1. Art Rage with the Gimp

2. Feeling Artistic? ArtrageGimp 2 So you want to make some original art but you don’t think you’re in the same league as Picasso,Van Gogh or Matisse? Don’t be so sure! Artrage and Gimp 2 are two free programs that will allow you to produce an endless number of artistic masterpeices! Let’s get started!

3. Gimp Time! Gimp 2 You can import any combination of images into Gimp 2. Try using:  Photos  Artrage files  Scanned drawings  Comics and cartoons  Text documents

4. I really liked this photo of myself with my poodle puppy Kingston. Here, you can see I have cropped the image, added a bright colour to the background and enhanced the colour of the eyes and lips.

5. Gimp 2 This is what Gimp 2 will look like once you have selected dialogues and opened up the layers. In the window on the right you can see the tools available for use. Just a few of the available filters are also displayed.

6. Gimp 2 Once in Gimp 2 I went into filters and added a light effect called FlareFX. I flattened the image before applying an artistic filter which involved applying a canvas.

7. Artrage If you look closely, you can see the surface has a different texture here. I have manipulated the original Artrage file with a Noise Filter called Scatter HSV. This piece was created using dialogues and has three layers with a different filter on each one. I used Flare FX, canvas and cartoon before flattening the image.

8. Here I used layers to manipulate the Artrage file with the FlareFX, Cartoon and Unsharpen Mask filters but only applied the Oilify filter on the puppy. I have used two filters here – FlareFX and Oilify.

9. This artwork is made up of just two layers. The background layer employs the Feather Filter whilst the top layer is the original Artrage file. The detailed background and simple oil-painted characters work together to create interest. I have used two filters here – FlareFX and Softglow.

10. Below you see the Photocopy filter used. The artwork to the right has three layers. The background uses the Feather filter over the original file. The middle layer uses the Photocopy filter file. The top layer uses the Oilify filter on the puppy only. These techniques have been used previously but are combined here to create yet another unique piece of art.

11. Now we’re getting creative! Here the Glass Lense Effect and Mosiac filters are great.

12. The artwork is transformed with the Supanova filter and a cyan colour Filter Pack!

13. How cool is this Illusions filter?

14. A pink square stamp from the Paintbrush selection creates a tile effect whilst the GFlare filter adds light in the bottom right-hand corner.

15. A Sparkle effect combines with a Seemless filter to create an interesting collage.

16. The GlassTile and GFlare filter are used here. On a second layer, an eraser is used to rub out the two faces to reveal the oilpaint appearance of the original artwork. A Tile effect is then applied.

17. A stamp technqiue is used to make this one aesthetically pleasing. The Paintbrush selection provides the signature Gimp tool as seen in the bottom left hand corner and yellow Sparks are drawn in. Magical!

18. Why not take your one-of-a-kind artworks into other programs like Google Sketch Up, Tales Animator, Crazy Talk, Pivot and Movie Maker? Here Jigsaw Puzzle makes an artistic puzzle game. Love it!