To help all our faithful followers get into the festive spirit we have a collection of icons for you to use in your own designs, and to go along with them a set of Xmas themed brushes for Gimp.
The icons come in a collection of coloured images...
...and in black and white to add lots of variety. The Gimp brushes use the same images but will allow much greater freedom in colour, size and design options. The Gumroad download button is at the bottom of the page.
How To Install The Gimp Brushes
Installing the Gimp brushes is a simple process but for those who are unsure what to do, follow these steps.
1/ Navigate to the location where you downloaded the brushes and icons folder and unzip it.
2/ Right click on the folder containing the brushes and select Copy.
3/ Navigate to Local Disk (C) > Program Files > Gimp2 > share > gimp > 2.0 > brushes then in the brushes folder paste the brushes. There’s no need to remove the brushes from their folder unless you want to. Keeping them in the folder can make them easier to manage if you decide to remove them at a later date.
4/ After hitting paste you may see the above window. Click Continue and the brushes will be added to the Gimp brushes folder.
5/ The image above shows the brushes after being pasted to the Gimp brushes folder.
6/ The next time you open Gimp you’ll see the brushes have been added to the brushes panel. Simply select the brush in the ToolsPanel, select a brush from the Brushes Panel (as shown above) and they’re ready to use.
Enjoy using your new brushes and icons, and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Creating a custom gradient in Gimp does not need to be a complicated process, and once you have a grasp of the basics each gradient can be used in your own designs. The wings of the butterfly pic here were filled with a custom gradient, and after we show how to create a custom gradient in Gimp, we'll walk you through how the image was put together so you can make your own butterflies if you want to.
Creating A Palette
The first step in creating a custom gradient in Gimp is to create a palette. If you need to, click on each image in this tutorial to enlarge.
1/ With Gimp open go to Windows > Dockable Dialogues > Palettes.
2/ The above window will open. Click on the icon second from the lower left with the green plus arrow to start creating a new palette.
3/ The Palette Editor should now be open, and should look something like the above.
4/ The Palette Editor adds colours from the active foreground colour, so first click on the foreground colour in the Toolbox, and the above Colour Selector window will open.
To select a colour either click within the large window to the left, or the vertical array of colours to the right of it. The sliders to the right can be used to further edit the colour. When you're ready click OK so the selected colour becomes the active foreground colour.
5/ An alternative and quick way of selecting colours is to download a colour chart similar to the above then open it in Gimp. Now simply use the Colour Selector tool (the eye dropper icon) and click on a colour. This will now become the foreground colour.
6/ The above image shows a selected foreground colour.
7/ In the Palette Editor window click the icon with the green plus sign, third from the lower left. The foreground colour is now added to the palette.
8/ Continue to add colours to the palette by following steps 4 to 7. The above image shows seven colours have been added to the palette. Name the palette in the top window then hit the icon to the lower far left to save it.
9/ You should now see your new palette under the palettes tab.
10/ Now you have your palette it can be used to create a custom gradient. Simply right click on the new palette and from the drop down menu select Palette to Gradient. Your new gradient is now ready to use.
11/ Select the Gradient Tool in the Toolbox panel and in the lower section click on the gradient thumbnail. Now from the drop down list select your gradient.
12/ If you now drag the cursor horizontally in the Image Window your gradient will fill the image space.
Using A Gradient To Create Butterfly Wings
If you want to create your own butterfly images using your custom gradients you'll first need a few layers, one to use as an alpha mask and the other as an overlay. You can either create your own layers or download the ones used in the tutorial here. They're stored on Google Drive so you can be sure they don't include anything malicious.
Once downloaded unzip and open both in the same Gimp image window so they form two layers. One way to do this is to drag them from the unzipped folder to the Gimp image window. Also in the unzipped folder you'll see a texture layer that will be used later in this tutorial, or if you prefer you can use your own texture.
This is the first butterfly layer.....
And this is the second butterfly layer. Make this the active layer and hide the other layer by clicking on the eye icon next to it in the layers tab.
1/ In the image above there are more layers than you'll see in your version of Gimp. We'll just be focusing on the first two layers for this tutorial. Right click on the active layer and from the drop down list select Alpha to Selection.
2/ There should now be an outline of marching ants around the butterfly silhouette. This will mask the transparent background so when we add the gradient it will only appear within the outline.
3/ Select the gradient tool, then from the available gradients select the one you created.
4/ In the bottom half of the tools panel select the Radial option from the Shape drop down menu.
5/ Create a transparent layer above the silhouette layer and make sure its the active layer. It should look similar to the above.
6/ From the centre of the butterfly shape drag the cursor outwards, and fill the shape as above. If you don't like the first attempt, just redo it.
7/ We're now going to add some texture to the butterfly wings and break up the flat colours. First add the texture layer (or one of your own) to the image window, so that its above the gradient layer. The marching ants outline of the butterfly should still be visible.
From the image menu choose Select > Invert. Now press Delete on your keyboard. The texture layer should now look like the above image.
Now hit Select > None and the marching ants outline should disappear.
8/ Towards the top of the layers panel is the Mode drop down menu. This will allow you to integrate the texture layer with the gradient layer in different ways. Go through the list until you find an effect you like. You can also play with the opacity of the top layer to see how that effects the image.
When you're ready right click the top layer and from the drop down menu select Merge.
9/ This is how the two layers look when merged in this example.
10/ Now make the other butterfly layer visible and place it above the two merged layers. Your butterfly is now complete.
The butterfly image is just one example of how gradients can be used with Gimp. With a little imagination there's a whole world of gradient creativity to explore.
Isometric images have lots of uses, from architectural drawings, logo designs, game graphics and of course isometric art. Whilst Gimp is a tremendous tool for any visual artist, one of its drawbacks is it doesn't have an isometric grid. However, this tutorial will show you how to work around that and then how to create a basic isometric cube.
The work around is quite straightforward. It involves installing two Gimp pattern files that will be used to form isometric grids, and then installing a plugin that will allow you to scale the isometric grids to suit your project.
Grab the free zipped folder containing the plugin and pattern files from Gumroad here. Scroll, then add zero for price and hit the 'I want this button'
Credit for the pattern scale plugin that we use here must go to Rob A who created it.
Installing The Gimp Pattern Files And Plugin
The two images above show what we'll be installing to create the isometric grid patterns.
1/ Firstly download this zipped file containing the Gimp pattern files and the pattern scale plugin by clicking the arrow to the top right of the download page. The file is stored on Google Drive so you can be sure it doesn't contain anything nasty.
Once downloaded unzip the file. If you don't have software that can unzip files try 7zip. Its open scource and a very handy, reliable app.
2/ Open the file you've just unzipped then click the first pattern file, hold down Shift then click the second file so both pattern files are selected.
3/ Right click then from the drop down menu select Copy.
4/ Paste them to the Gimp pattern folder which typically can be found here:
Local Disk (C) > Program Files > Gimp 2 > share > gimp > 2.0 > patterns
5/ If Gimp is open hit the refresh button to the bottom of the patterns panel, or restart Gimp and the pattern files should be visible. The images are highlighted above.
6/ To instal the pattern scale plugin go to the downloaded folder, right click on the plugin and select Copy.
7/ Paste it to the Gimp scripts folder, which can usually be found here:
Local Disk (C) > Program Files > Gimp 2 > share > gimp > 2.0 > scripts
8/ Restart Gimp for the plugin to work. You are now ready to create isometric images in Gimp.
Creating An Isometric Grid
Creating an isometric grid is simple.
1/ Start up Gimp, then hit File > New
2/ Create the image size. Now create a transparent layer.
3/ From the pattern tab in the layers panel drag one of the isometric patterns to the image window. You now have an isometric grid.
The first isometric grid is shown above.
And this is the second isometric grid. As you can see its more detailed than the first.
How to Scale The Isometric Grid
To scale either of the grids follow these steps.
1/ Open Gimp and create the image window size as above, then create the transparent layer.
2/ Right click on the grid pattern you want to use and a drop down menu as shown above will appear. Select Scale Pattern.
3/ The above window will appear. The slider to the top will allow you to scale the grid to anything from 100% to 500%. The window below the slider gives the option to sharpen the grids' appearance. Hit OK when ready.
4/ This window will now open. It allows you to select how much you want the grid sharpened by. Click OK when you're happy with the selection.
5/ The scaled grid will now appear under the patterns tab, highlighted above.
6/ To use the scaled grid drag it from the pattern tab to the Gimp image window.
Creating An Isometric Cube
Creating an isometric cube is the basis for most isometric images, and the following steps will show how to do this.
1/ Create a transparent layer for the first side of the cube. Then with the Rectangle Select tool, drag out a rectangle roughly the width and height of the cube side.
2/ Select the bucket fill tool and click inside the rectangle to fill with colour. Then hit Select > None.
3/ Now select Layer > Autocrop Layer, which will make the layer easier to work with.
4/ From the tools panel select the perspective tool, and the window above will open. A dotted outline around the shape we just created will appear. Drag the Perspective window to one side as we need to work with our shape.
5/ Grab a corner of the dotted outline and drag it so our shape matches points on the grid. The idea is to get the coloured rectangle we created to form a cube side, as in the image above. This is much easier to do if you hit View > Zoom > Zoom in as it allows for greater accuracy.
6/ If you need to you can again position the corners of the shape by repeating the above step. When you're ready click Transform in the Perspective window.
7/ Follow steps 1-6 above to create the second side of the cube. Using a different colour helps to form the illusion of depth to the isometric cube.
8/ To create the bottom of the cube we'll use the Paths tool, highlighted in the Toobox panel, above.
9/ Create a new layer for the cube bottom. Using the grid as a guide, with the Paths tool create a shape that will form the cube face. At each corner of the shape click to change direction (which will create an anchor for the path). The last click should close the shape.
We don't need to be accurate with the sides that meet the other two cube faces, so long as the shape overlaps them (see the image below).
Once the shape is created with the Paths tool, you can go back and reposition the path anchors by dragging them. Again zooming in will give more accuracy.
10/ With the Paths tool still selected hit Selection from Path in the lower part of the Tools panel. The shape you created will now have a 'marching ants' outline.
11/ Use the Bucket Fill tool to fill the path.
12/ Move the bottom of the cube layer below the sides layers and you have created an isometric cube.
Once the pattern files and plugin are installed creating isometric images and designs becomes very straightfoward in Gimp. If there's one drawback its that the isometric grid has no 'snap to function', but this is easily compensated for by using the zoom in function. Enjoy using Gimp to create your own isometric designs and illustrations.
