I started with Inkscape's built in tutorials, which are accessed via the Help menu that is present on each Document window, not the main app menu bar:
This screen shot brings up another unique observation; Inkscape runs under the X11 module, and although it is an app in its own right, whenever an Inkscape document is active, one see the X11 menu bar, not the Inkscape bar. I don't think it matters, since there is nothing there anyway:
OK, back to the tutorials. The first one is helpful to see the variety of keystroke controls available (making me very happy; I am a keystroke guy anyway), and some other basics. The second one deals with shapes, a major component of the product, and the third (entitled Advanced) introduces paths. So far, the most useful thing I have learned is how to use a shape to construct a path. Let's start with an ellipse:
You can see the little circle control on the right side; this will allow editing the arc of the ellipse, like so:
Once you have it where you want it, You just need to be sure that the stroke has some paint or thickness, so you can see it:
Now, it is simply a matter of transforming the object (the arc, derived from an ellipse) into a path:
The stroke thickness and color can then be altered as desired (Object menu):
The path is now a lot thicker, but still only has two nodes, I believe. By accessing Path's submenu entitled Stroke to Path, we have many more nodes to work with:
We need one end of the curve to have a sharp point, so we zoom into that end, select the two corner nodes (by holding down the Shift key while clicking), and click the icon on the upper left entitled Insert nodes into Selected Segment:
This creates a conveniently placed node in the middle of the selected segment:
A simple click-drag on the center node creates a nice point:
Repeating the sequence on the other end of the curve, but dragging inward gives us a matching tail to the arrow:
Overall, not bad for an initial effort.
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