Erisian - could not resist giving it a try, but I got lost somewhere towards the end. So I just took some liberties and then added some pink snow to the newspaper - do not know why!

oldmangrumpy: pink fluffy snow ! nice job, i think the bear hug was a nice image to choose for this.

i tried this tutorial way back (before i joined gc, actually, and before i had the tutorial writer around to yell at whenever the tut was giving me trouble) and i had no trouble understanding it but i pretty soon saw what was giving me trouble. the thing is, both very dark and very light areas in the original will give you trouble, and you need to compensate for that somehow. today when i tried it i also had trouble because my layer stack was in its usual mess and disorder - very different from erisian's minimalistic and orderly approach to layers - so putting the paper person layer into overlay mode did unexpected things. if erisian actually does look over this and rewrite it, i think it might be a help if he went through what the layer stack should look like at the end.

i didn't choose a very suitable picture this time either, but i refused to do the tutorial with a meaningless stock image of a hug that doesn't mean anything to me. instead, i choose a classic scene from a bollywood movie favourite - and of course, the actress has very dark hair and a white night gown, and there are so many loose hairstrands to deal with! on top of that, i couldn't find a good original on high resolution, so i had lots of trouble getting the details in. i used quite a lot of tweaking to my map layer and added some of the shadows afterwards, by using a copy of my map layer where i masked out all but the darkest shades. my handwritten letter in hindi (i couldn't use newspaper for this, i just couldn't! it would ruin the wole bollywood feel) wasn't densely enough written, so i had too many white areas to give a nice displacement too. but in the end, i got a nice looking composition and had fun taking the tutorial, that's most important!

Thank you Erisian for your interesting tutorial. I got to reach until the end of it and here is my result. I've learnt new steps in Gimp, so I'm glad.

issabella: well done! you didn't choose a very easy picture, but you got a nice result all the same.

Really nice Isabella.

AnMal and Molly, thanks for your nice words. Happy you like it.

Anmal & Issabella - good outcomes and at least you got through to the end of the tut!

AnMal - beautiful work. I like the additional props in the design.

Issabella - congratulations for completing the tutorial. You have done really well and a really cute hug too!

Omg - nice hug and good work. I wouldn't have chosen pink myself but hey - why not!

Thanks OMG and Erisian. I must continue practising to get a more perfect outcome, but I'm happy with this first one. Thanks Erisian for writing such an interesting tutorial.

I couldn't get it to look the way It was supposed to...

givera: two things might make it harder for you to get the result you want on this: 1. the tutorial is written for dark text on light backgrounds and yours is light text on dark background. with the methods erisian chose to achieve his result i don't think that will work. so if you want to try this again, pick another text image. 2. the image you chose to wrap the text around isn't a very easy one, it's got too many stark contrast areas. try for example to select just the suit and pull the brightness up a bit, adjust the contrast at the same time so the image doesn't get too "flat". then select just the white collar and pull the brightness down a bit, adjust contrast on that too at the same time. then try the steps again from the beginning and see if you like that any better!

I'm really late for this party! When this tutorial was first posted I knew that I did not have enough experience to attempt, even though I wanted so badly to do it. I finally got the nerve, and made sure I studied every line before I did anything!

These are not the best images. I had trouble finding a good image, both the people and the newspaper! Maybe I asked for too much. My photo manipulation is not the best either but I was able to follow the tutorial without mistakes as far as what to do, just doing it! Your instructions were easy for me to follow.

Thank you, Erisian. Just such a great tutorial. I will do this better, (I hope) each time I do one. I just have to find some good pictures. With so many, it is hard to remove the subjects from the background. Anyway, here are my attempts.

Completely missed this one. I doubt I would have been able to accomplish any of it when I joined Gimp Chat. Thank you Pat for bring it back.

Nice work Pat!

Givera - nice try, never give up.

Excellent Pat. Both are good but your second one really works!

Thank you very much Dalia. I loved this tutorial when I first saw it, but then I did not attempt it as I only had a little experience with GimpChat and how to manipulate photos. I used Gimp a lot before to fix old damaged photos. I did not do any of the other things until I found GimpChat. A very helpful group!

Erisian: Thanks again for the tutorial. I just love it! Instructions were easy to follow. I think on the first one, I did not fully have a handle on how to get the print on the person to match the background paper. Also with the person. Second time around much better. Will do some more to get better at it.

You are very welcome.

Don't pick a subject with dark hair or sideburns! Thank you so much Erisian. I learned a couple of more things about the free select tool and additions and subtractions.

Dalia: Your image is perfect! I love it.

Thank you Pat. Now I'm obsessed with Rod's post (viewtopic.php?f=4&t=911&hilit=text) and what probably spurred the above. How?!!! It looks amazing.

Wow, beautiful work Dalia!