Step One:
Find a picture you want. A picture with a sharp contrast between the subject and the background works best. Also choose something that is recognizable. for me I am going to use this picture of Yoda.
Step Two:
Open up Gimp and then open your picture. if you want to do any cropping do it now.
Step Three:
Use the "Scissors Select Tool" And select the outline of your subject. Be careful. Don't cut off too much, it will be a pain to fix later. (hint: start on one side then work your way around, use Shift to go from one side to the other and get a straight line)
Step Three: Press enter to select that area then cut it with Ctrl-x. Choose the backgound color (below) and then take the brush or pencil and paint the entire screen. (If you can't seem to get out uf the "shadow" of the subject press Ctrl-a to select everything.)
Step Four: Paste the subject with Ctrl-v; be sure not to select everything this time.
Step Five: Center the picture with the move tool.
Step Six: Use either the brush or pencil and paint the subject white. if you still have it selected you can easily just scribble everywhere. It will be a little harder if you don't.
Step Seven: When you have filled it in take the pencil tool, zoom in, and carefully remove any abnormalities you don't want.
And there you go, you are done. Save the picture and upload it to Facebook or other site and use it as your avatar. Just so you can see I have my Finished version on here.
