Swirly Christmas Tree

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make a cool swirly Christmas Tree in GIMP!

1. Start by opening GIMP with these settings:

1200 x 1600
300 or 480 dpi
Transparency

Create a New Document

2. Making a background

Create a blue/black background with the Gradient Tool, however later I used Red!
Settings: FG: Dark Blue BG: Black, Radial, stroke as shown, top to bottom:

Making a background

3. Path Tool

Create a new layer ‘Tree’
This may take a while to produce, but follow my dots as a guide!
Use the Path Tool to make something like mine:
Use the square ends to stretch each section:

Path Tool

4. Stroke Path Style

Then select Stroke Path (on the Paint Brush sidebar).
Before: Make sure you’ve selected your FG colour: Green and Brush: Standard.

Stroke Path Style

5. Saturation and Lightness

You might like to increase the saturation and lightness!
Go, Colors –> Hue-Saturation:

Saturation and Lightness

6. Dodging and Burning

Then grab the Brush Tool with the following settings:
Mode: Hard Light, Circle(11), Scale 10

Dodging and Burning

7. Duplicate ‘Tree’

Now, duplicate your ‘Tree‘ layer:
Move the new layer slightly, like below:

Duplicate 'Tree'

7b. Repeat

Repeat the above step a few times (about 5 times):

Repeat

8. Merge Layers

Merge the Tree layers down:
Or deselect/hide the others and Merge All Visible:

Merge Layers

You can do the next steps, 1, 2 and 3 or skip them and go to the next set of steps!

1. Selection to Path

On the ‘Tree‘ layer and with the Path Tool selected (might have to click somewhere on the layer):
Now, go Select –> To Path:

Selection to Path

2. Stroke Path

Then select Stroke Path (on the Toolbar/Sidebar):
With FG: Gold!

Stroke Path

3. Hue-Saturation

You might like to change the Hue, lightness, or saturation:
I increased the Lightness and Hue:

Hue-Saturation

9. Highlighting

Use the following settings with the Brush Tool, and make a lighting effect:
Settings: Yellow (bright), Circle Fuzzy (19), Opacity 15, Scale 10:
Stroke around the shape of the Tree:

Highlighting

10. Glitter

Use the Brush Tool with the settings as shown, and lightly paint over the tree:
Settings: Yellow (bright), Circle Fuzzy (19), Opacity 15, Scale 1, Brush Dynamics: Hardness: Random, Apply Jitter 3:
Stroke around the shape of the Tree:

Glitter

11. Star

Download: Add a yellow star using this brush set: https://duskblue.deviantart.com/art/GIMP-Brushes-Stars-4225644
Put brush in your brushes folder (C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\brushes)
Then add a very simple branch structure using the Lasso Tool and a Brown colour! (Optional)
I changed my background colour to Red, you can too if you left the Background layer!

Star

That’s It!

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!

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