You instantly get complete orbs with different colors. Select the colored circle (in this case red) and change its color.

For a perspective shadow duplicate the circle, fill it with black, reduce its height, skew to the right, move if needed, place it to the bottom, apply some blur and reduce the opacity.

Draw an ellipse, put it at the bottom of the orb, fill with black, apply some blur and reduce the opacity.

Substract the second duplicate from the first one.

Duplicate it again, resize it (keeping Ctrl pressed to preserve aspect ratio) and move it a little to the left and up.

Duplicate the circle and make it black this time.

Draw some other random shapes, fill them with white and apply various values for blur and opacity.

Inset the result one step and then apply blur and reduce the opacity to your liking.

Substract ( Path > Difference, Ctrl + -) the second duplicate from the first.

Duplicate the circle again, fill it with something if you want and move it a little to the right and down.

Duplicate the circle and fill it with white.

Blur the path and decrease its opacity ( Object > Fill and Stroke).

Fill the intersection with a radial gradient going from solid white to completely transparent white.

Intersect ( Path > Intersection, Ctrl + *) the random shape with the duplicated white circle.

Draw a random shape using the Freehand Tool.

Reduce the size of the duplicated circle ( Path > Inset, Ctrl + ().Duplicate the circle again and fill it with solid white.Place the center of the radial gradient slightly displaced from the center of the circle.Using the gradient tool, change the fill for the duplicate to a radial gradient starting with completely transparent white in the center to partly transparent black on the border.

Duplicate the circle ( Edit > Duplicate, Ctrl + D) and make the duplicate black.Fill it with any solid color to your liking.Use the ellipse tool and draw a circle (keep Ctrl pressed to get a circle).The Blur filter is one of the most awaited features introduced by the newly released Inkscape 0.45, so the accent in this tutorial is put on presenting some applications of this filter. Note: This article was originally published on the Red Hat Magazine but it is now free to republish in its intial form.

Inkscape text to path bottom of circle