Turning a Photograph into a Polka Dot Image in GIMP

This a very quick simple tutorial and a bit of fun! I have made a range of different sizes – 50px, 75px, 100px, 150px patterns so you can easily apply the effect in seconds. I suggest you try some masking of layers as well to experiment with design :).

Polka Dot Photograph

1. Making a Polka Dot Stencil

Create a new document in GIMP – choose the size of your Polka Dot (I have ready made ones to download at the end of the tutorial), Fill with: Transparency, 72 resolution should be fine:

Making a Polka Dot Stencil

Grab the Ellipse Tool, fill the square with the a circle:
Invert the selection, Ctrl + I or Select –> Invert:
Grab the Paint Fill Tool, Fill Whole Selection with Black or White:

Paint Tool

Save this as Pattern file .pat!
Then copy it into your Patterns Folder – C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\patterns (Could be different).

2. Pixelize

Open your photograph in GIMP – Duplicate your image if you’d like to do some Layer Masking later!
We need to pixelize the photograph to get the single solid colours for each dot – Go, Filters –> Blur –> Pixelize:
Now choose the size of your pixels – depends on the Polka Dot size you want (50, 75, 100, 150, custom)

Pixelize

3. Applying Polka Dot Pattern

In your Patterns Toolbar select the Polka Dot stencil you want to use (mine will be 74px BLACK):
Now go, Edit –> Fill with Pattern (Ctrl +;):

Applying Polka Dot Pattern

4. Cropping Excess

Your image and pattern will not always fit perfectly so a little cropping is needed.
Just crop to the edges of the dots:

Cropping Excess

5. Saturation

I recommend a little saturation to boost the effect!

Saturation

6. Download Patterns

You may download the Polka Dot Patterns here:

Black and White (50, 75, 100, 150):

polka-100-BLACK.pat 39K

polka-100-WHITE.pat 39K

polka-150-BLACK.pat 88K

polka-150-WHITE.pat 88K

polka-50-BLACK.pat 9.8K

polka-50-WHITE.pat 9.8K

polka-75-BLACK.pat 22K

polka-75-WHITE.pat 22K

That’s It!

If you are using Photoshop here is the tutorial: Polka Dot Effect (https://pinkzap.com)

If you get stuck anywhere just comment below!

If you’d like to use these photographs please Contact Me! :) .

Please comment below if you have any questions and I’ll answer them ASAP!

Written by Mike

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Michael Scott is the publisher and photographer behind Scott Photographics! He is very passionate about his photography and enjoys sharing the best of his experiences for others to enjoy too! Contact Mike via email!

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