Draw a Sheet of Paper, or “Page” Icon – Part 2

In this tutorial we will enhance the sheet of paper that we drew in Part 1, creating some different kinds of effects. Using intermediate skills, we’ll create an actual icon, a line drawing, and a realistic-looking image.

“Page” Icon

Open or import the final drawing from Part 1.
Scale the image to 48 px in height, like the examples.
Add a stroke, as shown in the examples.
For a less formal appearance, make the stroke wider, like the 2nd example.
Make the stroke very wide, round the corners, and shorten the paper for a very casual appearance.

Line Drawing

Typically comics are created with line drawings, and are easily recognized by the dark, usually black outline around all the main shapes. They usually do not use gradients or blurring. Even so, a lot of variation is possible, as you can see with the 3 examples below.

Open or import the final result from Part 1.
Duplicate the corner piece, remove the stroke, give it a darker shadow color, and move it below the original corner piece.
Use the Node tool to stretch it into a shape that looks like a shadow under the curled corner.
Duplicate the larger piece of the paper, give it a darker shadow color, and move it to the bottom of the stack.
Offset the shadow object, so you can see it under and to one side of the paper.
For a more comic appearance, rotate the shadow slightly.
Make the outline wider, if you like.

Realism

Although vector graphics is better suited for creating line drawings, it is possible to create realistic-looking images, by using complex gradients and filters.

Open or import the final image from Part 1.
Set the size you want for a realistic-looking piece of paper.
Add more nodes and adjust them so that the original rectangle is no longer perfectly straight and square. This can either be done manually, or using various extensions, if you are familiar with them.
Either remove the stroke, or set it to some tiny value, such as 0.10 px. Although it might be tricky to get it just right, a gradient on this stroke can help to accomplish realism.
Fill the paper with a gray/white gradient, so that it does not look flat white.

Fill the corner piece with a different gradient, to create a highlight area at the tip of the curled corner, and getting darker towards the surface under the paper.
Select the shadow under the paper, and blur it.
Add a gradient to the shadow under the curled corner, to help simulate depth (slightly lighter towards the tip). Then blur the shadow.

Conclusion

If you have any questions or comments about this tutorial, you’re welcome to post a message in our forum . If you would like to learn even more about Inkscape, you might want to read Inkscape for Artists – Step by Step . You can find many more tutorials like this, in the menu at the top of this page.