Gimp Tips and Tricks: Giving Art a New Life

In my early days of playing with Gimp and trying out the various filters, I created an image using ruby fonts outlined with silver metal. I love to use scripture in my art so I this one showcases  Proverbs 31:   Here is my original art:

Yeah, I know- it's pretty bad. I was happy with the font effect but not pleased at all with the background. This week I decided to revise it.  I thought maybe adding an image would help, so I found this over at Pixabay.

I elongated the right end of the image with the scale tool, desaturated the image and overlaid it with a black and white radial gradient.  Here is the result:

It's not perfect but I think it looks quite a bit better than my original creation.

All these images are free for the taking by the way.