How I Gave My Bright Pink Flower a Soft Painted Look Using Gimp

By Lorene Troyer


I was working on a Mother's Day Project in Gimp and I needed a soft pink flower to finish my look.
The flower I had was bright pink so after several attempts I found a way to soften the look.

I opened the image of my isolated flower. Next I duplicated the layer.
I then right clicked on the flower in the top layer and chose Alpha to Selection.
Then I opened Color Selection Dialogue and picked a color pink that was several shades lighter then my flower.
I picked the bucket tool, and left the Fill Similar Colors option  selected.
Next I filled the flower (in the top layer) with the light pink color- I had to click in several places to get the color distributed evenly.
I then went to Filters >  Blur >  Gaussian blur which I set around 13.
After deselecting it, I lowered the opacity of the top flower and ta da! There it was.    

The Non-Designer's Design Book Review

I just finished reading The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams.  I found it to be very simple and easy to understand. It gives specific things you can do to make a design look professional- how to use and combine typefaces, how to use contrast and colors effectively.  (All this info that would have been very helpful when I was designing and printing the bulletins for our church.)

Robin explains some of the differences in typefaces. She breaks them into 6 basic groups and discusses why or why not they can be together on the same page, how to grab the attention of the reader and how to make everything work together.

I think buying this book would be a very good investment for churches or small businesses. It could be given to people who design the church bulletins, flyers, brochures or business cards. Really, it's for anyone who wants to avoid making amateur mistakes in design projects.