ok, guys, i was wondering if i finally had this floating selection problem solved because i am pretty much dead in the water without layers and cut and paste. so i opened gimp and just used the default black brush and made a bunch of black squiggles on a white canvas. then i altered that version with a filter. and, drum roll please, made them into two layers! well, from there on it was a lot of fun as I just tried different tools and different settings until I had something that looked like a painting instead of squiggles. I have called the squiggles begin and where i ended up as end as you can see them in this album called GIMP located here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/carolkirvin

best way to see them is in slideshow.

some of the things i used: several filters (blinds and weave were the best), shear, colorify, poster, levels, eraser, hue-saturation, layer modes (all the time, as per usual; I am constantly blending and reblending layers ). i had never tried shear before in GIMP and that really helped bring it together too. i did try some things that didn't work and that always happens as i'm playing around. i either revert or go into history, depending on how far off course i've gone.

i spent about 45 minutes to an hour on it. it was fun.

no, my habit on this type of thing is to separately save the two versions (to desktop while working; to be moved when done). I then pick one of the images with Select>All and Edit>Copy. I then go to the other image and hit Edit>Paste. I now have 2 layers which show up in the layers palette, one image atop the other. The next thing I do, because it really helps with creation of an idea, is to go through the layer modes and see if any combination sparks an idea within me. I got my best ideas in the given example with the following Mode Combos: Difference (always dramatic), Subtract, Grain Extract, Grain Merge. I chose Difference because the result reminded me of a dramatic woodcut. I flattened it, saved it as a 3rd file on the desktop and then proceeded to play with other tools in Gimp till I got something I liked. BTW, with my method, it always does open to the same file folder (in this case desktop) because I'm creating new files from previous files. I get rid of all the inbetween versions (typically) when I finally have something I like. Every once in awhile I'll end up with a alternate version or two which I also like but it is pure dumb luck. And I sometimes end up with total mud and trash everything. the most usual scenario in ending up with mud is that i've gone too far. by contrast, i almost always get good results if i don't overdo it on the technique end. (this is true in every media of art, not just digital art)

carol

On 10/2/07, Greg wrote:

--- carol irvin wrote:

i opened gimp and just used the default black brush and made a bunch of black squiggles on a white canvas. then i altered that version with a filter. and, drum roll please, made them into two layers!

I did this in 2.2.17 and I didn't get another layewr. Was the layer created automatically?

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