How to make artsy backgrounds

[ThinkBuntu]

Take an image (photograph or otherwise) and open it in GIMP. Use Filters > Artistic > GIMPressionist. This is a filter plugin that allows you to make images look like paintings.

removed image; two+ weeks old.

[mitchell7]

No offense, but it just looks grainy and dark. I don't think it looks like a painting at all.

One of the pitfalls of using filters in GIMP (or Photoshop) is that the filters have to be experimented with. Too often, I see novices just using the default settings on their images, with predictable results. Multiple filters should be used in succession, with each filter making small changes on the image, or changing only a certain area of the image. That way, you can build up layers of texture, which look much better, as opposed to one big texture laid over the whole image at once.

[finer recliner]

^ seconded

[Codename]

Take an image (photograph or otherwise) and open it in GIMP. Use Filters > Artistic > GIMPressionist. This is a filter plugin that allows you to make images look like paintings.

Here's one I did for Linux Mint (http://www.703designs.com/images/Mint_leaves.jpg), based on this original image (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Mint_leaves.jpg).

That's sweet dude, thanks!

[ThinkBuntu]

That's sweet dude, thanks!
No problem. I'm sure it can be done better than I did it, so experiment. Gimpressionist is a really great tool, and I was surprised that I'd never heard of it before.

[SkyyBugg]

I like that gimpressionist filter! I just did this of my dog swimming in a pool!

I cropped the shot.

SkyyBugg

[JC_510]

No offense, but it just looks grainy and dark. I don't think it looks like a painting at all.

One of the pitfalls of using filters in GIMP (or Photoshop) is that the filters have to be experimented with. Too often, I see novices just using the default settings on their images, with predictable results. Multiple filters should be used in succession, with each filter making small changes on the image, or changing only a certain area of the image. That way, you can build up layers of texture, which look much better, as opposed to one big texture laid over the whole image at once.

Thirded.

I first came to photoshop (elements) a couple of years ago, and have learnt quite a bit since then, and have now almost entirely moved over to the GIMP, mainly because of the path tools (which aren't included in elements). I do not pretend to be an expert, but I found that experimenting with different filters is a great learning curve, which I highly recommend.