GIMP Lesson Part 2

GIMP lesson continued

The GIMP lesson below is a continuation of this lesson. Follow the bullet points along with the corresponding animated GIF.

Among other things…

You will learn how to draw a cartoon onto a white rectangle. Then you will use a Transparency layer and the Fuzzy Select Tool to remove all the white from the cartoon.

Then you will manipulate a photograph of the boy’s head. You will use a Transparency Layer and the Eraser Tool to remove the background. You will then learn how to attach the head to the cartoon.

Notice in this animated GIF  how there is NO white around the body and NO original background around the head.

GIMP lesson tutorial summarized with a video

The video below summarizes what you will find on this page.

Opening the cartoon from previous lesson

• In this example, we will use the Finder to open GIMP.
• Type the name of the program into the Finder search window.
• Double-click on the appropriate application.
• Click File > Open.
• Click on the partially completed cartoon in the appropriate folder.
• Click Convert.
• Click File > New.
• Change the height of the new rectangle to around 20% higher than the cartoon image.
• Click on the tiny cartoon near the top of the screen.
• Cmd C to copy it into your clipboard.
• Click on the tiny white rectangle at the top of the screen.
• Cmd V to paste cartoon onto white rectangle.
• Drag cartoon to bottom of white rectangle.
• Click above dotted line to anchor cartoon onto rectangle.

Adding coloured hands and neck

• Click the foreground colour button.
• That will give you a palette of colour choices.
• Click the one closest to skin tone.
• Click OK.
• Click pencil icon.
• Change size to one.
• Draw a cartoon hand.
• Click on paint can icon.
• Click hand.
• Too much space turned the skin tone.
• Press Cmd Z to delete the last action.
• Press pencil icon and fill in the gap.
• Press paint can icon.
• Fill in hand colour again.
• Draw in the other arm in blue.
• Paint icon to fill in the colour of that arm.
• Draw a cartoon hand and fill it in.
• Draw a neck.

Prepare head for attaching to body

• When in GIMP, click File > Open.
• Select folder that has picture and double-click on name of image.
• Click Convert.
• Start preparing to erase background by right clicking in right panel.
• Select New Layer > Transparency > Merge Down.
• In top horizontal menu click Image > Scale Image.
• Increase either the width or the height to a number about 4 times larger.
• Click Scale.
• Click on Eraser icon and change size to 4.
• Erase the entire outside of the boy’s face.
• Change size to about 13 and do the same thing.
• Change it to about 37 and erase the rest of the background. Note that by clicking, holding the shift key down and then clicking again, you can erase everything between the two clicks.
• Click Image > Scale Image.
• Reduce it to around a quarter of the size and click Scale.
• The head is ready for attaching to the body.

GIMP lesson for attaching the head to the body

• • With the body open in GIMP, click New.
  • This will create a rectangle the same size as the one with the body unless you change the dimensions.
  • Increase the height so that it will accommodate the head.
  • Click OK.
  • Click on the body and press Cmd C.
  • Open the new rectangle and press Cmd V.
  • Holding your left mouse key down, drag the body to the bottom of the rectangle.
  • Click the space at the very top of the rectangle to anchor the picture.
• Click File > Open Recent.
• Open the head with the invisible background.
• Click Image > Scale Image.
• Change size to something smaller such as 150 px.
• Click Scale.
• Click the boy’s head at the top of the page and press Cmd C to copy it into your clipboard.
• Open the body and click Cmd V to paste the head.
• Drag the head to the neck.
• Click in the empty space to attach the head to the rest of the picture.
• Right-click in the right-hand panel and click New Layer > Transparency > OK.
• Right-click in the right-hand panel and click  Merge Down.
• Click the Fuzzy Select Tool.
• Click on the white space beside the cartoon.
• Press Delete key.
• Click File > Export As.
• Give the picture a descriptive name and select  a folder to hold it.
• Click Export > Export.