I would like to know of a relatively easy way to fill an object drawn with lines.

As an example, my first such object was a rocket exhaust. I drew the outline freehand, but I could not make Inkscape fill the inside. I ended up filling it in my paint program, which can sense the edges of an area.

I have since learned how to work with nodes. I take True Type font items that are drawings instead of a letters (Tom Murphy's Tombats, in this case), but just imagine the letter O as a test case. Place it on a page, then stretch it to the desired size. You will note that it has an inner boundary and an outer boundary. What is between them is black. If you try to fill the object with a color or a gradient, you will color the line ( what is between the inner and outer boundaries) surrounding the space, not the space inside the O.

The workaround: Make a clone of the O. Convert the clone to a Paths. Select the clone, then pick the Node tool. Now, either delete all the nodes in the outside ring or all the nodes on the inside ring. Either way, you end up with a black circle. The circle is either the size of the inside of the O or the outside. This circle will take a fill. Fill it, then slide it back over to the original O and set it yo be uderneath the original. Now you have filled the O.

This also works for more complicated drawings. I simply delete all the nodes that don't pertain to what I intend to fill. But this is complicated and time-consuming.

Is there a better way? I would like to color the outside of a cylinder that has ellipses at both ends (a cylinder in perspective). I can see how I might do it with my workaround, but if I have a segmented cylinder, or a tapering cylinder (think of a lighthouse with alternating horizontal stripes), it all looks daunting.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.