Gimping Along: Donna Learns About Layers

It's the middle of February, and I've posted exactly once about my effort to learn The Gimp, an alternative to Photoshop. For me, the next part of the tutorial is like getting off a chairlift and seeing nothing but the tops of trees. With the Olympics starting, I really want to be sitting in front of the TV with a looping project in my lap watching the best athletes in the world do the impossible with speed and grace. Their achievements are a great inspiration, and a reminder that I'll only get better at the Gimp with more effort.

I'll keep working at it. But it feels like I've been trying to learn to snowplow on a black diamond run. So I backed down to the bunny hill today, and feel pretty good about what I did. I filled a background with a color gradient, added text, added another layer of resized text to make a white outline, added a drop shadow, and created a frame layer.

I did all that by following along with a YouTube tutorial by GIMPtricks on Gimp Basics. I'll be checking out more postings from this tutor from the Netherlands. Thanks, coach -- I'm back in the game.