I am happy to see this place still up and running! I used to spend hours upon hours on graphics thinking I would end up a graphic designer after high school. It's hard to believe that was over 10 years ago! I'm currently studying for a bachelor's degree in Creative Writing. I plan to become an author.

I'm not sure how active I'll be here or if I will be attempting to make graphics again in the future. It's been many years since I have attempted digital art, but I still have a drawing tablet. It was a lot of fun playing around with GIMP and having the opportunity to share my art with all of you! I remember trying to learn how to code layouts, but never really got the hang of it in comparison to the other popular layout makers at the time. I plan to raise and breed Pitbulls inspired by my pitbull x lab mix, Chuck, that passed away in October.

Other than all that, I'm married now and have a son who is 8 years old. I am 28. I have been very blessed! I currently have a 4-year-old Doberman mix named Nora. I look forward to reconnecting with the old-timers here and get to know some of the new folks I haven't met before.

Welcome back, Delphic!

Thank you!

Hey welcome back!

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone. Robin Williams

Welcome back! :)

Welcome back!

I have a 7 year old son (too bad we don't know each other in RL and lie close, because they probably would love playing together). But I'll be 35 next month.

Too bad you don't still do the digital art. As a fellow GIMP artist, I would have loved to have had someone to learn better graphic skills from who could speak in GIMP terminology.

Thanks everyone!!
@Naima, I can still speak GIMP! Lol! I wasn't that great at graphics, but I did have a lot of fun with them. I just found my old drawing tablet and I'm very tempted to try graphics again when I have the time to dedicate to it. Maybe on a weekend when I don't have too much homework due.

I'd love to see some of your graphic style!

I just posted a finished graphic in the auctions! I will definitely be making one more tonight because I had so much fun with it! I used to spend like 18 hours on this and it only took me 4 hours, so I will be able to do this more often than I thought!

Welcome back!

Thank you!

Welcome back!

Thanks!

Hey Delphic, would love to learn how to use my GIMP, i tried to follow Youtube videos but that just went over my head.  Some pointers would be great on how to get started :) 

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone. Robin Williams

I could teach you on Discord sometime if you'd like! I could go in Voice Chat and share my screen if you're comfortable with that! If not, I could just explain or make a tutorial for you in DMs. I learned from Horseland members on some InvisionFree boards before they all got deleted. I had a teacher there. I also used tutorials from Deviant Art that I will try to find for you.

Starting from the basics: Cutting! My best tip is to use the Path tool instead of the Lasso tool for cutting. I know that's a hot take, but I think it's way easier to fix a wonky cutting line with the Path tool. The Lasso can be accidentally triggered so you have to cut out that section all over again. Keep your dots close together and zoom in to 400x or higher until you can see the pixels well, then trace the subject (horse/dog/whatever). Then you click "Select from path" on the toolbox and then click "Float" then go to your layers bar and click "To new layer."

Another random tip would be to avoid using pure black or pure white for shadows/highlights. Pick the darkest color from the subject's natural shadows and the lightest from the brighter parts of the subject. It looks much more natural and blends nicely.

Feel free to message me here or on Discord and I can help you with more specific things and send screenshots of how I do whatever you're wanting to learn. I still haven't mastered wings, so I have no room to give advice on that. I have done horns and skeletal pieces (but I'm not sure if skeletal images are still allowed).

hey thanks.  I would be comfortable doing a  share screen and voice chat :) im an adult lol I have so much time on my hands that i want to try and figure out manipulations and coding

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone. Robin Williams

Cool! Shoot me a DM and we will set up a time.

I had tried using YouTube videos too but I couldn't find any that explained what I wanted.

So lasso tool would be better? I also felt like I wouldn't be able to control that as well  So I always just erase the background from the horse stock photo and then "copy visible" and paste it onto a new background stock photo.

Here's a graphic that I had made in GIMP: https://i.imgur.com/QNs6p5c.jpg and sold in the auctions. And it was even purchased by Uta nonetheless!

Uta was helping, giving me tips via messages for awhile. Bless her heart! She's not a GIMP user and has no experience with it but she did the best she could to explain how she did things and I had to figure out what some of the similar tools in GIMP were. Like a big thing she taught me was to use the smudge tool to smooth the horse's coat after paste it on the new background to help make it look more natural and flow nicer.

And this is another one that I got lucky enough to actually sell in the auctions: https://i.imgur.com/J2slFar.jpg to Tragedy.

I think skeletal pieces are still allowed because people have stuff like that on their Zombie Paints: https://horsephenomena.com/horses.php?id=441244

Naima and Delphic lets take this conversation to a different post :) https://horsephenomena.com/viewpost.php?id=308928

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone. Robin Williams

Hiiii and welcome back!! ❤️

Welcome back! I remember you!!