This is a section of the tutorial “Making a Carved Face on a Pumpkin Head“. See the entire article here.
Customize in Gimp
To create a realistic looking carved pumpkin head, we will need to make a few changes to the pumpkin face we created in the Making a Pumpkin Face Tutorial.
● Opacity Map
When we drew a pumpkin face in the Making a Pumpkin Face Tutorial we duplicated the face layer (eyes, nose, and mouth) in case we wanted to work on that project again.
Let’s open that duplicated layer in Gimp.
- Open the duplicated layer by clicking on File ➞ Open
- Browse to the folder where you have saved the duplicated layer.
- Click Open
We will use that layer to create an Opacity Map. The Opacity Map will define which area of the pumpkin head is carved.
An Opacity Map is a grayscale image that determines what areas of your texture are opaque, transparent, or translucent.
To learn more about this topic, please read the article Opacity Maps.
Add a new layer under the duplicated one.
To do so, look for the toolbar on the right bottom corner of the screen and click on the Create a new layer button 
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A new window opens to set the attributes of the layer.
You can set the “Layer name” field to “Opacity Map”. Click OK.
- Hide the layer that contains the eyes, nose, and mouth of the pumpkin by clicking on the eye icon
. - Make sure that the new layer is selected.
Let’s fill the new layer with solid white color. To do so, we need to ensure that the Foreground Color is set to white.
In this case, the Foreground Color is set to black and the Background Color is set to white.
In order to set the Foreground Color to white, click on the double arrow icon 
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You can set the Foreground Color to white by following the next steps:
- Click on the Foreground Color icon.
- A new window opens and a pallet of colors is displayed.
- Enter in the HTML Notation field the value ffffff and click OK.
Let’s fill the new layer with white color by selecting the Bucket Fill Tool 
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To do so, click on the Bucket Fill Tool and make sure that the “FG color fill” option is selected in the window that is displayed under the Toolbox once the Bucket Fill Tool is activated.
- Move the mouse over the transparent layer.
- Click on it.
The color of the layer has changed from transparent to white.
It is time to merge both layers into one layer to create the Opacity Map.
- Unhide the layer that contains the face (eyes, nose, and mouth) of the pumpkin and select it.
- Right-click on the layer that has the pumpkin face.
- A menu pops up.
- Select the “Merge Down” option.
The Opacity Map is ready! Let’s save it.
- Save the changes by going to the top menu and click on File ➞ Export As …
- Select the folder where you want to save the Opacity Map, name it, and click on Select File Type (By Extension).
Select the JPEG image option and click on Export.
A new window appears. Click on Export.
An image with the new Opacity Map has been saved in your chosen folder.
● Coloring the pumpkin head interior
Let’s make the pumpkin head scarier by changing the inside’s color.
To do so, open the following texture that you saved while doing the Making a Pumpkin Face Tutorial.
In case you did not downloaded the texture, no worries. You can download it by going to the Pumpkin Head Product Page by clicking here.
- Go to the top menu and click on File ➞ Open
- Browse the folder where you saved the texture and select it.
- Click Open
The easiest way to change the color is to make a new layer.
To do so, look for the toolbar on the right bottom corner of the screen and click on the Create a new layer button .
A new window opens to set the attributes of the layer.
Click OK.
It is time to choose a color.
To do so, set the Foreground Color to a color of your choice.
We encourage you to try different colors and select the one that fits best with your style.
In this tutorial we are going to choose a yellow-orange to decorate the inside of the pumpkin head.
In this case, the current Foreground Color is white. When you click on it, a new window opens and a pallet of colors is displayed.
Once you have decided which color are you going to use to decorate the pumpkin head’s interior, click OK.
You can see that the Foreground Color has changed from white color to the one you have chosen.
Let’s fill the new layer with the elected color by selecting the Bucket Fill Tool .
- Make sure that new layer is selected.
- Click on the Bucket Fill Tool
- Assure that the “FG color fill” option is selected in the window that is displayed under the Toolbox once the Bucket Fill Tool is activated.
- Move the mouse over the layer.
- Click on it.
The color of the layer has changed from transparent to the chosen color.
It is necessary to change the Layer Mode (Layers tab) to see the changes on your texture.
To do so, click on it to change its value. In this case we will choose the Hard light option, but we encourage you to try all of them and select the one you like the most.
Selecting a layer mode changes the appearance of the layer or image, based on the layer or layers beneath it.
The texture is ready! Let’s save it.
- Save the changes by going to the top menu and click on File ➞ Export As …
- Select the folder where you want to save the texture, name it, and click on Select File Type (By Extension).
Select the JPEG image option and click on Export.
A new window appears. Click on Export.
An image with the new texture has been saved in your chosen folder.
