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pralinkova-princezna β GIMP tutorial - as good as PS
Published: 2008-05-02 01:35:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 98152; Favourites: 1586; Downloads: 2960
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Description
My first proper tutorial!
I so enjoyed making it. 
There are not many GIMP tutorials here, definitely not as many as for Photoshop, and this program is still underrated. I want to advertise it as a tool equal to Photoshop.The tutorial covers these areas of digital drawing:
inking
colouring
shading (with the use of Levels)
text adjustmentsThe Cisqua and the Mudkip pic was specially designed for this tutorial.
XD See it finished here: [link] More tips:
As for smudging, people complained soft shades are harder than cel shading. Use various sizes of fuzzy brushes and mainly remember to lower the opacity of them, that gives you better control over them.
I strongly recommend viewing other tutorials on anything you need - inking, colouring... everybody has a little different approach (though the basic ideas are the same) but you could pick up some useful tips and tricks and learn by seeing the art itself.
If you make something with the use of this tutorial, post a link, I would love to see it!
NOTE: My GIMP is in Czech, so the translations may not be 100% correct, but I hope everything will be clear from the pictures. Anyway, in case of more troubles, feel free to ask!
NOTE 2: This is an old version of GIMP, so the new one has slightly different icons and more functions, but the tools remain.
Gimp can be downloaded here: [link] It is for free.
Thanks for comments+faves, I'm incredibly happy you find it useful!
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Comments: 589
FireAlpaca makes beautiful lineart, for colouring and blending I prefer GIMP. Glad it was helpful.
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Thank you SO MUCH, here's the link to my drawing before I stumbled on your tutorial:
sta.sh/027w3g1j62kd
And NOW:
blackfanged-saad.deviantart.coβ¦
Huge difference, uh ?
I'm more than thankful to you, I feel like this drawing is a huge step further for me.
Thank you again.
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I'm glad my tut was so helpful to you.
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Very great and explains a lot of art mysteries' to meΒ Β
Really helpful, and friendly to starters as well. Good job!
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Glad you like it!
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Helpful, but why did you kill the mudkip?
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It's explained at the finished drawing.
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About smudging: Does the color get lighter the further I smudge from the dark color, or do I just have to start smudging at a place that's in between to keep the shadow going? Sorry if this isn't clear.
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I'm not sure what you mean, best is if you try it out yourself. You can set overrun on the smudge tool.
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What I mean is, how far can one drag the mouse from the place smudged before the color stops smudging? Let's say I start in a darker place, and move the smudge tool over a lighter place. Does the smudged color keep going and get lighter as it goes, or does it just stop at some point? I've been doing it, and I get a nice effect close by, but if I smudge too far it just moves the dark color forward. Also, what does overrun do.
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Overrun defines how far you can smudge, what you just described, so try various settings of that. The smudge is better used with short strokes, it doesn't go on forever. Hope it helped.
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Thanks. Just in case that isn't what it's called in English, where can I find overrun.
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In the smudge tool settings, when you click it 2x, then at the bottom.
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Do you recommend I do thin lineart?
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Either can be nice, thin or thick.
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Hmm; the lineart I have, which I did in another program before getting gimp, always seems to spawn a bunch of ugly, miscolored pixels when I reload.Β Should I redo the lineart in Gimp?
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Here's some screens: bahmo.deviantart.com/art/GimpTβ¦
Basically, I'm constantly fighting against the emergence of white and and gray pixels that crop up on my old lineart.Β I made that with the paint tool in Arcsoft Photo Studio, which is not a very good program for art.Β When such pixels appear, I usually color over them with Gimp's pencil tool; on the appropriate layer for that color.Β Somehow, though those pixels keep reappearing at various spots around the paper when I reopen the file.
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If you make lineart on a transparent background, they can't appear.
Don't recolour them, erase them.
Try working only in Gimp and see if they still appear.
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Sorry; how do I make a transparent background?
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Select an area around the image and delete it.
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Thanks. I figured that out, but the current lineart layer is just too finicky, as I made it in another program and not originally transpsrent. I'm making a new lineart. So, Ink Tool?
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Any tool that works for you, ink or a normal round brush.
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Should lineart pixels be all one color? Because mine end up being varying shades.
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It can vary, it makes a nice smooth effect.
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Is it normal for the smudge tool to outright yank pixels off, letting the background show through a hole?Β Because that is now happening.
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Have you locked opacity?
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How might I do that?
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See layers window. Select a layer. Click the tiny checkbox at the top of that window. It's shown in the tutorial.
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Hmmm.
I have a newer version of Gimp, and it seems it doesn't have a "lock opacity" button.Β Instead, it has an opacity percentage slider.Β Moving that to 100 did not seem to fix things. (Sorry about the late reply.Β I was housesitting and animal-sitting for my parents, and couldn't check this.)
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That's for brushes. Layers have a check button above them.
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In that case, it seems the button is just gone.Β Here's a shot of my layers window; the "lock pixels" and "lock alpha channel" options are there, but not "lock opacity".
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Well, have you tried if either of those works?
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Sort of...
First, sorry for not including the pic.Β Here it is: bahmo.deviantart.com/art/MoreGβ¦
Turning down the opacity percentage does make more holes appear in the coloring, but it being at 100% doesn't stop the smudge tool from tearing holes.
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haven't read the whole thing yet but i will soon!! This looks like it could really help me! Thank you~!
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the thing is, I can never work with layers because the box that allows me to switch between them doesn't show up on mine. Any advice?
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It should be in Dialogues > Layers.
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But I don't have a dialogue folder and I don't see one called dialogue in my layers folder or anything that can show me the layers in that folder
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There's several different ways you can find the "Layers" menu: You can click on the "Windows" menu on the top bar, then "Dockable Dialogs" and look down that list until you see "Layers" (It's near the top on mine). You can also click the little arrow on any of the other floating (or docked) menus/toolboxes and click "Add Tab" and find "Layers" on that list.Β
I only have 2.8 now, but from what I remember it's pretty much the same on both 2.6 and 2.8...
Of course, this won't really help you if you've accidentally dragged the menu off screen. >_< I've done that a couple times and it's a huge pain to get it back...
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Oh Thanks! You found it! this will make everything a lot easier.
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Sure thing!
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It depends on the version, the menu may be called differently. Maybe windows? It is in one of the menus to the right.
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it's not there
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What version do you use?
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Sorry, I thought you were asking if I was using Windows on my computer as opposed to a mac. Yes I have a windows folder and it's there. thanks so much for the help. This will make everything a lot easier!
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Haha, good.
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This is so helpful. Thank you so much for this! 
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