LaurenMarie, owner of Creative Curio, kindly asked me to write a post for her blog about GIMP, which has been published today.

This GIMP introduction is really just an overview of some of the tools, which I’ll be expanding on in the weeks to come. :grin:

I originally had the impression, when I started playing with digital art, that brushes were a cheap alternative to creating images completely on your own creativity and skill. However, liberal use of brushes can be beautiful or disastrous (if you don’t have an eye for their application) and they can be a source of inspiration when you’re not quite sure what you want to achieve.

Inspired by LaurenMarie from Creative Curio‘s discovery of Photoshop (PS) brushes, I’ve decided to share the brushes that I have installed. They’re GIMP brushes, but many of them have Photoshop counterparts. All of these were found on deviantArt.

I made the following images using some of these brushes:

Abstract in Silver
Dreaming into Space
Elation
Flourish

Lights and flares

Odysee

A beautiful set of flare and glowing spray type brushes. Originally available for PS.

Galatic

Strings of stars and swirling light. Very pretty! Also for PS.

Inner Universe

Elegant reaching tendrils and feather-like smudges. Originally made for PS.

Rise

They remind me of playing with sparklers in the dark and making patterns in the air. Originally for PS.

Edge

Licks of fire and light. Also for PS.

Nature

Clouds

Come with a bunch of clouds in different shapes and sizes. Very nice!

Grass

I was making a silhouette scene and contemplating doing the grass… Thank goodness for these brushes!

Sparkle

Essentially stars – some of them I almost never use and some I use all the time. :P

Vector Foliage – Plants

I only just installed these, but they look cute and they’re decently sized. Also come for PS.

Curlies, Flourishes and Splashes

Curves

Some of the first curvy, loopy flourishes that I used.

Leafy Glade

Very cute, curly leaves. Available for PS if you follow the links from the deviantArt page.

Swirlys II

I highly recommend these for corners and such, very nice.

Splashing

Gorgeous water splashing and pouring brushes. Were originally for PS, not sure where they are now though.

Splatters

I have two sets of splatter brushes, one of which I used in Inkscape with a bitmap trace to create scalable vectors, which worked really well. The ones I have installed seem to be by people that I can’t find, but they look similar to some by agent-provocateur and Sparkling Tea. The latter are available for PS.

Tech and Vector

Vector Set 1

For when you can’t be bothered to draw your own circles and arrows. ;) Also for PS.

VectorGrunge

What can I say? Pretty cool! Original PS brushes.

Filmstrip

Such a random concept now that I think about it, but I like ‘em!

Filmstrip Grunge

For when you’re feeling a bit dirtier…

Film

These are like the filmstrip ones, but they’re more like photograph negatives, rather than a movie reel. There were some PS one, but I can’t find them.

Celestine

I don’t think I’ve used these that much, but they look like they could be good sometime – they passed the culling! Sadly, another dead photoshop link for this one too. :(

Tech Pack 5

Spiffy set of fine lines, dots, arrows and numbers. I can’t see this exact set for PS, but there’s several similar ones here.

Tech Pack 6

Similar to the previous one, but even better! I really like the little squares and circles, they’re like geometric bubles – too cute! Available as Tech brushes 03 for PS.

Pixelart Crop Circles

I haven’t used them much yet, but they’re way too cute to delete!