Writer's Guide To Gimp #2 - Fundamental Techniques

This is the second monthly post in a year-long project of mine to learn Gimp--a GNU Image Manipulation Program.












#2 - Fundamental Techniques


Today we are going to be looking at various tools with which to draw, paint, fill in and erase. If you have GIMP open, you will notice the tools below.



Click to Enlarge

Let's see what they do...





(1) If you haven't done so already, create a new image layer (ctrl+n). Now, select the pencil tool (it looks like a pencil). You can see from the photos below, there are a lot of options available to draw with. We will examine some of the more interesting features.
















(2) Let's examine the features. We'll examine some of the brushes, the opacity and the angle.











(3) In the above photo I am playing around with the opacity. Obviously the darker lines mean the opacity is higher and the lighter, lower.





(4) In the above photo I am playing around with the angles. Play around with them and move the pencil tips to the right or left.





This is just me fooling around with various types of pencil!





The paintbrush tool has similar options to the pencil tool and so it works in a similar way. You can play around with it and paint to your delight.



The eraser tool is obvious. You erase what you don't like. 



Note: the eraser can take more than you may want to erase. A tip is to zoom in with the magnifying glass tool in the left column.



The airbrush tool works in the same way the pencil and paintbrush work. However, like a real airbrush, when you pause on the screen holding the mouse, the airbrush keeps spraying and the line gets darker.



How to use the Paths Tool:











To see a fantastic tutorial on how to use the paths tool, go here to gimptutorials.com




How to draw a straight line: http://docs.gimp.org/en_GB/gimp-using-simpleobjects.html




How to make shapes: http://docs.gimp.org/en_GB/gimp-using-rectangular.html




Have fun playing around with GIMP!








Previous Lessons:

#1 - Installing Gimp




Coming Up:

#3 - Image Reflections on Glass

#4 - Adding Glow to Images

#5 - Creating Icons/Buttons for Web/Blogs

#6 - Design in Text

#7 - Underwater

#8 - Font Effects Part 1

#9 - Font Effects Part 2

#10 - Font Effects Part 3

#11 - Blending Two Images

#12 - The Poirot Effect




Sources:

The Artist's Guide to Gimp

http://www.gimpology.com

http://gimpedtutorials.com/

http://gimpmagazine.org/