Hello again,

In this tutorial we’ll try to create some cool drapes, hopefully.

Start with a blank, 800 x 600 px, design.
Select the Blend Tool (L key) and choose the FG to BG (HSV counter clockwise) gradient fill. I picked for foreground color a dark blue (#081d47) and for background some red (#e01717). See Picture 1.

Picture 1 - The toolbox

Then fill the background layer with the previously selected gradient. We’ll have something like in Picture 2.

Picture 2 - The gradient background

Now create a new layer and name it plasma. Go to Filters menu -> Render -> Clouds -> Plasma. Leave the default settings and click OK (see Picture 3).

Picture 3 - Plasma tool

Now we have something like in Picture 4.

Picture 4 - Plasma noise

Go to the Colors menu -> Desaturate and in the next Dialog window pick Luminosity (see Picture 5).

Picture 5 - Plasma noise desaturated

Create a new layer and name it drape. Go to Filters menu -> Render -> Pattern -> Sinus and fill the sinus parameters as in pictures 6, 7 & 8.

Picture 6 - Sinus tool

Picture 7 - Sinus tool - colors settings

Picture 8 - Sinus Tool - blend settings

The resulting image should like in the Picture 9.

Picture 9 - Sinus image

In order to create a realistic drape we’ll apply a lens distortion effect on the sinus layer. Go to Filters menu -> Distorts -> Lens distortion and set the parameters as in Picture 10.

Picture 10 - Lens Distortion tool settings

At this point the image looks like this:

Picture 11 - Distorted sinus

Now change the mode of the drapes layer to Multiply and the mode for plasma layer to Grain merge (see Picture 12).

Picture 12 - Layer multiply

We are almost done. Since now we have our drapes as in Picture 13.

Picture 13 - We're almost ready with our drapes

Let’s make it more appealing by adding some neon glow text to it. Choose the text tool and select a nice slim font of your choice. I’ve selected “MgOpen Cosmetica”.
Now write some text as in Picture 14 and color it with a light blue (#d4e1fb).

Picture 14 - The Drapes Tutorial text

Duplicate the text layer 3 times as in Picture 15.

Picture 15 - Duplicated text layers

Now right click in the layer toolbox on the 3rd duplicated text layer and select Layer to image size. Repeat this step for the other two duplicates.
On the 3rd duplicated text layer apply a Gaussian Blur filter with the radius of 30, on the 2nd one a blur radius of 20 and on the 1st duplicate a blur radius of 10.
Change the text color on the original text layer to white, and we’re done (see Picture 16).

Picture 16 - Final result - The drapes tutorial

You can download the gimp file here: the-drapes-tutorial.xcf.zip