Inkscape works on Cancer
When people try to talk about how working on Open Source is some sort of social work I'm usually dismissive; saying something like "well, we're not curing cancer." Wouldn't you know it? People are trying to prove me wrong!
Recently Deviant Art held a contest with the Susan G. Koman foundation to make art informing people (okay, mostly women) about breast cancer. Lorain A. Baird won for her work titled Pinkitude for life (right) which was done in Inkscape. For those who don't know Deviant Art it's a website where artists from all over using all different mediums gather to share and comment on each other's work. This means that that the contest included entries spanning the possibilities of tools and techniques, and an Inkscape entry won. Of course, the true credit there goes to Lorain for her great work, but I'm proud for Inkscape too.
Looking through Lorain's Gallery there is a ton to love, but I started reading through the comments on her portrait of Louise Brooks and noticed a comment that was really nice. From montroytana:
ive never seen a piece of art (before yours) and said GOD ive got to have the program that made that! your stuff is really wonderfulThat's the feeling that I want everyone to have when thinking about choosing Open Source software. I want them to be so impressed with what they can do that they feel empowered to go get it done.
I'm hugely proud of the Inkscape team in what we've accomplished and I think that I can speak for all of us and say that we're impressed with all the great work that Inkscape artists do to make us look good.
posted on Sun, 11 Jan 2009 at 23:05 | permanent link | 3 Comments
I gave a howto speech in my public speaking class using inkscape.. I'm glad it didn't segfault..... (and surprised, unfortunately).
Any news on a bugfix release?
I use Inkscape (in Linux) quite a lot but I still look puzzled at beautiful pieces of art like those: if I would open such a complex image, my computer would just die, or take hours to display something (despite having a CoreDuo CPU).
Hi Ted!
I am so flattered, and honored by your post! Thank you for Inkscape! I am a die hard user/ fan! I didn't really do much digital art, leastwise vector, until I started using Inkscape a year ago, and I dare say it has essentially been the only program I use. I am still amazed at what it is capable of and what I can create with it, and all with a few tutorials and experimenting with it! When I found out I won the Pinkitude contest, I went to the Inkscape Group on DeviantART and posted a message expressing my thanks to the dev guys for such a wonderful program! Thank you wholeheartedly Ted! Consider me your unofficial Open Source/Inkscape/SVG spokesperson (: Infinite blessings!