Mark's Quick Gimp Tip

Last month, I uploaded a file comprised of multiple layers. It was a "hands on" way of showing Gimp beginners exactly how working with layers is accomplished. I hope you had a chance to grab the image off the georgetoon server. If not, here's a second chance. Simply get the file here.

I wanted to mention one other thing about that file. When you look at all the layers, you can understand how I dropped the jet in. It was either a piece of clip art or something I extracted from another photo. But, how did I create the clouds? Were they somehow extracted from another photo, as well? Not at all. Those clouds were created by Gimp simply by selecting a brush shape.

The Gimp community is populated by many talented Gimp users who are creating brushes, plug-ins, effects, etc. All you need to do is fire up Google and do a search! I found those cloud brushes at Deviant Art's Project Gimp. Simply download the file, extract, and plug into your bushes folder at /.gimp/brushes. When you start Gimp, all the cloud brushes come up! You can then vary the size, opacity, softness, etc.

Have fun!

Mark Szorady is a nationally syndicated cartoonist. His work is distributed by georgetoon.com. Email Mark at georgetoon@gmail.com.