I usually design pieces with Inkscape on Linux. This allows you to download a raster-format picture (e.g. the photograph of an elephant), and then draw a vector image on top of it, by clicking points on the outline to define a curve. Then I use the 'edit curve' fuction to bend the line segments in shape so that they follow the outline, adjust their width and color. In the end I delete the raster image, and set a fill color for the curves, and save as .svg file.
I usually design pieces with Inkscape on Linux. This allows you to download a raster-format picture (e.g. the photograph of an elephant), and then draw a vector image on top of it, by clicking points on the outline to define a curve. Then I use the 'edit curve' fuction to bend the line segments in shape so that they follow the outline, adjust their width and color. In the end I delete the raster image, and set a fill color for the curves, and save as .svg file.