Making a Shepard Fairey

Style Poster

To assist Mr. Jamieson and

keep track of your progress, if

you have any difficulty, go back

three steps and see if you forgot

something before raising your

hand for assistance. 1.

2. Open your photo into GIMP.

3.

Before you do anything else,

save as a GIMP (.xcf) file.

Name it poster-period-your

first and last name. (Ex.

poster-2B-John Student).

4. Just as a back-up, in your

Layers Window (Ctrl+L),

click on the

Duplicate

button to

create a

duplicate of

your photo.

Then turn off

the bottom

layer (click

on the eyeball). 5. Use your preferred selection

tool (Path, Scissor, Eraser,

Color Select, Fuzzy Select or

Quick Mask) to the

background out of the back of

your subject. Note: you may

need to invert (Ctrl + I) to

avoid cutting the person out.

6. If white background appears

around your person instead of

the gray checkerboard, select

the white area with the Fuzzy

Select tool (the magic wand).

Then, go to

Colors>Color to Alpha…

Then, click OK. You should

see the familiar checkerboard

(clear) pattern.

7. Don’t forget to deselect your

selection by going to

Select>None

(Ctrl + Shift + a)

8. On the menubar, click on

Image>Mode>Grayscale to

convert your color photo to

Black and White (grayscale).

10. IMPORTANT:

Repeat what you just did,

only this time select

Image>Mode>RGB. Your

image should remain

grayscale. Don’t worry. This

will allow you to put color

back into your picture). If

you don’t do this, you will

not be able to add color to

your image. 12. Go to Colors>Posterize and

set the number of colors

under Posterize Levels to

between 4-8. Whichever

view looks best to you.

13. Go to Colors>Brightness &

Contrast and slightly increase

the contrast so you see the

colors more distinctly.

14.

At this point, you can choose

any color you wish. If you

want to follow the Obama

poster color scheme, to get

the right color blue, click on

the Foreground Color tool

(the black rectangle on your

toolbar) and where it says

HTML notation, type

68a2a4. Then, press the

Enter key and click OK. 15. Choose the Color Select (The

one with a finger pointing to

blue-red-green) tool.

16. Drag the Foreground Select

tool (the color that you

picked on your toolbar) and

drop it onto your selection.

17. Now, pick another color in the Foreground Select tool. If

you want the Obama poster

red, then type e01227

into the HTML notation field,

press the Enter key and select

OK. 18.

Using the color select tool as

you did in Step #15, click and

highlight another gray/black

color in your photo. Then

click and drag the Foreground

Select tool and drop it onto

your selection or use the Paint

Brush tool to paint the portions

of the image you prefer to

color. 19.

Choose yet another color the

Foreground Select tool.

Or type fdeeab into the

HTML notation field for the

Obama poster yellow, press

the Enter key and select OK.

20. At this point, you may want

to use the Color Select tool to

select the remaining areas not

yet chosen.

Remember, if you select too

much of one area or don’t

like what you see, you can

use Ctrl+Z (undo) to start

over.

Finally, open the Foreground

Select tool again and choose a

dark color for the black in the

picture (it can remain black if

you want. Or if you want the

Obama poster dark blue, type

00214c into the HTML

notation field, press the Enter

key and select OK. 21.

Use the Color Select tool to

click on the black in your

photo, then drag this dark

color into it. 22. Now it’s time to create your

background. Start by creating

a new layer. 23. In your new layer, use the

Rectangle Selection tool to

create a rectangle that takes

up half of your layer.

Then, click on the

Foreground Selection tool

and select one of the colors

you used in your poster

already. They are saved in

the Foreground Select tool.

Put it on the opposite color of

where you see that color the

most that half of the picture (

for example, red vs. blue or

blue vs. red). Then, Invert

the selection (Ctrl + i) and

drop the other color into the

other side.

24. Go to Select>None

(Ctrl+Shift+A) to deselect

everything. 25. In the Layers window, drag

and drop the New Layer

(background) between the

Pasted Layer and the

Background (see below).

26. At this point you can use the

Resize tool or the Cropping

tool to change the size of

your Pasted Layer. Then,

move it to the top of the

image so there is space below

to write something.

27. Create a new layer

and make sure it is

on top of all the

other layers.

28. Using the Rectangle tool,

again, put a rectangle at the

bottom of the picture. This is

where you are going to put

your text.

Fill the rectangle with another

one of the colors that you

used in the poster. For the

Obama poster it’s the dark

blue color (00214c) you

previously used to paint over

the black portions of your

picture. 29. Click on the Text Tool, click

on the color and select one of

the colors you used in the

background above. Click on

the Font icon and select the

Microsoft PhagsPa Bold

font. Then, drag a rectangle

into your banner at the

bottom of your picture. Type

your person’s name or better

yet a slogan describing what

they were famous for in all

caps. Resize your font so it

fits nicely. 30.

Center your message. Adjust

the size of your font. Then,

save your GIMP file (Ctrl+s).

31. Export your final work as

poster-

period-your

first and last

name.jpg

(Ex. poster-

2B-John

Student.jpg