Playing With Ovals Part 3---Making a Flower Element

This tutorial assumes that you have Inkscape and Gimp installed on your computer and that you have at least the basic understanding of how theset programs work. (Take a look at some of our previous tutorials and play around a bit until you understand the software enough to feel comfortable in doing this.)
I will not be making this very difficult, but when you are done with this tutorial, I suggest that you play around with the Spiro and make many other flourishes to get them down pat, so that the next time you want to use one, you can make your own without any difficulty.

►Fire up Inkscape.
►Select the Circle or Ellipse tool and while holding down the Ctrl key, create a circle by stroking with your mouse, give it an oval shape. Fill it with any color you prefer.
►Go to the bottom of the page and right-click on the Stroke and when the little menu opens, choose Edit Stroke and click on the X to take the stroke out. Select it by clicking the arrow a the top of sidebar, then copy it. Paste. Click on the copy and reduce its size.
►Drag it inside the previously made circle. Make sure that the smaller oval reaches almost to the edge of the original one. Then go to Object, Align and Distribute and Align the smaller Oval vertically and horizontally, so that it will really be in the middle of the previous oval.
►Now click on the original oval and while holding the shift key down, click on the smaller oval to select both of them, go to Path, and select Difference. You used the smaller oval to cut out the center of the larger oval and make it transparent. Copy and paste it or duplicate it until you have a total of 4 petals. Set aside.
►Holding down the Ctrl key, make another oval. Take out the Stroke as before. This one we will leave as is. Copy and paste or duplicate until you have completed 6 petals. Now, place the first one where you will begin your flower, by dragging it into position with your mouse, making sure you do not enlarge or deform it. ►Drag the second one and place it next to the first, right-click on it so that the rotation arrows will appear, rotate it a bit so that it fill the natural place of the second petal of a flower.
►Continue working that way until you have positioned the six petals around an empty imaginary center.
Let's change the color of the flower petals. Click on the first petal and with it selected, go to the bottom of the page and right-click in the Fill, when the little menu opens, choose Edit Fill. In the RGBA column below the color wheel, enter the following number: ff5555f8
►Now click on each flower petal and change it to that color. Now go to Gradient and choose a Linear Gradient. Stroke with your mouse across the first petal, from the outside of the petal towards its center. You will notice that the gradient starts pink and finishes white (or transparent) you will also notice that where the transparent portion ends, there is a blue little node. While that is selected, from the palette at the bottom of the page, choose a warm brown and click on it. The white part will become brown fading into the pink.
►Click on each petal, one at a time to select it, and repeat this gradient with every petal. I like to do some in one direction, others in another, it seems to me, they look more natural, but you follow your own taste. Once you're done, stroke over the whole group of petals and go to Object, Group. Move them to the side for now.
►Change the hollow petals to the color #f9ac62, the same way as you did for the full petals. Drag first two hollow petals with your mouse and place them end to end to one another. Drag the other two and place them on the sides. Stroke with your mouse to select them all and go to Object, Group. Drag the hollow petals and place them on top of the first set of petals.
►Now, holding down the Ctrl key, make a circle. Take out the Stroke as before. Choose the pallet MatLab Jet (72) by clicking on the arrow at the end of the pallet at the bottom of the page. Pick a warm orange and fill your circle with it. Drag the circle to the center of your flower. Make another circle. While you have it selected, go to Path, Object to Path.
►Now click on the Nodes tool, right underneath the Arrow tool and manipulate the nodes to make a curve. From the palette, choose a yellow, then go to the Fill and Stroke dialog box and give it a blur that you like. Position it at the top inside your circle.
►Copy the blur and flip it by clicking it at the bottom at the top of the page that flips objects. Then give it a larger blur and tuck it a bit inward so that it will be slightly smaller than the upper shine. Stroke with your mouse to select it all and Group it. Now copy it and turn your copy a warm yellow. Holding down the Ctrl key, enlarge it a little bit so that it will be slightly bigger than the orange center. You will have to eyeball it to your personal taste. Place your yellow copy at the center of the flower and then place the orange one on top. Select your whole flower with the mouse and go to Object, Group.
Save it as a PNG file.

►Optional-
If you want to, make a copy of your flower element, turn it black, blur it, drab it to place it on top of your flower, now, to put it behind the original flower, by click on the button at the top of the page that sends an object to the back. That way, it will look like it has a drop shadow.

►Now, if you would like a fancier flower, you can take it to Gimp. Once opened in Gimp, choose Filters, Light and Shadow, Supernova. Change the color of the Supernova to a light, almost white pink, and place the Supernova a little bit off the center of the flower, and do the effect. Save as a PNG file.

Encouraging Promises!