Inkscape

Before I started working on my moose pattern, I needed some ideas so I looked around online to see how others have done it. Most of the patterns I saw consisted of hand drawn and scanned shapes, so I was going to do that, until I stumbled upon a pattern where the shapes were drawn by computer. That looked so much more professional and I wanted that for mine as well.

But I didn't know how to draw with my computer. I've always been interested in graphic design, but it is so expensive to learn, especially the software you need to buy for  such classes. I simply can't afford it. So I went on another online search, this time I was searching for free drawing software and free lessons that would teach how to draw simple things on the computer. I discovered Inkscape, an open source scalable vector graphics editor, and this blog with informative tutorials.

I've been working on my moose pattern with Inkscape, it's taking me forever, but I'm liking what it's starting to look like. For example, this is the template for an antler piece to be cut out four times from felt.

It probably doesn't look so impressive but I was ecstatic with this result. In any case, it looks much better than a scanned version of the hand-drawn template. And how about this stitch demonstation I made with Inkscape?

Yeah, I know, it looks kind of like childplay. But I'm pretty happy about it.

You can do a lot more complicated things with Inkscape. There are so many options and funny looking buttons, and I have no idea what they are for! 

But I'm learning and I've already used Inkscape a lot. All the monkey logos on this blog are made with Inkscape (and a lot of patience). But obviously, I still need to learn way more about this awesome software and I know there are so many cool things one can do with the program, but often I can't quite figure out how. Well, practice makes perfect... right?