Inkscape is an open source alternative to Adobe Illustrator and other programs for creating vector graphics. In this first Inkscape tutorial for VECTORTUTS, we'll create a beautiful coffee cup and show off some of Inkscape's features. We'll mostly be drawing shapes and using the Gradient Tool to accomplish the desired effect. If you're familiar with Illustrator or a similar program, you should be able to follow along relatively easily.
Final Image Preview
Before we get started, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. Below is the completed illustration to see what you're working toward. If you would like to download Inkscape, go to inkscape.org. If this is your first time using Inkscape, I recommend that you complete a few of the tutorials that come bundled with Inkscape first to get the hang of how the program works (available from the Help menu).
Step 1
Begin by opening up a new document in Inkscape. Let's start by making the saucer that the coffee cup rests on. The saucer will be comprised of five different ellipses, so get ready to draw. Select the Circle/Ellipse tool (F5) from the Toolbox. Then draw an ellipse about the proportions of the one in the picture below.
Now we need to change the fill and stroke (outline) colors, so select your ellipse and open up the Fill and Stroke dialog window by going to Object > Fill and Stroke (Ctrl + Shift + F). On the Stroke paint tab click the "X" button to eliminate the outline on this shape.
Step 2
Now we want to fill the ellipse with a radial gradient. We'll be doing quite a few radial and linear gradients in this tutorial, so pay close attention if you've never done this in Inkscape before. On the Fill tab (still in the Fill and Stroke window), click the Radial Gradient button. Inkscape automatically fills your shape with a gradient - normally fading to transparent by default.
We want a gradient with two shades of gray, so click the Edit button underneath the gradient. Now you can edit the gradient's Color Stops and their Transparency. Set the first Stop to a light shade of gray (ddddddff). Set the second Stop to a darker shade of gray (b2b2b2ff). Make sure the Transparency for both colors is set to Opaque (no transparency).
Step 3
The next thing you need to do is adjust the size and center of the gradient relative to your ellipse. Drag the gradient handles on the ellipse to match the picture below. Note: If the gradient handles are not visible, simply click the Create and Edit Gradients button from the Toolbox (Ctrl + F1). Now you've completed one ellipse and you know how to create and edit gradients. The following steps won't be quite as detailed.
Step 4
The other ellipses in the saucer aren't quite as difficult to make. The next ellipse will form the white lip around the plate. The easiest way to make this is to duplicate the ellipse you just made by going to Edit > Duplicate (Ctrl + D). Then fill it with a very light gray color (f2f2f2ff) from the Fill and Stroke window. Then lower it just a few pixels lower than your first ellipse, and place it behind the first ellipse by going to Object > Lower.
Note: Press F1 (or hit the Select and Transform Objects button from the Toolbox) to move objects around with the mouse or arrow keys in Inkscape. It's hard to see the light gray ellipse, so I put a dark background behind it to make it easier to see in the screenshot below.
Step 5
Now for the dark gray base of the saucer. Once again, duplicate one of your existing ellipses. Now fill it with another radial gradient with two very dark shades of gray (2b2b2bff and 666666ff). Then move the center of the gradient down to the bottom of the ellipse. The base of the plate doesn't need to be quite as wide as the rest of the plate. Press F1 and push the left and right sides of the ellipse in a little bit to "squish" it some.
Note that if you hold down Shift while dragging one of the edges, you can move both sides equally at once. Also, stretch the bottom of the ellipse down just a little bit to get the curve of the bottom of the saucer just right.
Move the whole ellipse down a few pixels and press the Page Down button a few times to place the ellipse below the other two. You should end up with something that looks like the image below. Note the proportions of the bottom ellipse (selected) compared to the other two. The saucer is starting to take shape!
Step 6
Now we need to create the center of the plate. Draw a smaller ellipse as shown in the image below (or select the topmost ellipse and scale it down). Open up the Fill and Stroke dialog (Ctrl + Shift + F). Then fill it with a flat gray color (979797). Drag the Alpha slider below the color wheel to 100.
Give it a stroke color of b7b7b7 (full opacity). On the Stroke style tab set the width to match the picture below. The actual size of the stroke will vary depending on how big you drew your ellipses. For me, it was 3px, but you may end up with something different.
Step 7
The plate is almost finished now. The last step is to add a blurry drop-shadow. Duplicate the bottom-most ellipse (the dark gray base). Then blur it 10% (from the bottom of the Fill and Stroke window). Place it below all the other objects.
You now have a finished saucer! You may choose to group the five ellipses to make them easier to select later on. Just highlight them all and press Ctrl+G. Now, on to the coffee cup itself!
Step 8
We'll begin by drawing two shapes with the Bezier Curves tool (Shift + F6). Make one for the face of the coffee cup and one to form the outer rim of the cup. These shapes need to match up in width and the amount of curve. I recommend that you turn on the grid to help you draw these lines (Shift + #). Also note, Click to create a point, click and drag to create a curve.
I actually drew these shapes in place on top of each other, but I separated them in this screenshot to show how I drew the shapes and their curves. Notice that both shapes and their curve lengths are 20 units wide. Also, notice how the bottom of the rim matches the top of the cup face; They are both 2 units deep. For guidance, the numbers in blue show the order in which I created the points/curves.
Step 9
With the grid still on, place the rim directly on top of the cup face. Eliminate the stroke from both shapes. Fill the rim shape (that looks like an ellipse) with a solid color gray (e6e6e6ff). Fill the cup face with a radial gradient that goes from ecececff at the center to bdbdbdff. Then place the center of the gradient near the top of the cup shape, as shown below.
Step 10
Duplicate the rim shape and scale it in a little bit to form the width of the rim. Give this shape a thin gray stroke (d6d6d6ff) and a radial gradient from ecececff to bdbdbdff. Then drag the gradient handles to match the picture below.
Step 11
The next step is to create the coffee inside the cup. We obviously want to create a shape that gives the appearance of the coffee being inside the rim. To do that we'll have to create an ellipse for the coffee and intersect it with the inner rim.
Here's how to do it. Create an ellipse like the brown one in the picture below. Then set it on top of the rim. Then, duplicate the ellipse that makes up the inner portion of the rim. Then select both the duplicated ellipse and the one you just drew. Now go to the menu and choose Path > Intersection (Ctrl + *).
You should end up with a shape that looks like coffee in a cup. Now you can fill it with a radial gradient using any two (or more) shades of brown.
Step 12
Creating the handle for the coffee cup is a cinch. Use the Bezier tool to make a shape similar to the handle shown below. Give it a thin light gray stroke and fill it with a linear gradient from bottom left to top right using two shades of gray (bdbdbdff and ecececff). Now place it behind the cup.
Step 13
To give our cup some personality, we're going to add some blue stripes around it. The way to do it is a little trickier than meets the eye. You can't simply draw a line, because the end of the line would never match up with the edge of the cup, as shown below.
Step 14
So here's the method I came up with that worked quite well. Create an ellipse with about the same proportions as the coffee cup rim. Then fill it with any color (no stroke). Now duplicate that ellipse, place it below the first one, and pull the bottom drag handle down a little bit. Then push the sides in some too. I colored my ellipses two different colors so you can see how this should look.
Step 15
Select both ellipses and choose Path > Difference (Ctrl + Minus Sign) from the menu. Presto! You now have a beautiful vanishing curve. Fill your new shape with whatever color you prefer. Duplicate it as many times as you want. Then place it on top of your coffee cup wherever you choose.
Step 16
Let's create a reflection on the side of our cup. Draw a shape with the Bezier tool like the one in the screenshot below. Color it white and drag the alpha slider to about 90 so that it's transparent. Place it on top of the cup face and colored lines.
Step 17
Now for some steam. Begin by drawing a small white ellipse. Make it semi-transparent and blur the edges of it significantly. Place it above your coffee. This will give the general impression of heat and steam.
Step 17
Now let's create a wispy trail of steam. Create a shape with the Bezier tool like the one below. Color it a light brown or gold color, make it semi-transparent and blur it also. Play around with the Master Opacity and Blur settings until it looks just right.
Our coffee cup is finished! As with the saucer, you may find it handy to group all the shapes that comprise the cup.
Final Image
Let's place our finished cup on top of our saucer. Then add a small drop shadow underneath the cup. Simply draw a small black ellipse and blur it.
There you have it, a beautiful vector coffee cup and saucer created with Inkscape! I hope you enjoyed making this as much as I did. I also hope this tutorial proved informative in demonstrating the main features of Inkscape - an Open Source alternative for vector art. Enjoy!
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Gilberto Saraiva July 10th
First!!!
well done! ^^
( )K3v July 10th
Nice to see an Inkscape tutorial for those who don’t have Illustrator.
( )Not extremely helpful for me, but great for beginners
Nate July 10th
Good stuff, except I don’t have inkscape.
( )Matt Hyslop March 20th
Dude, It’s free, download it.
( )Jonny July 10th
Great tutorial… I really appreciate when people use Freeware to accomplish the same things most do in Photoshop or Illustrator.
( )MONSTER July 10th
Very nice outcome.
I’ll give inkspace a try.
( )Brones July 10th
Thanks, Peter. This is a great intro to Inkscape for the uninitiated.
I’ve been wanting to see some Inkscape tutorials on here for a long time. I considered writing some, but wasn’t sure if they would be accepted by the staff. There are probably many more Inkscape lurkers. Hopefully we’ll start to see a steady stream of Inkscape info now.
Now, any interest in some Xara tutorials?
( )Peter Anglea July 10th
Even if you don’t have Inkscape, you can still probably follow along in Illustrator or a similar program.
( )Brent Nelson July 10th
Great outcome. You rock man.
( )Ali July 10th
Nice but don’t use Inkspace and don’t plan on using it either.. hard to get accustomed to different illustration softwares
( )Opensource Maniac June 20th
Yeah. but when you have to update Illustrator for like 300, it pays to get accustomed.
( )Azeem July 10th
Awesome tutorial…Well heard about Inkscape for the first time though….i guess i’ll give it a try…
( )Andrew Curtis July 10th
Fantastic Tutorial. I have been using Inkscape for about a year now, and when VECTORTUTS came out, I was hoping you would have Inkscape tutorials. Keep ‘em coming!
( )Braden Keith July 10th
Mucho bueno! Yo quiero cafe!
( )crescentmoon July 10th
At last a good ‘how to’, specially for me, an intensive Inkscape free software user.
Thanks Peter for this great tuto.
( )Dan July 10th
The quality of this tutorial made me want to try inkscape. Well done.
( )Danny July 10th
The handle looks a bit weird, but otherwise, awesome!
( )kaet July 10th
It’s always nice to learn new programs. I had heard of inkscape, but I don’t recall hearing about the part where it was free. Methinks I’ll give it a go. Nice introduction to it! Thanks!
( )Gustavo Lemos July 10th
I didn´t know about this soft… but still, I prefer illustrator coz is compatible with everything I use
( )katie July 11th
Looks great but i can’t seem to install Inkscape on Tiger on my Mac
( )Rijalul Fikri July 11th
Wow, the end result is great except for the handle
( )Liang July 12th
Thank you very much for the inkscape tutorial. I was hoping to see them for a long time and I hope more follows.
( )Mark Abucayon July 13th
wow very wonderful, what should I say two thumbs up. very creative thanks again for sharing this tut.
( )Mr.Ro July 16th
well done
( )Tim July 16th
nicely done!
( )BANAGO July 20th
I am a Inkscape user too. I love it and I am sure it is a powerful tool. Well done!
( )Phil July 20th
Man I’m so glad that you made a tutorial for inkscape. Wich is such a good vectore drawing program.
( )Theres so many illustrator tut’s out there but only a few for inkscape wich is a shame because of the power it has. Hopes there will be more!
tk July 26th
awesome
( )David Millar August 4th
Great tutorial. I use Inkscape for making the puzzles and some graphics on my web site. I find it’s an easier program for page layouts than other Linux programs.
I know there must be tons of Inkscape users lurking, and it’s extremely sad to see some of the closed-minded idiots in the comments bashing it. There’s a lot that can be done with Inkscape for those who can’t afford Illustrator, and in reality a good designer should have the skills to you any decent program to create good work.
As for the cup handle, you could use a radial gradient to make it look more realistic.
1. Make the shape as in the tutorial. Border optional.
2. Add a radial gradient.
3. Set the radial gradient to the following colors:
- 0%: black, alpha 255
- 50%: dark gray, alpha 255
- 75%: light gray, alpha 255
- 100%: dark gray, alpha 255
4. Double click the shape to show the gradient markers. set the midpoint to just above the middle of the left edge of the shape. Set one circle along the bottom edge of the shape near the end, and the other circle outside of the right edge of the shape.
Use these settings as a starting point and play with the colors and markers until you get settings you like.
( )kevin June 29th
Great tutorial and great addition by David Millar for the handle. Thanks to you both!
( )mark_silver August 26th
Thank you for this great tutorial. I would like to see more of these Inkscape tutorials since I cannot afford illustrator and I think Inkscape is very good program.
( )Lui August 27th
Great tutorial!
( )Mic August 27th
FANTASTIC !!
Inkscape tutorial are much more helpful to newcomers (who may not) and young learners who could not afford the more professional (aka expensive) software.
As Inkscape is more accessible to all, would definitely like to see more Inkscape tutorial.
Keep up the GREAT work!
( )rauff August 29th
Nice tutorial. Thanks
( )CircleReader September 4th
Very glad to see an Inkscape tutorial!
My kids and I are learning to use Inkscape, and if one of them really takes off with it, he can move into Illustrator (or not) when the time is appropriate. A basic literacy in this stuff also lets me judge when it might be appropriate to hire a professional designer for my own pursuits.
Meanwhile, Inkscape makes the use of vector tools accessible to us, overcoming barriers thrown up by income or professional background. But just getting the tool is not enough; having quality tutorials and a supportive learning community for the free tool is essential!
( )iglooo101 September 7th
INKSCAPE, first and foremost, is FREE. What is there to lose? i.e You do not have to worry about a thing. What is there to not like? it does the trick(http://openclipart.org/media/people/iglooo101) , stable
( )and the outcome, as we all can see is acceptable and CUTE.
In addition to all that, INKSCAPE can import 1 page in PDF, annotate THEN save in PDF
You can see SVG work on websites in CHROME with no additional plug-ins
eternal_fizzer September 8th
I’m an engineer with no artistic background – and I managed to make a recognizable cup of coffee first run through.
Thanks for the simple instructions to produce a complex drawing. I’m much more confident in building the poster background I need now.
( )Luis Rivera September 8th
Excellent, I’m trying to avoid propietary software, I’m a teacher and Inkscape is an excellent alternative for us. It’s small, smart and Inkscape let us draw things we want. I’m just thinking to teach my students this coffee cup, but they don’t know English, so, I will translate your tutorial to Spanish and I probably make a screencast, if you don’t mind…
Thanks for this great tutorial.
( )Cherry Darling September 17th
I loved It!!!
( )A Very Good Tutorial, now I’m totally happy with the program!
Finally I’ve found what I was looking for! THX a lot!!!!!!!!!
Kees C. Bakker September 19th
I loved it!!! Nice way to get to know the Inkscape program!!
Thanks man!!
( )Tony September 21st
Very good tutorial! It’s not the first time I work with Inkscape, but’s the first time I creat such object with béziers etc.
( )But does anybody know why step 11 not work in my program? So when I try to intersect both shapes there is no visible modification. I choose the brown shpae (cafe) and the duplicated ellipse like the instruction describes.
Yo Yo Yo September 24th
this is to hard
( )buldanich September 25th
Thanks for the tutor,
( )i’m enjoy it even i now only read
but i will exercise it…
i have later many tutor about inkscape
and i want to try…try…and exercise it…
yo yo yo yo September 25th
david miller u r my hero do u like star wars by chance
( )Yo Yo Yo September 25th
i got the plate done but i couldn’t figure out how to make the coffie cup
can someone help me???
( )Oscar September 25th
Hi! I just want to say thanks to share this great stuff with us.
( )Yo Yo Yo September 29th
Sorry guys i figured it out
took awhile but i got it
and yo yo yo yo is my friend
( )im 3 yo’s
yo yo yo
yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo September 30th
David miller i love you
( )omo da pimp October 1st
This tutorial is soooo pimp i made my cup and i loved it. this beats illustrator any day.
( )Yarrymasa October 7th
viva…
Well, MAGNIFICENT WORK , MAN!!
I’ve followed every step and came up with an almost identical final work, some dificulties raised up during the process of creating, but I managed to work around them…
I can’t afford Illustrator, but I think I don’t need it anyway!! INKSCAPE RULES!!
Thank you very much
( )Shane Wheeler October 25th
What can i say, I love free software and inkscape… your deadly.
( )Dean October 27th
Awesome tutorial, love it! 15 minutes ago I couldn’t do anything in Inkscape, now I made a nice coffee cup, although it isn’t as nice as yours. Thanks
( )hawad October 28th
i am a beginner and this has helped me a lot. i was really happy with the outcome. thanks for your time and effort
( )Felix November 4th
It’s amazing, I didn’t know you could do that with Inkscape!
( )Inkscape is awesome because it’s cross-platform so I can use it on my Ubuntu desktop
Renee November 5th
Thank you so much. I am not an artist – I am an engineer. I never dared attempt a graphic before, outside of CAD programs. But then I had to prepare a conference poster for my work, and I sort of new what I wanted, but couldn’t find anything suitable in google images. Your tutorial let me dare to try.
Now our small spin-off has a new, open source program (I like the philosophy), I learned a new skill, I have a nice finished poster and I even impressed the boss. And now I have a coffee mug, which is always important for an engineer
“Hero for the Day” to you!
( )Jennie November 13th
Wow. I’ve never used Inkscape before – it’s much harder than I imagined! Your tutorial was very helpful, thank you!
( )Mehul November 20th
I used the InkScape first time. It seems really good software. Tutorials are simply Awesome!
( )David November 26th
yeah! how awesome is this? GREAT – keep more inkscape tutorials coming, man!!!
Its so stressy to “translate” all the illustrator stuff for inkscape!
Add a section and load it with inkscape tuts
Thanks to the autor and thanks to the staff for adding!!!
( )Audi November 29th
Wow, nice tutorial!
( )seo tech December 5th
another nice tutorial for inkscape!
( )Rod December 16th
Like others said, the handle is a bit flat, but other than that, great tut. I hope to see more. Inkscape is great for those of us that can’t afford Illustrator.
( )Alex December 17th
Great tutorial!
( )Vishesh Handa December 21st
Amazing tutorial !!
Here is my attempt ;- http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9877/drawinghs5.png
( )Michi December 26th
This is an excellent tutorial!!!
( )Ap January 13th
I downloaded Inkscape a few weeks ago and it’s just been sitting there, I’m glad I found this I didn’t know how to use it before this.
Thanks,
( )Ap
oswald January 15th
muy buen tuto, sirve de mucho el ver trabajos muy buenos echos con software libre
( )saludos
Lukas January 18th
This is a great tutorial. I use Inkspace with my Linux distro.
( )Jitendra Rana February 5th
Just finished my cup of Java with red stripes !!! Great tutorial !!!
( )Anton Hermansyah February 9th
Thanks a lot, what a great tutorial…!!!
( )Stava February 26th
Simple and nice.
( )Karol March 27th
It is nice to see a tutorial based on this app!
THanks.
( )hadi060 March 29th
Thanks very much for this tutorial.. it’s very helpful..
)
( )It’s my first time in vector world
here is my result:
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g194/hadi060/cup3.png
(with some own details
Thanks again.
The YPI April 2nd
Very interesting
( )karmaeleon April 7th
I’m an absolute beginner, and my cup ain’t perfect, but thanks to your tutorial, I made one reasonably decent. I might go and tweak it some more (mainly the coffee, the colour rings and the steam), but it’s not so bad already
I uploaded it to photobucket to show it off:
( )http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f253/ladesyrable/Miscellaneous/saucercup.jpg
David April 8th
Great tutorial.
I am brand new in computer graphic design and I am having a hard time mastering the Bezier Curves tool. Could anyone recommend any resources to assist me? I have been trying all day to move past step 8 but I cant.
Thanks
( )Kelly April 15th
Nice tutorial! I’ve been doing Graphic Design for a little over a year now and I don’t have InkScape, but I work a lot with Illustrator and it was so easy to create this with Illustrator! I love the outcome! (Mine has red stripes!) And it was so simple to follow. Thanks!
( )Hivemind April 30th
Personally, even though I have Illustrator I still love inkscape.
( )Anne May 28th
Thanks a million! I’m just getting started on inkscape and it was great to have a really straight-forward tutorial to learn from. Thanks!
( )Jennifer June 10th
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I actually made a pretty decent cup! More inkscape tutorials please!
( )dee June 24th
Thank you much. I’m new to Inkscape and need all the tutorials I can find. Never would have thought this was how to create a cup. Nice job, and I hope you keep ‘em coming!
The only thing I couldn’t follow well was to get my gradient handles to line up like yours did, I added the stops, but my gradient appears reversed, and I can only get one line horizontally and not vertically, it still looks great.
( )thanks again,
dee
Jimmy Ratzman November 12th
dee
I think your problem with the gradient may have been from you choosing a linear gradient instead of a radial gradient. Look in the fill tab and select the 4th option- radial gradient as opposed to the 3rd option -linear gradient. Then you should have 2 gradient handles.
PS Peter – thanks for a great tutorial!
( )Remus July 1st
Thank you for taking the time for doing this. Much appreciated!
( )Roberto Petresco July 14th
I already use inkscape for some 1,5 years.
I made a good quality 2 pages leaflet with it and also several business cards (for me and for my family).
Doing this tutorial I learned some more tricks and procedures to use in my future projects. In fact with the inkscape tutorials I am learnig how to deal with bezier curves which I can than apply to 3D software such as Blender (by the way also a free software).
( )viki July 31st
I tried to do that as beginner.
( )Really I began this program with this.
Good explanations here..
But I cant do some parts ^^
Well done btw^^
Jess September 18th
Thanks for this tutorial
I’ma make my own coffee cup now XD I was wondering also if you know where I can find an Inkscape tutorial on making a shot glass
( )Eliza October 11th
Thanks, that was a well-written tutorial! It even taught me how to use Bezier curves, which drive me crazy but now I sort of like them.
( )lifetoucher November 2nd
this is great. ive been searching for simple inkscape tutorials.. im a new beginner.
it s been frustrating…
( )