Help with Gimp 2.0?

[Cookies]

Well iI use gimp, because I'm too much of a gimp to pay for Photoshop (see what I did there?) and I was wondering if anyone has any tips for making sigs, or anything really. The only thing I've ever designed on it was a very simplistic t-shirt (literally just a smiley face) as well as a few edited pics (see my awesomely bad avatar) and I wanna give it a go for making better avatars and sigs.

I see that there's no gimp tutorial or anything, so I'm hoping people can post useful stuff here.

[Proximately]

Well, first of all, I think you need to update your library of brushes and fonts. That's good for starters, gradients etc can also be a good idea to check up on after you've made yourself aquainted with brushes and fonts.

Here's a guide on how to "install" them:
http://www.techzilo.com/how-to-install-gimp-plugins-scripts-brushes-and-gradients/

Links:

Gimp Site Documentation and Tutorials
http://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/

Brushes
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=gimp+brush
http://www.noupe.com/gimp/1000-free-high-resolution-gimp-brushes.html
http://www.techzilo.com/gimp-brushes/
http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/
http://www.psbrushes.net/war_01.php

Fonts
http://www.dafont.com/
http://www.abstractfonts.com/
http://www.showfont.net/

In more straight forward advice I suggest you work on practicing using a lot of different layers. It's very useful when you wish to paint something on top of something else without erasing that part. It can later be used for "clearing" and "behind" brushing or erasing the content of the front layer at low opacity.

[Cookies]

Thanks alot proximately! These will help I'm sure.

[Proximately]

To install fonts all you need to do is put them in your "Font" folder located in the controlpanel. I believe fonts carry the filetype .ttf .

[The3p1cN3cr0p4th]

You know, for the most part Photoshop and GIMP are actually quite similar. There isn't much you can do with one that you can't do with the other, but if you're looking for GIMP specific tutorials you'll just have to search for them yourself.

For more general tutorials that are absolutely indispensable in the skills they teach I'd check out http://abduzeedo.com/ This guy KNOWS what the hell he's doing and I've been following his blog for years now.

All in all, just practice, update your collection of brushes every now and then, and above all else; don't be afraid to try new things.

[Cookies]

Well, first of all, I think you need to update your library of brushes and fonts. That's good for starters, gradients etc can also be a good idea to check up on after you've made yourself aquainted with brushes and fonts.

Here's a guide on how to "install" them:
http://www.techzilo.com/how-to-install-gimp-plugins-scripts-brushes-and-gradients/

Links:

Gimp Site Documentation and Tutorials
http://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/

Brushes
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=gimp+brush
http://www.noupe.com/gimp/1000-free-high-resolution-gimp-brushes.html
http://www.techzilo.com/gimp-brushes/
http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/
http://www.psbrushes.net/war_01.php

Fonts
http://www.dafont.com/
http://www.abstractfonts.com/
http://www.showfont.net/

In more straight forward advice I suggest you work on practicing using a lot of different layers. It's very useful when you wish to paint something on top of something else without erasing that part. It can later be used for "clearing" and "behind" brushing or erasing the content of the front layer at low opacity.

I didn't realise how awesome all these brushes were, thanks Proximately!

[Proximately]

No worries. ^__^ Glad you appeciated them. Let us know when you need further advice, if you get bored from reading the guides that is. :P