This may seem complicated, but it’s actually really easy. If you haven’t done so already, I’d recommend getting some new fonts at dafont.com and some brushes at deviantart.com (both of these are extremely simple and fast to use).

With that done, let’s begin the tutorial!

When you create a new image on GIMP, I’d recommend the following settings:

After you have your image open, get a cool brush and choose a color… it’s time to get started!!! Make sure the mode is normal, and opacity is at 100% before you begin to brush your picture with some cool colors, to get a simple background. If you want, you can also use the bucket tool to fill in the background with a color first. Also, I wouldn’t recommend using “picture” brushes for this. Try something like Patriot’s Fiery brushes from DeviantART.

When that’s done, your signature should look something like this… only with your colors and brushes, of course:

Next up is the lighting. Lower the opacity to around 25% and make sure you have white as your foreground color. Get a small kind of grungy brush, and lightly brush the corners and some edges until you get an effect you like. Here’s what I came up with:

After this, you either need a render (an image with transparency) or picture brushes, maybe just some cool brushes that would look nice with your sig. I used a heart from a brush set I got at DeviantART, and now have this:

Pretty cool, right? I love brushes! The last part is extremely easy… just add text and save! Here was my finished signature:

Hope this tutorial helped you on your quest to become better at graphics. Pretty soon you’ll be making some pretty cool stuff. Just play around with GIMP a bit, mess with what you’ve learned… you never know what you might create!