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+--- Thread: ideas for how to improve my art (/Thread-ideas-for-how-to-improve-my-art)
ideas for how to improve my art - musicandart2080 - 03-07-2019
Hello gimp artists!
so I have done some artwork for a record, i'm trying to go with an idea of something old, worn, vintage, like a leaflet or book that has been aged a bit, like you'd see with childrens books that have a card cover and the print is starting to wear off, or the corners are becoming dog eared and there is folds across the front like on information leaflets, if you could imagine an old vinyl sleeve that is a little bit like the look I am going for as it's similar material, but in terms of the design i'm thinking something that reminds me a bit of library books, information leaflets (panthlets), educational information and nature.
so far I have managed to create my own method which is by finding an image of a tatty book online then changing it to greyscale, then using posterize and then adjusting the contrast and brightness. this will then highlight the edges and parts which are white which is usually all the damaged parts, I then colour select and delete the darker colours. this creates a basic template for me to overlay onto the main image. from here I can combine more layers with different levels of opacity to create a bit of a gradual degradation effect, using the layer with the lowest transparency to represent the highlights. this helps make it look older, but the image still doesn't look finished? looking at the text and the background photo's I am using I am thinking it needs something else to tie it all together? some other type of filter effect maybe? here are some examples
https://i.imgur.com/bvzV83a.png
and here is a basic draft of the album, its currently subject to change on the details.
https://i.imgur.com/npqLkQL.png
as you can see the text is quite sharp and looks a bit like its been generated on a computer, I think I have the right fonts for something that looks right for the age etc. and I think the images are ok, I took photos and then did some post processing/double exposure work on these. I can't really find any specific tutorials that give any tips on what else I need to do other than grunge filters (which I already know about). I also asked on the reddit sub for photoshop (as it seems to be the biggest board for image editing?) as I was running out of ideas for where to ask... and was curious to see if anyone using that program would know of any secrets for getting it to look the way I described and I could just go off the leads they mention and try to do the same in gimp? but this proved to be largely unhelpful as no one was willing to divulge their techniques or give me any information more than what I knew. if anyone has any ideas, I am all ears! if you would like to hear what the album sounds like I have a promo stream and can post it here if that helps.
RE: ideas for how to improve my art - musicandart2080 - 03-13-2019
btw does anyone have any ideas on other better ways to create the grunge/distressed template, layers?
RE: ideas for how to improve my art - rich2005 - 03-14-2019
Quote:..does anyone have any ideas on other better ways to create the grunge/distressed template, layers
Maybe a template is not such a good idea. Any image has to be considered on its own merits. What works for one image is no good for the next. I looked at your cover originally and thought, looks ok to me, no meaningful comments.
Quote:..the text is quite sharp and looks a bit like its been generated on a computer
I do not see that as a problem. It looks like your text has already (opacity perhaps) been tweaked in some way. Looking at a real life book dust jacket, Corners and edges might be tatty but the text is sharp. I prefer the text solid. However you can distress in various ways, have to consider the base image (no good with a plain colour), a small displace might work. example: https://i.imgur.com/RdHnjWn.jpg
Quote: some other type of filter effect maybe? here are some examples https://i.imgur.com/bvzV83a.png
That is a much darker image so those streaks show up better. Looks like you might already have tried that. You might get round some faintness with a solid black layer in addition mode. Then a 'grungey' brush stamped-in with white. Then the example looks like it might have a vignette applied. Use an elliptical selection, inverted, large feather (200) fill with black, reduce opacity to suit.
example: https://i.imgur.com/lZY0ZBZ.jpg
Brush came from https://www.deviantart.com/redheadstock/art/Cracks-Photoshop-and-GIMP-Brushes-64158970
RE: ideas for how to improve my art - musicandart2080 - 03-14-2019
(03-14-2019, 10:09 AM)rich2005 Wrote:Quote:..does anyone have any ideas on other better ways to create the grunge/distressed template, layers
Maybe a template is not such a good idea. Any image has to be considered on its own merits. What works for one image is no good for the next. I looked at your cover originally and thought, looks ok to me, no meaningful comments.
Quote:..the text is quite sharp and looks a bit like its been generated on a computer
I do not see that as a problem. It looks like your text has already (opacity perhaps) been tweaked in some way. Looking at a real life book dust jacket, Corners and edges might be tatty but the text is sharp. I prefer the text solid. However you can distress in various ways, have to consider the base image (no good with a plain colour), a small displace might work. example: https://i.imgur.com/RdHnjWn.jpg
Quote: some other type of filter effect maybe? here are some examples https://i.imgur.com/bvzV83a.png
That is a much darker image so those streaks show up better. Looks like you might already have tried that. You might get round some faintness with a solid black layer in addition mode. Then a 'grungey' brush stamped-in with white. Then the example looks like it might have a vignette applied. Use an elliptical selection, inverted, large feather (200) fill with black, reduce opacity to suit.
example: https://i.imgur.com/lZY0ZBZ.jpg
Brush came from https://www.deviantart.com/redheadstock/art/Cracks-Photoshop-and-GIMP-Brushes-64158970
thankyou ,I like what you've done, I will experiment with this for my art. might take a while to get the hang of it! I got a nice look from distressing the text with Gaussian blur 1.0
