Can you paint with textures in GIMP?

Miriam

Does anyone know if you can paint with textures in GIMP?
(https://www.gimp.org/)

I am painting a drawing in GIMP while following along Will's "10 Step Digital Painting" class. So far, I've been able to do everything he does in Photoshop using GIMP, but I don't see how to paint with textures.

Maybe it's just not a feature in this program, but I thought I'd ask and see if anyone knows.

Diego_BioSteam

@miriam

Hope this helps:
https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-concepts-patterns.html

https://youtu.be/Nc8awc_5yIw

Diego_BioSteam

@miriam

Alternatively you can try Krita:
https://krita.org/en/

Textures: https://docs.krita.org/Texture

MOO

@miriam Thanks for asking this question. I didn' realize I could follow the photoshop class with GIMP! Now I can try it too. Thanks!

Diego_BioSteam

@marsha-kay-ottum-owen

Maybe someone should start talking about alternative software such that people interested could easily know about them. That goes for the teaching too @Lee-White @will-terry-art @Jake-Parker - I know that most artists may not be using such software and may think that they cannot teach a digital painting class without Adobe products. Most of the principles of how they function are the same, even the interface is a bit similar. It should also be the student responsibility to learn about the software with resources available online.

And if you ask why to use free alternatives, here are good reasons:

There are really good free alternative software that is being constantly developed. So you get stable versions and any future upgrades!
It's free, so if you are a beginner artist, starting a studio or similar, you will have no expenses with software. If you are a professional artist, then it's up to you. If you are a well established artist, maybe you will be giving up on digital art and going back traditional.
I have heard from some professional friends that some clients required the license of the software they use (to avoid piracy issues). That may prevent you from using pirated/cracked versions of commercial software. Using free software saves you and your client from the problem.
They are usually compatible with more OS: Windows, Mac and Linux. Linux may be a good option if you want to go fully free and save more money. Including free alternative version of other design and publishing software too.

Main issues people complain about free software:

May not be user friendly: true in several cases. They are free, that means the company/developer making it is not making that much money, they can't afford paying people to turn everything nice and shinning - the focus is on functionality first. And to be honest, this only happens because you were used with a different software. If you had started your life with a free software such as GIMP, maybe you would find Photoshop not user friendly.
May lack some functions that commercial software has: same as above. Also... several functions added in commercial software are just to make people pay for more. Others are just shortcuts that can be done in any way (just need extra seconds/minutes to do the same thing).
Development may die: just find the ones that are well established.

Lee White

@diego_biosteam The reason we teach mainly photoshop is that 99.9% of the industry is using it. That goes for our clients too. It makes edits and dialog easy between us all which is a HUGE benefit. The other software, while it has merits, is too risky for us to teach. It could be discontinued at any time and only a small number of our audience would get anything out of it.

I do recommend Youtube and other resources for learning alternate software, but ultimately I recommend learning photoshop because you will probably have to do that anyway at some point.

Diego_BioSteam

@lee-white

Totally agree with you! It is also important that you teach what most industries will require! And it's nice that you put effort into making sure the students become ready to get a job! The industry also doesn't want their pipeline to be interrupted halfway because the different people working on it need to convert files and so on.

But I also think it is important to know that there are alternatives, especially if someone is willing to freelance and only need to deliver an image file. Also, not going with the conventional that is being given to you requires you to learn a lot of things in a different way (you need to dig information and know what questions to ask), which (for some people, not for all) is a good way to improve your learning skills - I believe there is a big issue with most people not knowing how to learn and with the excessive attitude of "what button do I press in Photoshop to do that?" or "What brush do you use?"... Too much shortcuts/spoon feeding is not good in the long term development of your career, we need to explore a bit by ourselves.

I never heard of a class on "Watercolour with Daler-Rowney Paints", so I dont' think you need to have a class on "Digital Painting with GIMP" - I know, its a different issue here (industry requirements), but I hope you get the point!

Miriam

@diego_biosteam
Thanks for your suggestions and links!

I had seen the patterns / textures in GIMP, but I thought that they could only be used the way they appear in the sample image. After trying it out a little, I found that I could get more of what I wanted by painting with a normal paintbrush, then applying the pattern using the "color erase" option. It's not quite what I was looking for, but it might work. If not, I'll try the other program you mentioned.

I appreciate your help!

Miriam

@marsha-kay-ottum-owen
Yes, you should try it. GIMP isn't quite as awesome as Photoshop, but it's pretty good (and it's free).

MOO

@miriam I actually have GIMP and have used it a little. I just had a PS class last semester and have been wanting to transfer over back to GIMP. I had to refer to youtube a lot anyway but it would be nice to try and follow the PS class here using GIMP (and youtube when necessary )

Miriam

@marsha-kay-ottum-owen
Well, I'm only 1/2 way through the steps, so I'll see if there are any other things that have to be done differently, but using GIMP is working really well! Since you've used the program before, it should go pretty smoothly for you, too.

I feel like I've learned a lot by watching a segment, then painting that step on my drawing before moving on to the next video. (I've also watched the whole class before.)

Yes, it's great to have the internet/YouTube to turn to for info & tutorials!

MOO

@Miriam Let me know if you try Krita too. If so, what do you think of it?

Nyrryl Cadiz

I'm not really familiar with Gimp. I've heard some bad comments about it. There are other free great softwares out there. The ones I know are Krita and Medibang. They work just like photoshop. I hope this helps. Thanks!

Miriam

@marsha-kay-ottum-owen
I haven't tried Krita, but if I do try it, I'll let you know.

Miriam

@nyrryl-cadiz
Thanks for the info!