Valentines with their own hands: draw a heart in GIMP

What to do if you want to give to your belovedman an original valentine made by own hands, but absolutely "do not be friends" with needlework? There is a way out - to make a valentine ... on the computer! The country of the Soviets will tell you how to do it valentines with your own hands in a graphics editor.

We suggest you learn how to make valentines yourself with a free graphics editor GIMP. But in principle, such a functional should be present in other popular graphic editors.

Deciding to make valentines with your own hands in GIMP, download and install the program (there are versions for both Windows and Linux), run and - begin to create! We will try to start with the most elementary and draw a scarlet heart in GIMP.

To start create a new document. On the File menu, click Create.a New Image. In the dialog that opens, select the desired file size in pixels (for example, we selected 1600 at 1200 points). Select the orientation of the picture (portrait or album). The portrait is stretched vertically, the album is horizontally. You are more suited to a portrait.

To make it more convenient to draw a heart, you need include guides. To do this, from the View menu, selectShow rulers / Show rulers (if you see the ruler on the left, you do not need to do this). Then click on the guide in the left edge of the screen and, holding the left mouse button, drag the guide to the center of the "sheet" so that it divides it roughly in half. If the guide disappears when you release it, on the View menu, click Show Guides.

The first part of the heart Is a circle drawn on a new layer. If you do not see the Layers palette, on the Windows / Windows menu, click Dockable Dialogs, and the Layers submenu. Then click the Create new layer button; Before clicking on the OK button, make sure that the Transparency / Transparency option is selected in the New Layer dialog box. Now click on the Ellipse Select Tool and draw a circle in the upper half of the page so that it touches the vertical guide.

Then fill the circle with color. To do this, click on the rectangle Colorsforeground and background / Foreground color, select the color in the Change Foreground Color dialog box and click OK. To make the circle fill color, on the Edit menu, select Fill with FG Color, checking the layers palette that the red circle has been applied to the new layer. To remove a selection, select the item "Select / None" in the menu item Select / Select.

To to draw the bottom of the heart, you need the Paths tool. Select it and click on the contour of the circle just above the center point (see the picture). Now place the cursor in the center of the guide closer to the bottom of the page, click and drag. You will get a smooth line going from one point to another. After achieving the desired curve of the line, release the mouse button. Now hold down the Shift key and click on the contour of the circle opposite the first point. Then, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the first point to close the path.

Most likely, you will have to slightly move the first point. If the Navigation / Display Navigation paletteclosed, in the Window / Windows menu item, select the Dockable Dialogs, and in it the sub-item Navigation / Navigation. Now click the Zoom In button several times and move the slider in the navigation window so that the first point of the path is approached. Now you can click on it and move in the desired direction. To see the result, in the View / View menu item select Zoom / Zoom, and in it - the Fit image in window.

Now use the outline to make a selection and fill it with color. In the Paths Options palette, whichappeared under the Toolbox, click on the Selection from Path button. In the Layers palette, click on the New Layer to make sure it's active, and then on the Edit menu select Fill with FG Color /. To remove a selection, select the item "Select / None" in the menu item Select / Select.

Now you have half heart. How to make it whole? In the Layers palette, click the New button.copy layer / Create a duplicate. Then in paragraph Layer / Layer menu, select the sub Transformation / Transform, and in it - Flip Horizontal / Flip Horizontally. You may need to move the new layer a bit. To do this, it is convenient to hide the central guide (View - Show Guides). Select the Move tool / Move and use the right and left arrow keys to move the second half of the heart. It will be easier to do this if you approximate the image.