Brushes in GIMP can be a lot of fun and can add interesting touches to an image.
This is a brief view of the Pencil Tool, Paintbrush Tool and the Airbrush Tool in GIMP. In the GIMP Toolbox, starting with the Pencil and to the end, the Ink Tool is the only one that does not use the Brushes dialog for its shape. Even the Eraser Tool will erase with the shape used from the brushes.
The Pencil Tool is for drawing hard edged lines and will make jagged edges on curves and angled lines. It does not use antialiasing and the edges are sharp. You can use any style brush in the Brushes dialog with the pencil. If you use a fuzzy brush, the edges will be even more jagged. One place to use the Pencil Tool is drawing very thin lines. The Paintbrush Tool makes them look somewhat fuzzy and faded.
The Paintbrush Tool gives a smoother edge. Using a fuzzy-edged brush makes, well, a fuzzy edge.
Use the Airbrush Tool for a softer and semi-transparent look.
More interesting are the different options in the Brushes dialog.
Start with a new image, the default size is fine, and fill the background with any color. You can change it any time by changing the FG or BG color and filling it with the Bucket Fill Tool. Be sure to specify FG or BG in the dialog and select the Fill whole selection option.
Next make a new transparent layer. This is the layer you will be drawing on. You can press the Delete key on your keyboard to clear it and use it over for other brush experiments.
Choose a color that will show over the BG color you used in the Background layer. The regular or, parametric brushes, have a little blue triangle on the right. Animated brushes have a red one. There are some in my brushes that have no triangles in the corners but they behave the same as parametric brushes.
Parametric brushes make the same image in a continuous line and the files have .gbr as the extension. Animated brushes have different images in them, file extension is .gih.
Starting with the Paintbrush tool, choose a medium-sized, round brush. Draw a line across the top of your transparent layer. If it looks to thick or too thin you can change it by scaling it up or down. Find the size you like best and just leave it for now.
In the brush dialog, next to Opacity there is a slider bar. Change the opacity to about 50. Draw another line under the first one. You will have a slightly transparent line.
Tick Apply jitter with the mouse and change the setting to about 3. Draw another line. Try it with higher and lower settings.
Select Use color from gradient, choose a colorful one and draw a line. You may want to try it with the opacity set back to 100.
If you run out of room on your image, press the Delete key. Try the other paint tools to do the same exercise.
Pressing the Reset button down in the right corner of the brushes dialog will reset the dialog to the default setting for the current tool you are using if you want to start a new image or want to do something else. It’s nice to be able to do that so you don’t have to go back and change the settings manually.
One added note here. You can do a point to point drawing with a paint tool. Choose a brush, click the image, hold down the Shift key, and click around with the brush while still holding down Shift. You can make angular selections or draw curved lines, letting up the mouse button to go to the next place. Continue to hold down the Shift key until you are done.
You can visit here to see some more advanced uses of brushes, get some brushes, and see examples of parametric and animated brushes. Instructions about how to make animated brushes will be added. Visit often because it is a growing thread.
Tonya
2/8/2008: Instructions about how to make animated brushes have been added.
