Playing with GIMP

Earlier today I posted about wanting to find ways to improve my web design knowledge/skills and do it for as little money as possible - preferably for free.

I do already use a truly wonderful photo editing program called Picasa. If you don't have Picasa, get it, right now, by clicking here. I get great results from this wonderful little application and since they have added something called "Picnik" - it has really gotten easy to make my photos look the best they can. Another reason I love it so much? It's free!

Where my arsenal has been lacking is in the ability to design cool logos, banners and avatars. This morning I started on a quest to find what I needed and by this afternoon, I felt I had arrived because I found GIMP.

GIMP is a powerful photo editing program that doubles as a design platform and it fits my criteria because it's free! I know lots of people make banners and such using Photoshop but it's just too dang expensive (for me, at least!) and while I do have some options for those sorts of tasks (that free software that came with my camera, for instance), they are cumbersome at best and don't have the bells and whistles I would enjoy playing around with. The answer? GIMP!

GIMP can be downloaded for free here.

Now, the learning curve for me when it comes to new software is pretty high. Somehow those little icons that are supposed to translate what a particular button is for just don't speak my language! Luckily, we have YouTube where you can find a wealth of information in the form of tutorials covering every subject imaginable. GIMP is no exception.

I stumbled upon a great beginner's tutorial from GIMPtricks. Her YouTube channel is loaded with fantastic tutorials covering all things GIMP! My entire day was full of creative fun after just watching this one tutorial and then playing around a bit.

My fun learning project today was Etsy banners. Here are a few I made while practicing and starting to learn my way around GIMP:

This was the first try...

In this second one I experimented with adding several border layers...

As you can see, I was stuck on this particular font!

And I decided to get groovy on this last example!

 So, if I can find my way around this great program, so can you! I am still learning and know there is SOOOOO much more to figure out - I can't wait!

...this was fun... :)