cropping

1. Many new graphic designers have the misconception that cute/happy posters would require cropping while sad/dark posters would require blending. However, this is not true. Below are some of my past works where I did cropping:

Notice that the first 2 posters are not happy/cute.

2. On the left most window of GIMP, you'll see the toolbox. You can choose to use the eraser tool to erase off the background of your character's photo.

You can change your brush by clicking on the highlighted part.

A window that allows you to change your brush will appear. You'll use the brush that's boxed in this case (100% hardness) for cropping.

Your opacity should be set to 100% for cropping.

The lower the opacity of your eraser, the less will be erased off, meaning that you'll still see a translucent background even after erasing it off once. Please take note that before you start erasing, you'll have to right click the layer you are cropping and then select "add alpha channel".

#TIP: Use the shift key for a straight line, this applies to both the eraser tool and the brush tool.

3. However, I highly advise to use a layer mask to crop instead of using the eraser tool. It would be good to fill the background layer with a colour (blue in this case) different from the original background of the photo (white in this case) so that it'll be easier for you to do a "clean" job. The colour you select for your background layer should preferably be the colour of the background of your poster. Right click the layer you want to crop > select add layer mask.

This window will pop up and you'll choose "White (full opacity)", then click add.

You will then realise that there will be an additional white box beside your character layer, that is your layer mask.

Make sure to select (by clicking on it) the layer mask so that it is surrounded by a white border, not a black one.

Next, select the brush tool. Make sure that you are using the 100% hardness brush and the opacity of the