Brush me down
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
I'm in the process of building an arty website for one of my modules. Truth be told, almost every other one of my modules includes building a website but this one is quite nice as I get to have some fun with it... infact the website ones are always more fun, certainly more fun than computer networks or social research theory. Anyway, I digress, the point here is the arty bits.
Now, I'm not so great at art, the best I can draw is a stick man and certainly not like Lowry did! I'm not even that fantastic at using art packages (my preference being the GIMP). Still, with design you always need to use a graphics package so I do my best to wing it. Luckily I have assistance in the form of resources from deviantArt, so I thought I'd share this little trick.
I always go for the GIMP brushes, but there are brushes for other package, like PhotoShop. Firstly you need to find them. You go to deviantArt.com, then click categories in the top left-ish, then pick resources from the droplist, then application resources then, in my case, GIMP brushes. You can then just browse through them finding ones you like and downloading them.
To add them to GIMP go to the GIMP's programs folder (its a hidden folder in your home/user for linux so press ctrl+h to see it, you windows boys will have to look for yourself but I presume it's in Program Files) open it, then open brushes, then just paste them in from the zips.
Hey presto, you're an instant artist!
posted by SkinOfStars @ 11:19 pm,
2 Comments:
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At November 13, 2007 1:59 pm,
Tony Flaig said...
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I've worked with the occasional Gimp and even for free its not worth it.
That gimp program is crap, why not dip into your food and beer fund and buy a proper program or alternatively wait until some PC magazine has a free semi decent photo program on the cover.
That gimp also takes best part of an hour to load up.
Just out of curiosity when you've been educated Kevin will you be providing society with labour for free or expecting some wonger! -
At November 18, 2007 10:58 pm,
SkinOfStars said...
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I agree, the gimp is not as fast to load as say, solitaire (actually, its pretty slick in its native environment but it does have to load additional toolkits to work in Windows), but it is a professional image manipulation program comparable to many expensive industry platforms. In fact, the gimp is used by many companies in order to reduce overheads and as such provide an improved value for money service to customers while still maintaining professional standards.
I understand that the program is not as easy to learn as something like paint, but sometimes one needs to spend some time with an application in order to be able to use it to a standard anywhere near its potential.
I already provide labour to society for free in my spare time and intend to continue doing so. I am not so fanciful to believe that money isn't a necessity, but I am not so self interested that I would only do something if I accompanied it with the phrase "and what do I get out of it?". Understand, I am not a fresh-faced school kid who is at university because I didn't know what else to do with my time. I am someone who is making an investment in myself with the honest hope of being able to give back as much to society as possible.
