Making Images in GIMP Part Two

In the previous post about making images in GIMP, I went over the process of creating the composition and creating clean line art.  In this next part I will explain the steps I go through in coloring my picture, including flats, foreground, background, extra detail, and lighting.

And let us continue!

The next thing I did after making the line art was add a new layer on screen mode and filled it with an orangish-brown color.  This will tie the piece together in the end by giving all the colors a similar hue while they still pertain to their individuality.  The opacity of the screen is about 52% so that it's not too overwhelming.  Along with this I have brought down the line art layers to 80% opacity to give it a softer effect.

Here you can clearly tell the palette I have chosen for this piece, it's going to be filled with earthy tones.  The flat colors for the foreground are fairly basic and cooperate with each other.  Don't be afraid to take your time, make sure that it is cleaned up before continuing to the next layer of colors.  To help make sure that I get everything clean, I often toggle the visibility of the white background on and off.

The background colors are done on a separate layer. 

 Here you can see an ant line going around the blue of the sky, this was selected by using the magic wand tool.  This is because it'd be sort of boring for the sky to be just blue, so I'm going to use a gradation to give it more life.

Here you can see the tool I have selected along with the colors that I'm going to use for the sky, fading from purple to orange.  For those of you who don't know how to use the gradation tool, to make the pattern vertical you pull a straight line from top to bottom.  You can actually make the pattern go in any direction depending on where you drag the line.  The intensity of each color will also vary depending on how long you make the line.  As you can see, I made the line span across the whole image to make sure that the color is fairly evenly distributed.

Next I color in the building and water area white.  This will make seeing where I need to color in easier and also using the magic wand tool it allows me to color messily without getting the color all over the picture.

I color in the water a sort of periwinkle color to give off the illusion of reflection of the sky onto the water. 

Using the same method of coloring I used for the sky using the gradient tool, I use a yellowish and purplish color on a low opacity to color the water.

I reselect the sky because I've decided to amp up the saturation.  Because of the placement of the colors on the spectrum (they're on opposite sides) the purple will fade to orange-red and then yellow, giving a more natural sunset feel..

In order to make sure the water conforms to this color change, I open the Adjust Color Balance window (colors> color balance) and add in some more orangish tones.

With the water still selected, I use the same gradient I used for the sky on the water so that it looks more like the sky is reflecting onto it.

This tutorial will be continued in Part three, but this concludes part two of constructing images in GIMP.  If you'd like to see more notes on creating compositions, a nice tutorial is here.