I was interested in an artist’s specific critiques of GIMP.

I can give my very vague hazy input, as someone who used to be an artist. I used GIMP many years ago when I just started digital art, since it was a free image program (and Krita didn’t exist at the time). This must have been fifteen years ago or more. I distinctly remember using GIMP to “trace” over my scanned pencil/ink physical art to make digital art, since I didn’t have a drawing tablet at the time. I did a decent amount of drawings in GIMP this way, and therefore feel like I must have “got the hang of” the UI during this period of time. So GIMP was the first image manipulation program I used and I used it a lot, so therefore, I would say that means I should have built up some kind of “intuition” or memory on how to use it.

Then, I got a drawing tablet. I don’t remember at the time of GIMP had pressure sensitivity or not. But I do remember that around the time I got my Wacom tablet, I figured out how to… 🏴‍☠️ acquire 🦜 Photoshop. I then basically abandoned GIMP for Photoshop and Paint Tool SAI to draw digital art fully rather than scanning in physical drawings.

Now, not long after, maybe a few/several months later, my mother asked me about needing an image manipulation program. I told her about GIMP, and helped install it for her. Then she eventually came by and asked me how to do some relatively simple image manipulation task — I can’t remember exactly, but say something like “rotate a part of an image” — and I told her “oh no problem!” and took her laptop to show her how to do it and… I completely forgot and couldn’t even figure it out. Nothing I tried to do that I felt like should have done the simple image manipulation task got me close to doing it. I think the furthest I got was making a “dancing ants” selection but couldn’t do a rotate for the life of me (or whatever I had to do). And I’m sure I tried to search Google on how to do it and it didn’t help. I eventually got flustered and told her that I had no idea how to do it, and I was pretty embarrassed, considering I had formerly used this program so much for my initial start into digital art.

I think about this memory whenever GIMP UI discussions come up. To me, the fact that I so quickly forgot how to do something so basic not that long after I stopped using it suggests there is something unintuitive about the way things are set up in GIMP. I will go long stints not using Photoshop since I don’t really do much art anymore, and yet when I come back, I’ll remember how to things, or if I do forget something, the menu l’ll find it in makes sense to me. As to what and why something doesn’t feel right, I unfortunately can’t articulate it well, though I’m sure that’s because of how long ago it’s been at this point. And one issue about something being intuitive vs not is that it makes it difficult to explain why something “feels right” or doesn’t.

Granted, I have seen news that GIMP has recently updated its UI again, and I am curious about trying to out, especially since I heard they’re requesting feedback.

I really wanted to know. Oh well, bitter mockery will have to do.