GIMPing Layers

See this example of a student's effort to fat cat a Sandra Bernhardt painting - she mentioned wanting to get the cat in the hands in place of the goblet but running into frustration in using the GIMP software.

This is easy to do in Photoshop but thought it was time to try a tool our students likely would use. The trick here is to layer up some elements we would want to appear above the cat, e.g. her hands (It really should have been her lower arm).

The first step is using the lasso selection tool to copy and cut out her hands

http://106tricks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/gimp-cat-10.jpg

Next, paste these into a new layer this is key! Next we go back to the base layer, and use the clone tool to fill in the spaces left behind. What you do here is control click on an adjacent source area, and paint in an area you want to cover. IMHO, successful clone brushing is the magic juice for mashing up images.

This background is ideal because of its mottled texture, so with cloning we go from

http://106tricks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/gimp-cat-09.jpg

to

http://106tricks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/gimp-cat-08.jpg

Next we open/paste in the fat cat, and use the lasso to select the body:

http://106tricks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/gimp-cat-06.jpg

We use Select -&gt; Invert to make it select everything but the cat, and then Cut to remove the background:

http://106tricks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/gimp-cat-05.jpg

After this, we move, scale, and rotate the kitty to place into her hands. Note that this layer is still on top, so it is above her hands:

http://106tricks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/gimp-cat-04.jpg

If we move this layer down one notch, the hands are now on top of the cat

http://106tricks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/gimp-cat-03.jpg

We notice the fingers are weird, so we want to remove the portions from the top left:

http://106tricks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/gimp-cat-021.jpg

We then do some more clone brushing to copy the texture of the middle two fingers, and extend her fingers, and also clone the top of the top finger.

http://106tricks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/gimp-cat-01.jpg

The basic principle is to figure out the stacking order of layers to show/hide things in the same way they would appear in physical space. Here is my final cat:

http://106tricks.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/cat-gimped-final.jpg

And that is the power of working in layers!