1. Open Gimp

2. set the size of the area of water.

3. Rename BG layer “Water Blue”

4. Fill Water Blue layer with an ocean blue or color of your choice. I used #003d8d

5. Duplicate Water layer. Name new layer Clouds.

6. Go to Filters > Clouds > Plasma

7. Set the Turbulence to 3.0 and find a seed set with fairly equal parts. I used the seed #: 1478391204

8. Go to Colors > Desaturate > Lightness

9. Duplicate Clouds layer

10. Name newest layer Water Current

11. Hide Clouds layer

12. On Water Current layer, go to Colors > Brightness/Contrast. Brightness to 45, Contrast to -20

13. IX. Go to Filters > Map > Displace. Keep everything on default, but change Displacement Mode to Polar.

14. Make sure Edge Behavior is set to Warp.

15. Filters > Distort > Warp.

16. Set the Deform Mode to Move, Radius to 50 and Amount to 0.25.

17. In the preview window to the left in the Warp dialog box, use the ‘plus cursor’ to deform the layer. This is pretty much personal preference. I tend to start in the upper
left going in and back out from edge to center working inward. KEEP dialog box open for next step.

18. Change the Deform Mode to Swirl CW, and click in the center and edges 1-3 times each to give the clouds a little swirl, swell effect.

19. Change Blend Mode on the Water Current layer to Overlay

20. Go to Filters > Map >Bump Map.

21. Use the following settings: Bump Map: Clouds layer. Mode: Linear.

22. Check Compensate for darkening. Azimuth: 75.00 Elevation: 72.00 Depth: 8

23. Change Blend Mode on Water Current to Soft Light

24. Done


If you want a richer texture, make the Clouds layer active and change the blend mode to Overlay and turn
down the Opacity on the Water Current layer to about 50.

Very useful guide, i've been using Gimp for as long as i remember, it's nice to have some guides on the internet to help others out, great thread. Thumbs up for taking time to make this guide

Oh I love this thanks so much.