Inkscape Whirls, Twirls and Swirls: SWIRL

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 | Tutorials

So for a long time I wanted to know how to create Whirls, Twirls and Swirls with Inkscape.  I’ve looked over many tutorials and would like to summarize my findings into a central location as well as add my own style.  I’m going to try and make this as easy to follow as possible.

Lets start off with a simple “Swirl“:

Creating a swirl in inkscape

Creating a swirl in inkscape

A Swirl is a line that curves smoothly along a path.

These simple steps can be modified to create complex Swirl graphics:

Complex Swirl with Inkscape

Complex Swirl with Inkscape

1)  Create a simple rectangle.

Use F4 to create a square

Use F4 to create a square

2)  Then convert that rectangle object to a path:  Path > Object to Path (or Ctrl + Shift + C).  Switch to your “Edit path by nodes” tool by hitting F2

(Ctrl + Shift + C) then (F2)

(Ctrl + Shift + C) then (F2)

3)  Now highlight all the nodes by drawing a square around our rectangle or hit (Ctrl + A).  After, add additional points to the rectangle by clicking on the “Insert new nodes into selected segments” once.
Add additional nodes to our rectangle

Add additional nodes to our rectangle

4)  Highlight the four corner nodes by holding shift and clicking on them individually.  Once highlighted hit (Delete).
Remember to hold (Shift) while selecting nodes

Remember to hold (Shift) while selecting nodes

5)  This shape will be stretched out to create our final Swirl.  The next part of creating our Swirl requires us to create the “path” onto which we will stretch our “diamond” out on.  To create an appropriate path click on the Bezier Curve tool (Shift + F6).  Next left click in our workspace, move the mouse, and right click.  This creates a stright line inbetween two nodes.

If you cant see the "arms" after bending, highlight a node.

If you cant see the

6)  Hit (F2) or click on our “Edit nodes” tool.  Highlight both our nodes by hitting (Ctrl + A) or click and dragging a square around them.  Now click and drag on the segment connecting the two nodes to create a bend.  This will also display the arms we will use to modify our Swirl path.
Left click to create the first node then right click to create the second

Left click to create the first node then right click to create the second

7)  Click and drag the arms to create the desired path to stretch our diamond onto.
This is the shape your Swirl will fill

This is the shape your Swirl will fill

8)  Now highlight your “diamond” and click the “Insert new nodes into selected segments” button about six times until you have roughly 256 nodes as seen on the bottom of the Inkscape interface.  This step helps the shape stretch smoothly over our path.
Add additional nodes

Add additional nodes

9)  Switch to your selection/transform tool (F1) and click on your diamond.  Because order of creation is important we need to bring the diamond to the front by selecting it and hitting “Bring to the front” in the second row of icons at the top.
Use this button to bring our diamond to the front

Use this button to bring our diamond to the front

10)  Now all our hard work is going to pay off.  Highlight the “diamond” and the path by drawing a square around them with our selection tool (F1) or hit (Ctrl + A).  With both object selected go to Effects > Generate from Path > Pattern along Path…  This will bring up a dialog box.  Switch the “Copies of the pattern:” field to “Single, Stretched”.  Leave everything else as is.  I like to check off “Line Preview” to verify I got the effect I was going for.  Hit “Apply” and you will have a beautifully generated Swirl.
Creating a swirl in inkscape

Creating a swirl in inkscape

11)  As a clean up step I recommend highlighting the newly created Swirland hitting (Ctrl + L) which will simplify our path and remove roughly 90% of our added nodes while keeping the edges smooth.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please leave a comment!

Tags: , ,

7 Comments to Inkscape Whirls, Twirls and Swirls: SWIRL

Swirley curls, Ink blobs and flower power! | wildchild
April 21, 2009

[...] inkscape whirls twirls and swirls swirl [...]

Anish babu
September 12, 2009

Superb. fantastic…. n great .
searching for such kind of swirl art…

Keshia
September 29, 2009

omg thank you! i’ve been trying to get this to work without luck and you helped me realize i needed the extra nodes! thank you thank you thank you!

MadClouds
October 2, 2009

No problem :) Glad you found it useful!

norine
November 21, 2009

Thanks for explaining the ‘bring to front’. That was something I was missing! Excellent tutorial. Thank you!

Jomit Jose
June 8, 2010

Thank you!

I never think creating swirls was this much easier! It is very easy now!

Thank you very much!!!

Liz
July 30, 2011

I can’t seem to get past the deleting of the corner nodes, when I delete them I get rounded corners insead of the diamond shape. What am I doing wrong?

Leave a comment

Categories