a S that follows these lines. But, it is just me. Nice design thought.

Thank you Caradjine for your welcomed ideas.

I see your points. I only have and use a mouse. No tablet nor pressure sensitive aid. So, many of my designs are limited to my use of hand motions with a mouse. That is no excuse for not thinking through and adjusting my actions accordingly. I will take to heart your feedback and learn. Have a super day all the way round!

.

Oh, Sweet INKSCAPE Community!!! 💖💪💥

How amazing it is to see you all active as ever! I've missed you all like crazy! 

A Hello with a "Realistic design of the 'Letter I" 100% on Inkscape 🥂

Would love to get them Brutal feeds 😉

Great work NDIM DONALD.

Could you share your steps (processes) ? Thank you.

For sure! @ken10001000

Focusing on the "i"

• starting with flat shapes,
• brought up a circle and a capsule-type cylinder
• fixed my color pallet 
• Now determined the light source for 3d shading
• Top front light shallow, Top right light bright,  right light bright, right front less bright, far left shallow light, far front bottom 
• Now, using references, determine the texture and material your design will have
• then proceed to create the reflections with varied opacities, blur rates, gradient levels
• While setting clipping masks to keep fit every shape/reflection within the object/main design
• Create a black shadow, with a fading gradient and diming blur rates.

• Add your Background object, background style, and Bingo! 😎🍻

✨Vital Tip: always search for 3D references for better understanding of the complexity/simplexity of what you intend to achieve

Thank you  for sharing your steps and your vital tip.

The result is a knock--out

Much thanks, @ken10001000 Always a Pleasure ✨👌 

"Flying". Just Inkscape and my flighty imagination.

100 percent Inkscape and me. Made capital S first and formed other letters based on it. This was a great experiment for me. May all your surprises today be good ones.

@ken wow good surprise, and how you did it is the basis of the work of designing letters.

Thank you for the supporting  words and feedback.

In essence ... I made the capital S from a rounded cornered rectangle. Then methodically thought of the curvature of each other letter and duplicated the S shape. I turned off the fill for each duplicate made and used only the stroke outline. I overlaid these duplicates and could "see" portions of other needed letters and did multiple path operstions. Such as add, subtract. Combine and difference. As needed I used the Nodes tool to delete or add nodes. And used "break apart" quite a bit. Then I made a horizontal series of lines and filled each portion sc as desired. I used the Scatter Extension to place the small circles in an oval shape.

Inkdcape has a rich array of tools and we can do much that can be done with "other" touted software. Play and experimentation is our friendly learning curve. Also saving often and deleting areas as needed. Have a beautiful day.

Cubes.

Duper great idea and work, Marcos.

Fantastic!

Thanks, Ken. It was like going back to childhood to play with pieces, only a little bit more difficult 😄

@Ndim_Donald

Brutal Feedback: Stunning work Ndim. Your reflections are realistic. Good idea to use 3D references. Your shadows and background choice complement your design. I can't really offer much criticism on this one. Elegant. I like it.

If you haven't considered it already, you should think about entering the About Screen Contest. There are still a couple of weeks remaining.

@ken10001000 some decent lettering. You seam to have a flair for it. I hope you do more. I would be interested to see what other styles you come up with.

@mrks9

Beautiful work on the blocks. I love how much you put into the concept. You have some great ideas. Would be nice to see some colour in the reflection.

Your shadow work is good, but you are missing a shadow under the small block above the i.

Great entry. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, @pacer You're right, I forgot this shadow. As for the color of the reflection, again you are right. As it was something rather conceptual, I joined all the cubes together to make the shadow and not overload the file, so I lost the color. Maybe I'll redo it. Thanks again 👍

@mrks9

Perhaps, try cloning the object (as a group), then flip and mask the clone?
...although there maybe some lighting issues?

@pacer Good idea, thanks. I will do some tests as soon as I can.

I have made some changes based on suggestions from @pacer I have also changed the color of the shadows from black to the color that should affect it and using multiply mode. I think it adds a more natural look to it. Thanks Master 🙌

Thoughts along the way.

Begin with a "starter" shape or shapes.

Mix and match. Make pieces. Portions.

Rotate. Resize. Stretch. Swap positions.

Flip. Mirror. Skew.

Use Extensions and Path Effects alone sand in combinations.

 Such as Bend and Envelope / Deformation. Mirror. Rotate Copies. Tiling. Scatter. Pattern Along Parh. And so on.

Look af if all from a different perspective

** Any shape can be made up of any other shape or shapes **.

Believe it. Try it so you can see that this true.

Be bold. Discover. Try and "fail". Try again. Work it out. Learn. Share. Build yourself up and others up. Have fun.

The graphic below is a brief example of these ideas.

Great piece of Art @mrks9 Really appreciates the uniqueness of your Isometric INKSCAPE design and your mastery of perspectives. 💪🖤

should in case, you can add up some beveling for more naturality, 

I'm so honored @pacer Thanks for your great feeds, 

• Will surely dedicate time for the about screen Contest. 👌 
• INKSCAPE ranks 1st among my design tools and has empowered most projects i embark on in one way or the other. 

@Ndim_Donald Thanks, good to see you here again. Regarding the bevel, you're right, and I've tried, but I didn't succeed. I remember how simple it was in Blender, CTRL+B, mouse wheel and boom 😄. I'm still not skillful enough with Inkscape. By the way, your piece is flawless 💯

More experiments.

Really loving the creative thoughts going on in this challenge.

Marcos, your blocks are terrific. Ken's experiments impress, for sure. Ndim_Donald, amazing.

This submission is actually work I did last year, but thought it might work here.

Reading. Again (as so often) a failed concept led me to this.

@mrks9 Now, that's an R for "You Rocked it" 🔥💪🥂

• Enjoying the flow of gradience on your metallic borders. Would love to know how you did that ❤
• How about bringing the connector to the front, blurring out the book on the bg,
• adding some gradience to the inner layer, and fading off the ending point of the reflection

@Ndim_Donald Thanks. I will take your suggestions into account. I actually added a gradient mask to the reflection to fade it out, but I don't think it was enough. Regarding the metallic effect, I made a copy of the object below, used offset to make it a little smaller and added a Mesh Gradient in Dodge blend mode and with all the points at opacity 0. From there I choose the points that interest me and play with the opacity and luminosity.

Edit:As for the connector, I based it on the one on the zippo lighters, I like the way it looks 😄

C for Creative.

Capital letter scribbles.

M is for Marcos. N is for NDim.

P is for Pacer and for Pjschleftwilerfcm.

A is for Algot. C is for Caradjine. S is for Somenody Else out there.

I think the different forms of the letters are interesting. So here is something compering them.

Sunhear  

Do you ken W?

You put a smile on my face. Thank you.

@ken10001000 great thanks for the 💖🙏

That's some joy and a special story coming from your art, which is another essential element of a masterpiece, THE STORY! ✨

Another mini experiment. Made a "starter" shape. Then wanted to "see" if I could discover letter shapes from that image and compose a message.

A graffiti mosaic set of letters.

"Joy is an inside job".

(Just be sure to bring it with you.) ☆

Inquisitive H peeking over the edge 😄

Inspired by "ASK" by #ken and wanted to see how my idea on it works. To be honest, I don't like the S capital. It's a more difficult letter to draw than I thought. I used parts of the A for the K and the e is the basis of the c and of the o. Don't like the n too. Well, it was a good opportunity to work with Power stroke.

And seeing them together, they absolutely don't have the same dynamism :)

@Caradjine Nice. I really like the flow of the letters. I think you could improve the S a bit by changing the node type and maybe removing some. I think the less nodes the smoother the curve will be. I leave you a test I have done with your S

D Lineated

D-elightful. D-ifferent. D-ecorative.

Great idea and artwork.

Capital E and B.

Early Bird. Move your wings and see what they bring.

Some odd perspective capitals - A and S.

I wanted the shapes not to be completely congruent and the colors striking.

Humor. Capital S and lower case b.

How often have you heard that phrase in the graphic? Or, said it yourself?

(And not just when you see what I post?) ;)

"Early Bird. Move your wings and see what they bring."

Great logo for an investigative journalist group.

🕹😊

Hi. Toys ... have a kind of universal appeal to spread kindness and joy. Especially Teddy Bears.

So I made the teddy bear and figured out a way to make the letters A snd M around it.

The "AM" Teddy Bear is short for "AMBASSADOR" Bear.

(We are all Ambassadors of one sort or another.)

And I use the Acronym from each capital letter like this:

Always

Making the

Best

Attitude by

Spreading out

Sweetness

Optimism and

Reliability.

O on a roll...

Thank you @mrks9 I agree with you, the less node is often better.

So the final picture with you S and your n. Very small modifications of the letters make a great effect.

Experiments on the word "ideal" with the I and the D I drew. First flat and solid colours, then with 3D effects and pattern. The 3D version is, hum, pretty ugly in my opinion, but somewhat interesting though.

And, to be honest, I plan ton only keep the I and the D :)

Here's a graffiti street art style lettering of "Iron Echo".   Check out my full design process and workflow here in the YouTube tutorial: https://youtu.be/P4d14Ml3xS4   

@IronEcho_Design Great! Lots of helpful tips in this one. Thanks for your videos 💯

Capital M.

For a "Merry Mutt".

The dog is happy and excited to see me and whirling about. Eager to play and be loved.

The twisting and turning and energy leads to this Capital M attempt.

Persuaded.

Shapely.

Shapely! Ken, you have climbed the ladder to the top.

Rick J. Iron Echo is magnificent and bold.

Caradjine, ID identifies your skill.

PJ, definitely on a roll.

Ndim_Donald, simply amazing.

This challenge is a great show of variety on a theme!

J for Joker.

@mrks9 Scary, but good. I like the hair. How did you do it?

@IronEcho_Design

It's a fun style. Thanks for sharing and for the video link.

Great Joker J. Beautiful idea and artwork.

@pacer @ken10001000 Thanks. For the hair I used trace bitmap, but I simplified it a lot, I mean a lot of CTRL+L and then I manually repositioned it.

If we talk about lettering and being Spanish my native language, I couldn't miss a small tribute to our Ñ 🙂

A is for "Attitude".

K is for "Kickin' It".

Hi there.

Capital F. Faith. Focus. Freedom. Fulfillment.

This moment and the next one.

S for Shape Builder. Created with Shape Builder and textured with some of the patterns that come in the development version. Very fun to make 😊

@mrks9 Another impressive piece. As I've said before, you have an eye for composition and colour. Looks very snakelike.

Thanks, @pacer. To be honest, I didn't have anything in mind, it's completely random 😄

Hi there. A simplistic Inkscape lettering and design.

About Hope ... that is bigger than what is at hand or in my hand and bigger than my horizon.

I love the Ñ! Probably my favourite of all your submissions for this challenge @mrks9

This is the letter æ not very used in French but interesting shape. I drew it using the spiro curve. Then I worked with Taper stroke and I coloured it with a gradient and I applied a filter : Ink Blot with which I played to have something that pleased me. That's for the letter. After, I first made a pattern to give the effect of an old hand made paper with the horizontal lines (n French : "vergeures", I don't know how it is called in English, I should have also made vertical lines, the "pontuseaux", but I think I can pretend that the letter is between two of this lines). I also made another square with the filter Rough Paper that I parametrize too). I learn  a lot with this simple drawing. @pacer I cant' thank you enough to give me these opportunities to improve my knowledges on Inkscape. I won't do that otherwise.

I like cherries

Teased by Ts...

There's little hope  for complexity in this submission, but I really do hope I have nailed it with this entry.

Great work @AlgotRuneman Your artwork is on point!

There are also times when I think I am just mailing it in as a challenge participant.

Nice post @AlgotRuneman

@AlgotRuneman Good idea and good result 👏

H for Hue. This is how I choose the colors 😂 Nah, just kidding 😊

@mrks9 I love the concept of the colour wheel, and it looks great!

Thanks @pacer 😉

Some "S" stuff going on.

S is for String Art

 Or for Scribbles. Or for Stones ... Cobble Stones.

And Capital C for Cobble Stones.

"R" is for Revolution.

I spun out another one in Inkscape ... i finally got "a round" to it.  :)

B is for Bird. The lighter blue colors are to form a B like letter.

Have a great day.

Hi there.

"Negativity Interruptus". Negativity Interrupted.

100 percent Inkscape. Another unique lettering experiment using simple shapes.

The "I" letters are supposed to be sone kind of lights shining through. The "T" letters are to resemble plus signs.

The "U" s are to resemble semi-smiley faces. (The U letters are also to represent "you". Individuals.)

The theme is to make a positive impact to interrupt the negativity.

A fertile imagination.

From the sap to the sapling. From the root to the fruit.

Something is springing up and out.

Thank you, Pacer.

ZZZ

@pjschleitwilerfcm Nice work. You are alwayzzz welcome. 🐍

Two works on the French letter œ which is quite used. For example in « œuf » (egg), it’s the season or « chef-d’œuvre » (masterpiece) like every submission of this challenge. This letter is not included in ISO-8859-1 (and the shame goes to French computer engineers). This letter is pronounced like the « e » in French.

The first one is based on squares. There is the basic œ and a version using filters. The green background of it is the letter I designed but with the effect « Air Spray ». I absolutely love this background. I believe it can be used for other designs.

The other one, as you can see is based on circles. I applied the filter « Ridged Border » on the second version to have a 3D effect. It is not very visible, though.

A unique lettering composition. "All made up".

My heart? My mind? This day?   :)

Quite a mouthful ...

Last entry for this challenge.

Fantastic work, Marcos.

@mrks9 Wow! That may be the most realistic thing I've seen you draw, very convincing, indeed. I'm curious to know how you did it. I'd be interested to see the svg if you feel like sharing it?

Thanks @ken10001000 @pacer Of course, here goes the svg. As I always say, I'm just experimenting and probably wouldn't know how to do this in a month 😄 I love the improvement in the patterns, it makes everything much easier. The last touches are done in Gimp, as always. Although it could be done with Inkscape, at the moment it's easier for me.

@mrks9 I would be interested to know what you did in GIMP to see if we could polish it in Inkscape. That finish is very effective.

@pacer I have not saved the xcf, I never do. But I will try to reproduce it since it is only a few steps. As soon as I can I'll get to it.

@pacer I have made the xcf, but as it is detailed by steps it is 47 Mb. Can I leave a link to G.Drive? 

Hi there. I think these three will be last entries for this challenge. "The Alpha and The Omega".

I applaud all the creative and amazing art and designs and effort that went into this March challenge.

I was playing with the Shape Builder and since it leaves all the pieces separated, I used the Rearrange. As I liked the effect, I added a K for the challenge 🙂

This is my last one for this challenge.

"Fun at your fingertips."

Highlighting a few of the wonderful tools in version 1.3.

Z is for Zots...if you fill it with dots.

Thanks to all for stimulating my wish to be better with ideas and execution. These challenges are great.

Going  out with a Garden

@AlgotRuneman @Caradjine @IronEcho_Design @ken10001000 @mrks9 @Ndim_Donald @pjschleitwilerfcm @RayCoshow @Sunhear

Wow, there has been some amazing entries this month.

Thank you all for participating in the March Inkscape Challenge!

April's challenge banner is on its way but won't be ready for another day or two. If you want to get started, the challenge topic is:

Design Your Own Art Brushes.

There are numerous ways to create brushes and many ways to use them. I am using the term 'brush' loosely here. An example would be to create a shape to be used with the bezier pen tool with the setting "from clipboard" or "bend from clipboard". Alternatively, you could create a 'brush' to be used with path effects such as 'pattern-along path', 'bend' or others..

Make sure to demonstrate the usage of your brush.

Optional: While you are welcome to just show your brushes and what they are capable of, it would be great if others could try them too. If you want to share, alongside your png, post an svg file with just your brushes inside with the license CC-BY-SA (make sure not to include any third party artwork/assets in the file).

I'm looking forward to seeing what you post to the challenge page when it goes live.

I'm late,sorry.

@m1981 It was definitely worth the wait!