New Avatarist + Inkscape Help

[Rigel Cyrosea]

This thread has two purposes. First, I'm a new avatarist and I want to see what people think, and get some critism (preferably of the constructive variety). Secondly, I'm having trouble with something in Inkscape that I hope somebody can help me with.
My first avatar was done before I read any of the advice on this forum... and it shows. I won't post it here, it's really bad. My second avatar was done as a favour to a friend. This is it:
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/5...ckversiez5.png
It originally looked like this, but my friend asked me to change it to the one above.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7926/darcyssamuraihk1.png
It's loosely based off of Mitsurugi from Soul Caliber II.

My second avatar was also suggested by a friend (not the same one). It's one of the villians from our campaign, Aramil the Werewolf Bard. Unfortunatly, I'm having some trouble with it due to inkscape. The shirt has something weird happing with the layering. It's supposed to be sword, then belt, shirt, cape, from the top. But for some reason, it jumps from the very top (shirt, sword, belt, cape) to the very bottom (sword, belt cape, shirt). And now I can't even select the belt or shirt! Also, the pauldrons are behind the legs for some reason.
Here's the version with the shirt on top of everything:
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/710/aramilstupidshirtri0.png
And here's the version with the shirt underneath everything:
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/1063/aramilnoshirtcg1.png

Anybody know how to help me?

EDIT: Hmmm. My link seems to be broken. I'll try to get my friend to post here, he's using that version as his avatar.

[Mr_Saturn]

The eyes could be a bit bigger and oval-shaped.

Your arms shouldn't be straight lines, a nice curve would be nice.

Generally, all lines should be of the same thickness.

Your avatars are pretty good as a new avatarist. Good job! :smallbiggrin:


I think you should use "Page Up" and "Page Down" buttons to move your layers. So it would go down one layer by one layer. Pressing "Home" or "End" would bring the layer from the very top to the very bottom or visa versa.

So if your legs were above your pauldrons, select the legs and press "page down" til desired layer.

[Blackdeath]

Here's the black version of the first one

[Blackdeath]

Hey Rigel, could borrow some avatars for my comic book?
It currently is using a demo version of a weird drawing program and it messes up my pictures (Not to mention my drawing skills are crap).

[Rigel Cyrosea]

Hey Rigel, could borrow some avatars for my comic book?
It currently is using a demo version of a weird drawing program and it messes up my pictures (Not to mention my drawing skills are crap).
Uh, sure.


The eyes could be a bit bigger and oval-shaped.

Your arms shouldn't be straight lines, a nice curve would be nice.

Generally, all lines should be of the same thickness.

Your avatars are pretty good as a new avatarist. Good job!


I think you should use "Page Up" and "Page Down" buttons to move your layers. So it would go down one layer by one layer. Pressing "Home" or "End" would bring the layer from the very top to the very bottom or visa versa.

So if your legs were above your pauldrons, select the legs and press "page down" til desired layer.
Thanks for the advice and compliment. I know how to move the layers, it's just that the shirt (and legs I've now discovered) keep jumping from on-top of everything to below everything, even when I tell them to only move up or down one layer.

[Exeson]

Try lowering the cape and belt rather than raising the shirt, that might work

[Rigel Cyrosea]

The cape is as low as it will go, except when the shirt is behind it, in which case it has the same effect as telling the shirt to move up. (ie, the shirt goes on top of everthing.) I can't select the belt.

[Exeson]

How about moving the shirt and cape away so you can get to the belt, then move it up. It should be easy to then move the bits back.

[DarkCorax]

Is it possible that you've grouped some things together? try selecting everything and pressing Ctrl-Shift-G several times and see if that helps...

[Rigel Cyrosea]

I grouped the various peices of the belt and sword together (into two groups, the belt and the sword, not one big group) to make it easier to move them around. Come to think of it, the pauldron's bits are grouped together too. Does that make a difference?

[DarkCorax]

Yes. The grouped objects are counted as a single object, so moving something down will move it behind the entire group.

[Rigel Cyrosea]

Yep. I know that already. That's why I was listing the desired order as sword, belt, shirt, cape, rather than gaurd, hilt, scabbard, various belt details, belt, shirt, cape. What I meant was could the groupings be causing the strange layer jumping and inability to select the belt and sword? (And pauldrons)

[DarkCorax]

hmmm... I'm not sure, can you send the file to me to have a look at?

[Rigel Cyrosea]

Okay... How exactly would I go about doing that?

[Rigel Cyrosea]

Ah! I figured it out. I accidentally grouped the belt and sword and pauldrons with the cape. That's why I couldn't select them, and it also explains why the shirt was jumping from on top of all of them to the bottom. Here's the finished product:
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3815/aramildarkgenerallx9.png
Thanks for the help and advice, everyone.