Skintone Tutorial for GIMP

1)Open default head & body skintone files in GIMP

2)Go to Tools>Color Tools>Brightness/Contrast and adjust the Brightness and Contrast to the desired hue.

3)Go to the main GIMP indow and change the Mode to Normal; Brush to Circle Fuzzy (17); Select your color by clicking in the box above Blend (top box).

4)Go to Tools>Paint Tools>Airbrush. Paint the eyelid area on the avatar face from the middle of the eyelid up til just below where the brows would be.

5)Go to the main GIMP window and change the opacity to 20.0; Select your color for the blusher; Paint the blush on the cheeks of the face VERY lightly.

6)Go to the main GIMP window and change the opacity back to 100.0; Select black from the color palette; Change the brush to Circle Fuzzy (3). Go back to the face image. Select Tools>Paint Tools>Paintbrush. Paint the area from the bottom to about halfway up the painted eyeshadow black in a curve to match the shape of the lower portion of the eye. This will be your eyeliner. You can do extra detailing around the outer corner, but stay close to the edge of the eye itself or it will bleed into the hairline.

7)Go to the main GIMP window and change the opacity to 20.0; Select the color you want to use for the lips; Change the brush to Circle (11); Go back to the face image. Paint over the lips with your chosen color being careful to stay within the lipline. Try not to lift the mouse button but paint continuously to get a smooth color effect. This may take a few tries.

8)Go to the main GIMP window and change the opacity to 50.0; Select the white from the color palette; Change the brush to Circle Fuzzy (15); Go back to the face image. Go to Tools>Paint Tools>Airbrush; Paint over highlighted area of the lips with white along the same lines already shown on the IMVU face template. This will appear to be gloss on the finished skintone.

9)Download this file (http://www.dwdtek.com/mouth.bmp) and open the file in GIMP). Go to Edit>Copy. Open the face image again. Go to Edit>Paste. Go to Tools>Transform>Move and adjust the pasted mouth image until it lines up on the face. Click once more to anchor this image. This puts the avatar's mouth back to the default colors.

10)Save the face & body image as a different file name so you won't overwrite your skintone template files. If desired, now that you've had a bit of practice with painting the face of the avatar, you can make adjustments to the body as well creating your own version of cleavage and nail colors. Give it a try and see what you can create with just a few clicks of the mouse! :)