I wouldn't really call this shading but i think it still looks good.

First of all get a background colour like blue.

Make a new transparent layer and draw say...a line on it.

If you have the layer page open,click the layer u made with the image,right click it,then press duplicate layer so you will have 2 images of the same thing,completely under eachother,then what u want to do is pick a colour like...red as the shading colour then paint one of the whole images that colour(red).Make sure that the red you have is under the first image or it won't work.Anyways,Go to the layer with the red image and then go to filters and gaussian blur,i suggest making it 5.0 and 5.0.

After that you should have a basic,red shadow around it,if you want more awesomer ones,then just duplicate the red layer,and do it 10.0 and 10.0


HINT.I suggest you do not shade with the same colour as the original image if it is in a crowded area,it looks fine on the head i did but on the legs i did with it,very crowded sort of and doesn't look good.


Example of a simple head i did using this tactic :




I did use the same shading colour with the original image,but in my oppinion its up to you,what you like.

Please tell me if this works,this is my very first tutorial and i did this because i know how annoying it is not knowing how to shade.

Meh, photoshops literally about 3 clicks of the mouse to get the same thing on any shape :/

Well still,this isn't photoshop,i find gimp alot funner

Of course, you can use a filter, but that's not half the fun. The thing with GIMP is that you can do the same as Photoshop. Only without filters.

Good tutorial, anyway. I made one nearly similar some weeks ago.

Well,Considering im still new at gimp,this is fine with me :P

*coughnofiltersyeahhhcough*

Anyway, good tut for beginning gimpers :P

Thanks,I think o.o

Pah, i totally do that shading all the time w/o filters, AND it's more realistic ;o

Lol jk

I don't shade that way, for the slower ones out there ;p

That's pretty cool! It's like applying a filter in a totally new way!
I totally dig that

With proper application, like having the piece cover the top half, it would look like mrama's little offset thingy in PS. (if that's what he does, i'm not sure)

And yeah, refer to my sig for my opinions on gimp

Cool little tutorial. hope you find more unusual uses for overused filters1

Wow thanks,That has to be the most detailed nice comment yet :P

Any chance u can teach me a few things on gimp? ^^

That's pretty cool! It's like applying a filter in a totally new way!
I totally dig that

With proper application, like having the piece cover the top half, it would look like mrama's little offset thingy in PS. (if that's what he does, i'm not sure)