tutorial 01: making textures
Both absolutelybatty and mm3butterfly asked me about how I do my textures for the Ask the Maker 2.0 activity (which is still going on, if you'd like to ask something my thread is here).
After an initial reaction of flailing and not knowing how to go about doing this, I've created a tutorial of sorts~. I've never written a tutorial so I'm not exactly sure what all needs to be said - but I included images? :D? And there's some new textures here if you'd like to use them. ♥
I had read a tutorial awhile ago on Deviantart (I can't remember which~ tutorial - it really was a long time ago) that showed how to make textures by using textures. Which I thought was just silly - it'd be like using icons to make icons. So nope, not gonna do that~. But I needed something to start with and I didn't have a scanner so pictures were the next best thing!
I have a healthy supply of stock images (all from gettyimages) that I throw in a folder. I also take pictures myself (when inspiration strikes and I remember I can). I also use tools within Photoshop - various filters, color balance, brushes and some other things.
And a lot of this is mostly second-guessing myself. I never know what's going to work until I try.
For the first part, I randomly picked out three photos I took: two of things along the path behind my apartment building, one of my boyfriend on his computer (trololol)
01 02 03
Images are pretty damn large. Careful with that. ♥
First thing I did was take the picture 01 and paste it on top of picture 03, just randomly placed. I knew I wanted to add texture of a sort to the large space that is our boring wall. :P I set that to screen, lowered the opacity to 23%, and invert the image (CTRL+I).
I then decide I want to do basically~ the same with the other outdoors pic (02). I paste it on top of the other layers and end up at Color Burn with an opacity of 49%. I'm not horribly happy with how it looks so put a Motion Blur on it (Angle at 67, Distance at 215px).
It now looks like this:
Just bigger, I've shrunk it for here.
I can't remember why I did what I did next, but I flipped the base layer (03). I then go to Filter > Artistic > Colored Pencils and turn the stroke all the way up and put the pencil at 4.
Then I mess with colors. \O/ I use Color Balance for that mostly (when making icons as well). For this I set the Midtones group at: -19, -100, -48. The bottom looks empty so I select all and copy merged, then paste and flip it to the side~. I set that to lighten.
So now we've got this:
.
Again, just bigger.
I select the bottom half of the image, crop it down, and fit it inside a smaller image (I did 600x380). This makes it easier to use stock images on, since it's a bit hard to find them that huuuuge on Getty. :D
I play around with brushes for a bit, which ends with this (and sorry I don't know where I got those brushes - they're large and cloudy and they're somewhere on Deviantart). I put that at Color Dodge with 50% opacity.
I then use the following stock images and settings, not really caring where they end up on there (it makes interesting shapes sometimes if I don't worry about ~absolutely right sizes~):
01 at Overlay 40% opacity
02 at Overly 59% opacity
(with 02 I also used Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic with Cell size at 8).
And yes, that is a dog.
A couple more messing around with brushes, this layer and then this layer are what they look like. I set the first to Color Dodge and the second to Soft Light. I then put this gradient on top - because everything needs a gradient.
And this is where we're at, and I'm content:
.
I copy merge everything and paste into a 100x100 square. From there I just... Move it around until something looks like it'd be fun to use. XD I especially like to try and concentrate on areas where interesting shapes have come through, or where the texturing is just awesome. I duplicate the layer each time I find something I like, so there will be usually between 5 and 25 layers of just potential textures.
There are some other things I do at this point and hopefully I'll explain this fine. I have no idea how any of this sounds lol.
1. Mess around with brushes and different blurring types (especially Radial blur here), and use screen to create shapes.
→
2. I'll Motion blur one of the croppings, set it to screen, and use layer masking to create more plays with lighting.
→
3. I'll use another stock with heavy texturing and work with Screen.
→
4. I'll use another stock with lots of color and work in Soft Light or Overlay.
→
5. I'll use another stock that plays up light and/or shapes and work in (usually) Screen or Soft Light.
→
this is to soft light
06. I'll copy all that and use Filter > Artistic > Paint Daubs to create the those other things~ XD
→
07. I'll do a combination of these and then change the colors with Image > Adjustments > Variations. And/Or then use Adjustments > Gradient Map to change to black and white (sometimes reversing the gradient to invert the image).
So in review:
• I have no idea what I'm doing, so don't let that shy you away from trying textures - they're actually pretty fun to make!
• Boyfriends make amazingly good textures. Dogs help.
• Play around with the filters you could never see yourself using on an actual icon.
• Have fun. :D
Also if anything sucks here, or you have more questions, feel free to let me know. ♥