french curves

[Wichman]

I have a question for those who are graphics programs savvy; if you are designing with many curves in mind (vine motifs come to mind), would it be a good idea to trace and scan a french curve, place it outside the paper, and then use it to "draw" the curves?

   My thought is you could pickup the curve and place it on the pattern in the desired location, then erase the parts you don't want. Or, is it easier to just draw the curves?

   I'm thinking of patterns like this:

 

 

[don in brooklin on]

I am not the expert in this but in Inkscape and I think most other vector based graphics program is to use the Bezier tool.

You can make "flowing" lines with different thickness and shapes.  You would then add your leaves to the end of the path.

There are lots of videos explaining how this works. Here is one example.

https://youtu.be/4dI4lD3ievI

I am no artist so I usually just search for clipart and then modify. Once I get the path I just duplicate and erase what I don't want or add leaves etc, change the path.  

 

 

 

[jollyred]

I do it the same as Don.  When I was doing manual drafting, we had about 50 french curves, as well as radius boards, flexible curves and circle guides.  Using the bezier tool is much easier and quicker.

Tom