Also, note that if something is in Quotations, it's just extra information in this tutorial (So skip it on your first read!!!). On that note, you can hit F11 to give yourself extra viewing room.

To save some time on future runs, open up Colors > Curves click on the arrow at the top right hand corner, and then Import Settings from file.
Click there and navigate back to where your GIMP Tut.zip extracted. You'll notice a file named Curves.
Just select that and you'll get two presents that set Brightness to either 127 or -127.


Do the same with Colors > Brightness-Contrast. 'Cept this time you'll have to pick the Brightness Contrast file from the extracted folder of course.
This will give you an interesting Solarize setting that you can play around with later.

This chapter is just for those who want to see something designed in this style of shading (So skip it while you can!).
Or for those who learn better with walkthroughs. Go ahead and create a new image, whatever resolution you'd like.
That is, if you plan on making a head while reading this.

Alright, so lets start off by making a pen-tool outline of our first shape. Remember, you can design yours as you fancy.

To see where your pen-tool dot is; look at the bottom-left hand corner. It's gives you a guide to know when you're in the dead center of the image, or outside of it. IE:


After that, click on the selection from path button on the lower section of your toolbox.


Now that you have a good selection, go to Edit > Fill with FG color to fill the selection with your color of choice.
I'd suggest a good greyscale color as a base. After you're done you should get a basic shape, kinda like...


Then, after that if you Duplicate the layer, go to Layer > Transform > Flip Horizontally, and Merge down...



Now here's where it starts getting a bit tricky. Duplicate the layer twice, and turn the eye off of the original.
Your layer window (Turn Layers on if it's off) should be looking somewhat like this:


Select the top layer of the three and go to Colors > Brightness-Contrast. If you used a color like black then
you should use a Brighten it. Likewise Darkening is usually good for colors like White.


We're gonna' turn the top layer and lower layer into a gradient. Now what's good about using two different images
for this is that you can fine tune how bright/dark you want your gradient to be; so feel free to apply brightness
twice or once and a little bit more if you want a steep change. I just went with using brightening once for myself.


Now, right click the higher layer (Brightened one in my case) and chose Add Layer Mask. After you've done
that there should be window pop-up. Just go with the default and hit Add for now.


See that square next to your highlighted/darkened layer? That's the Layer Mask. Select that square and use a
Black and White gradient from top to bottom (Or bottom to top if you got the reverse block on) within image while
selecting the square.

By the way, the toolbox has a reset to Black and White next to your FG and BG colors. This is good to quickly reset
colors for your gradient in the layer mask.


Here's my result after adding the gradient to the layer mask and merging.


What's good about using layer masks for gradients is that you can apply multiple gradients on top of each-other.
That's what we're going to do now, so duplicate that lightly shaded layer you just made, your layer menu should be looking
somewhat like the image below. Once you have a duplicate, select the higher of the two layers, and use
Brightness-Contrast to make it either brighter or darker.


Now, use either the pen-tool or the rectangular select tool to select part of the higher layer.


Erase what you selected on the higher layer. Then add a layer mask to that layer. You should be getting something
that looks like this in your layer window:


Add a gradient to that layer mask, I chose to use a left to right one. Since it's good to use a direction that is
perpendicular or just complements what you cutoff.

Your outcome should look like this:


Apply that layer mask (Just right click the mask and Apply Layer Mask). This time were going to use that skeleton plugin.
So go ahead and use Layer > Create "skeleton" layer while selecting your higher layer again. This plugin creates an outline
from your Alpha channel; once you use it'll ask for a blur level I typically use 10 as my amount of blur. After the plugin
is done rendering you'll have to move it up or down to where you like it. Your layer menu should be looking like this
(Top layer is the skeleton):


We're almost done, merge all the visible layers down and add a Layer Mask to both your shaded layer and
your unshaded layer. But, this time you'll need to chose Layer's Alpha channel when adding. Like so:

Your Layer Menu should be looking like this when you're done:


Now, copy the Layer Mask from the unshaded layer into the Layer Mask for the shaded layer. You see, since you've
been duplicating the shaded layer so much, the edges have become jagged and aliased. So doing this will make the
edges of your image smooth again. Also, when you do this you should get something called a Floating Selection
(Pasted Layer) as shown below. Just right click that and chose anchor layer... And you'll have your first plate done!


Now I'm just going to show you how I went on to making a head from this style. Remember to always keep a
constant lighting source. I'm going with top right for my light source.


Dark at top to make it look like it's going in. Works well against the previous.


Center highlight.


Create "skeleton" layer for Shadow.


Sometimes after you draw your shape erasing some parts will make it look nicer.


Same as previous, but moved the teeth a bit.


Duplicated, and added lighting. Notice how I'm varying what had a middle shade and doesn't. You'll need to do
that otherwise you're head will have and odd single line down the center. Like {This} doesn't look too good eh?


As you can see this is a lightened half of the plate. But, I cut the lightened part off not on the edge; since it's
nice to give a mix-up from the whole corner to corner or center to center lighing.


Deleted part, adding the gradient.


Skeleton filter works best on these. Once again thanks to saudgoode and RobA!


Duplicated Flipped.


And the beat goes on... This is an APNG of the rest of the creation. You should be able to recognize what's going on by now.
Only thing I haven't said so far is how to stroke (Will be explained next) and how to use Filters > Distorts > Polar Coordinates
to texture on top of the head.