How do I draw inside an object in Inkscape?

Question

I have the image shown above where the black colored stroke is the outline of the cloud. I also have a slightly offsetted blue color fill. What should I do to put the blue color fill inside the outline (along with the whitespace)? I tried using the clip option, but it wasn't helpful.

The above picture shows how I would want it. As you can see, the whitespace is still there, but the fill lies inside the stroke.

Answer 1

Assuming that you are starting from two paths, one filled in cyan without stroke paint and the other with a black stroke and without fill; and assuming that the filled path is at the bottom, we have a similar situation:

You have to perform a few simple steps:

1. Select and duplicate the path with the black stroke while pressing Ctrl-D

2. Maintaining selected the duplicate, hold Shift key, select the path with the cyan fill and obtain an intersection pressing Ctrl+*

You can tweak a little the cloud:

You can obtain a similar effect (although not flat) starting from a path with border and fill and using Filters->Bevels->Combined lighting or other analogous filter:

Answer 2

It sounds as if you want to do the following:

• Duplicate your black path.
• Select your black path and your cloud.
• Path → Intersection.