How to make a Water-Colour Ubuntu Wallpaper in GIMP

In this tutorial I’ll guide you through making a cool and fresh Water-Colour Wallpaper in GIMP. At the end you can add your favourite operating system logo and set your new wallpaper as your background!

Ubuntu Water Colour Wallpaper

1. Downloading Brushes and Logo

• Firstly download the Water-Colour Brushes (free-brushes.com watercolor brushes): Download (17mb)
• Insert this into your Brushes Folder: Resources/Share/GIMP/2.0/Brushes (just search your computer)
• Now, download the Logo, Ubuntu (logo-vector-free.blogspot.com ubuntu logo vector): Download (72kb)
• We’ll use this logo at the end, so you can leave it for now.

Free Water Colour Brushes (.abr)

Free Ubuntu Vector Logo

2. Starting (Video Tutorial)

• Begin by opening up a fresh document in GIMP
• Settings: 1600 x 1200 , 200dpi:

Starting a new document

3. Painting

• Fill the Background layer with Black:
• Add a New Layer (Transparency):
• Select the Brush Tool with a Light-Yellow colour, Scale: 0.75 of Original size:
• Paint a couple of strokes as shown below:

Painting (Click to view larger)

4. Repeating Step 2 for each Colour

• Just as Step 2 explains:
• Add a New Layer (Transparent)
• Select a Brush style
• Paint 1 or 2 strokes
• Go, Colors –> Hue-Saturation and Slide to a specific colour:

Add New Layer - Brush - Hue Shift: Blue (Click to view larger)

Reddish Colour

Greenish Colour

Purple Colour

5. Importing Logo Vector

• Now, open your Vector Logo in GIMP, File –> Open as Layers (Crtl + Alt + O)
• Right Click on your Logo Layer and Add Alpha Channel
• Use the Select by Color Tool on the white:
• Now, go Select –> Grow: by 1 Pixel (get rid of any outlines), Press Delete!
• Now invert that selection, go Select –> Invert (Crtl + I)
• And fill whole selection with Black:
• Deselect All

Opening Ubuntu Logo (Click to view larger)

6. Aligning Logo

• Firstly, go Image –> Guides –> New Guide (by Percent)
• Choose 50% Horizontal and another guide 50% Vertical:
• Now you can use the Move Tool (press M) to position your logo in the middle:

Aligning Logo - Guides - Move Tool

7. Finishing Up!

• That’s It! Just set it as your new desktop wallpaper!
• I made a Windows and Apple Logo Version:

Apple Logo Water-Colour Brush Wallpaper

Windows Logo Wallpaper Water Colour Brush

If you get stuck anywhere just comment below!

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Written by Mike

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Michael Scott is the publisher and photographer behind Scott Photographics! He is very passionate about his photography and enjoys sharing the best of his experiences for others to enjoy too! Contact Mike via email!