How to Create a Paintbrush in The Gimp (Part 1 of 2)

You should learn how to create and use Toolbrushes in the Gimp because it will make your life so much easier! Don't believe me? The "Tutorial" image above was created using only two tools and just a couple mouse clicks: Text & Paintbrush. The outline shape is a paintbrush. The owl is a paintbrush. A few mouse clicks and the rest is text. Cool, right?

So, what is a paintbrush? The way that I am using the "paintbrush" tool is like a stamp...click once, release and the image stays. Click through for a demonstration of how to use the paintbrush.

I am going to create a paintbrush (aka stamp) of Fritz.

1. Open the file in The Gimp (Free Download link)
2. Click the "Fuzzy Select Tool":



3. Click on the white area (background).
   TIP: When creating a brush, you should only select the white areas you want to get rid. For example, I do not want to get rid of the skin on Fritz's face:



4. Invert the Selection by clicking on the Select Menu --> Invert:



5. Press the Delete button on your keyboard and the background changes to a gray checkerboard (gray background = transparent background):



6. Save the file as a .gbr file in the brushes folder:
NOTE: If you are a Windows user, it is located here:
C:/Users/YOUR NAME HERE/.gimp-2.6/brushes

Congratulations! You now have a paintbrush. Read the follow-up tutorial on how to use the paint brush.