In today's tutorial I'll be demonstrating how you can design a vector isometric-style heart that looks as if it's made of pixels, using Inkscape.
If you're looking for premade logo templates, you can purchase one over on GraphicRiver.
1. How to Set Up a New Document
Step 1
Go to View and make sure you have Custom selected.
Step 2
Go to View > Zoom and select Zoom 1:1 to make sure you're zoomed in at 100%.
Step 3
Click on the Align and distribute objects icon in the top toolbar to open up the alignment panel. Then click on the Fill & Stroke icon in the top toolbar to open up the Colors, gradients and strokes menu.
Step 4
Go to File > Document Properties (Control-Shift-D) and deselect the boxes that read Show page border and Show border shadow, and then close out of that window.
2. How to Create the Base Shape
Step 1
Grab the Create Stars and Polygons (*) tool and set the parameters in the toolbar up top to the following specs:
- Regular Polygon
- Corners: 6
- Rounded: 0.000
- Randomized: 0.000
Step 2
Hold down the Control and Shift keys on your keyboard and click and drag on the canvas to create a polygon where the corners are pointing vertically as depicted below.
Step 3
Change the color of the polygon to red and bring down the Opacity to 50% using the Opacity Percentage tool in the Fill and Stroke panel.
Step 4
Grab the Select tool (F1) and turn on the lock icon between the W and H fields in the top toolbar. Then, change the value of the W box to 300 and press Enter to establish the width of the polygon as 300 pixels. After that, turn on the Snap to cusp nodes box in the Enable snapping toolbar at the very top of the window.
Step 5
Right-click on the polygon and select Duplicate (Control-D) to create another copy. Make that copy blue, and then click and drag the new polygon and snap the corners of it to the lower left corners of the red polygon.
Step 6
Right-click the blue copy and select Duplicate (Control-D) to create another copy. Make that copy green, and then snap the corners of it to the lower right corners of the red polygon.
Step 7
Right-click the green polygon and select Duplicate (Control-D) to create one more copy. Change the color to black, and snap the corners of it to the center of the three colored polygons as depicted below.
3. How to Trim Down the Base Shape
Step 1
Right-click on the black polygon and select Duplicate (Control-D) to create another copy, and with that copy selected, hold Shift on the keyboard and click on the blue polygon. With them both selected, go to Path > Intersection. You should end up with the following:
Step 2
Now we have to do the same with the red and green polygons. So right-click on the black polygon again and select Duplicate (Control-D), hold Shift and click on the red polygon, and then again go to Path > Intersection.
Step 3
Click on the black polygon, hold Shift and click on the green polygon, and then go to Path > Intersection. You should end up with a three-part polygon in three different colors.
4. How to Color the Shapes
Step 1
Click and drag over all three shapes to select all objects (Control-Alt-A), and then use the Opacity % slider to bring the opacity back up to 100%.
Step 2
Click off of the objects to deselect everything, and then select the blue portion of the polygon. With it selected, go over to the Fill and stroke panel, and under the Fill tab, change the RGBA value to ff2a2aff.
Step 3
Select the red object at the top of the polygon, and then go over to the Fill and stroke panel, and under the Fill tab, change the RGBA value to ffaaaaff.
Step 4
Select the green object on the right side of the polygon, and then go over to the Fill and stroke panel, and under the Fill tab, change the RGBA value to 800000ff.
Step 5
Click and drag over all three shapes to select all objects (Control-Alt-A), and then Group (Control-G) them together and change the value of the W box to 100 and press Enter to establish the width of the polygon as 100 pixels.
5. How to Create the Heart Shape
Step 1
With the polygon selected, Right-click on it and select Duplicate (Control-D), and then snap it onto the top left corners of the original polygon.
Step 2
Repeat the process with the duplicated polygon so that you have three polygons stacked in the following order:
Step 3
Repeat the process one more time with the most recently duplicated polygon, and then Duplicate (Control-D) it one more time and snap it directly above the previous polygon.
Step 4
Duplicate (Control-D) the most recently selected polygon and snap it onto the upper right corners of the previous polygon.
Step 5
Duplicate (Control-D) that polygon and snap it onto the lower right corners of the previous polygon.
Step 6
Duplicate (Control-D) the most recent polygon, and then snap it onto the bottom right corners of the polygon beneath it.
We now have half of the heart completed.
Step 7
Returning to the original polygon at the very bottom, Duplicate (Control-D) that three times and snap the copies onto the top right corners of each other in ascending order.
Step 8
With the most recently duplicated polygon still selected, Duplicate (Control-D) it and snap it directly above the original polygon.
Step 9
Duplicate (Control-D) that polygon again and snap it onto the upper right corners of the polygon on the left side.
Step 10
Finally, Duplicate (Control-D) the polygon one more time and snap it onto the lower right corners of the previous polygon.
Awesome Work, You're Now Done!
And with that, our design is complete! We've successfully created a pixel heart using Inkscape.
