Oh what a tangled web.

To create this semi-realistic spider web I used Inkscape. First I created a background layer consisting of a radial gradient from green to black and a few blurred green elipses to create the effect of some out of focus greenery. The next layer was the main spiderweb. I started by using the Bezier draw tool to spell out the text. This was made twice as thick as the rest for emphasis. Then the rest of the web was drawn. All the paths had Add Nodes and Jitter Nodes applied. The raindrops were created by following this screencast at screencasters.heathenx.org. The raindrops were added only to the text portion of the web. Finally the web opacity was reduced to 50 percent.

Be Alert.

Here I am fooling around with warning signs. I created a custom pattern of hexagons for the sign to create the reflective coating effect seen on modern road signs. I just created the pattern as black with no fill, a slight blur and 25% opacity. The other detail I added is a sign number in small text at the bottom of the sign. This detail is also often seen on modern road signs.

The rest of the sign follows the common techniques for creating a realistic looking sign. Tutorials for this are all over the web. The text of course is the common alert pun, because of course the world needs more Lerts.

Vector Art Noveau.

This was drawn in Inkscape using the spiro function instead of the bezier function. The spiro functions make smoother curves simpler to draw. The flourishes in this drawing were created by adding interesting curves together and mirroring the results to produce the four corners.
The colours used help produce the retro feeling of the image. A white hilight was added to the gold portions of the image. These hilights were created by making a copy, changing the fill to white and the stroke off, adding a dynamic offset to reduce the width, and adding a blur. I still need more practice to consistantly produce this style, but it is a fun style to play in.

Hungry Skull.

This is a quick drawing that I did using Inkscape. I was playing with the idea of replacing one of the bones in a pirate flag with a half chewed chicken leg. I think it turned out kind of fun. I didn't use any transparency or gradients. I am still not sure if the final image is a warning sign for trans-fats and fried foods or a bad logo for a fried chicken restaurant.