[Tutorial] GIMP - How to make a blend

Okay, so a lot of people think GIMP is hard or not practical, and that's not true, you can achieve gorgeous designs with it if you have patience and practice. Some things are way more basic and easy on GIMP than on PS.

I'll show you how I made this Premade Charli XCX blend on GIMP (therefore I'll show you the basic stuff to make a blend on GIMP)

Notes:
—English is not my primary language, Spanish is, so my GIMP is on Spanish and I apologize for any grammar mistakes.
—Text in brackets "[]" are links to screencaps that show you certain things or links to better explained tutorials.
—Some tricks will help you when using PS as well.




1.Creating a base
To create your base just go to Archive ➳ New ➳ choose your desired image size (mine is 800x600 px) make sure to click on "Advanced options" so your base is [transparent].

2. Positioning pngs
(Or images, cutting images is not different from PS, I suggest cutting them first if they are not pngs [Here] [Here] and [Here] are tutorials to do so) I personally struggle a bit with this, so you have to be very cautions when it comes to positioning pngs.

Some tricks are the following:
— Rezising them correctly: On gimp make sure to open each png individually. Just go to Archive ➳ Open ➳ pick the png you want to rezise. Once your png opened go to Image ➳ [Scale Image] and rezise it according to the size of your base, or according to all the desired pngs you will add. Then go to your Layers Window (if you don't have the window "Layers" go to Window ➳ Layers) and right click, click [Alpha to Selection] and copy the png (CTRL+C) Go back to your base, create a new layer Right click ➳ New Lawyer and paste the png (CTRL+V)—
— Cover the ugly parts of pngs: [Example]
— Make sure your stock pngs match the color scheme you picked and/or the model pngs you're using.

Here is my result.

3. Adding textures.

Or stock (with the right XCF —we will touch that later— stock pictures work amazing) Just drag textures or stock images from the folder where you have them. Add many as you want and play around with [Blend Modes] (again if you don't have the window "Layers" go to Window ➳ Layers)
Your textures ALSO have to match the colors of your stock or your model pngs. You can try coloring them according to your desired color scheme (Go to Colors ➳ [Colorize] and play around with colors [Example])

Result after adding textures.

4. Adding XCFs
XCFs are the equivalent to "PSDS" on PS. I get my XCFs from [this tumblr blog] or [this one] and here is a [tutorial] of how to make XCFs and this is [another] of how to apply XCFs.

Result after adding a XCF

— I usually add an extra layer so it can look better despite the XCF I just go to my Layers Window, select the top Layer and Right Click, click [New From Visible] a new layer with your current work will be created, just use the Colorize option again Colors ➳ [Colorize] and play with [Blend Modes] once again, for example, for this blend I colored it orange like [I did before] and I set it on Lighten Only, then I played with [opacity] This is completely optional, but it could look great, you can duplicate (click on the Layer ➳ right click ➳ Duplicate Layer) the layer as much as you want and set it on different blend modes (I duplicated it and set it on Value)

And now it looks like this

5. Text

This is all about fonts, install many, it would give a good look to your designs. Create a text layer, on your Tools Box go to [Text Tool] (double click to open the Tool Options Box) click, and start to play with the text.

Once you have picked font and played with position, it's time to decorate text:

— Gradients: You can get the ones I have [Here] Go to you Layers Window, select the Text Layer, right click, click [Alpha to Selection] and create a new layer (Right click ➳ New Layer) then go to your Tools Box again and select the [Mix Tool] select a Gradient and then drag the line over your text, drag it in different ways until you like the result.
— Shadow: Go to Filters ➳ Lights and Shadows ➳ Drop Shadow (I don't alter anything, the shadow looks good, I only change the opacity of the drop shadow layer to 100% but make sure the "Allow rezising" option is not selected)
— Bevel: Go to Filters ➳ Decor Filters ➳ Add Bevel and once again, I let the settings intact, but unmark the "Work on Copy" option.

This is how it looks with the text.

6. Topaz Clean

On GIMP the Topaz Clean is very basic but it works good anyway [Here] is tutorials of how to get the Topaz Clean Effect

AND YOU'RE DONE!

Hope I helped you. If you have any questions don't hesisate to ask. And if you design on GIMP, don't be afraid to request some more GIMP tutorials ^3^