1. Add a texture to the brush. Notice that the texture assigned to the brush can be scaled.

2. This image shows two colors painted using the same scale. Notice that the texture of the top color matches exactly.

3. This image shows two colors painted at different scales. Notice that the color of the bottom shows through the top texture.

Examples

Changing the scale of the texture was used in these images.

Applying a texture to the brush

1. add a texture [diModule | Creating texture]

2. open the brushes pallet| Menu Bar > Window > Brushes

3. select texture options | Brushes Pallet > Textures (click on the word texture, not the check box in front of it)
4. choose a texture | Brushes Pallet
5. select a mode | Brushes pallet > Multiply
6. make sure Texture Each Tip is unchecked

7. paint

Experiment with the brush mode

Multiply

Subtract

Creating texture | One way to add a human touch to illustrations created in Adobe Photoshop is to create your own textures.

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I create my textures on 8.5 x 11 inch hardboards. While it is not necessary to use an 8.5 x 11 inch hardboard, I prefer it for the following reasons.

• It doesn’t warp making it easier to scan.
• 8.5 x 11 fits on the scanner.
• It can be painted over and over.

Be creative

Texture is all around us and adds a tactile quality to digital images. The examples shown at the beginning of the post were created with the following materials.

• black ink on a white gessoed hardboard.
• acrylic black paint on a gessoed hardboard.
• single sided courugated cardboard mounted, gessoed and painted with a thin wash of black acrylic paint

Scanning a texture

Scan in grayscale | Most of the textures that I use reference the value in an image. I scan them at 600ppi at 100% scale.

Adding a texture to Photoshop

Once the image is scanned open it. Starting in the Menu bar Edit > Define Pattern. It is that simple. The pattern is now available for you to use.

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Painting No.012711

by Scott E Franson | size: 5x7 | media: digital

In my quest to discover new options and possibilities in digital art creation, I am always exploring the question of, “What if?” The exploration today has led me to some interesting surfaces created with acrylic paint and a texture made with ink and a roller.

Process

The beginning of this process started with the idea of creating stencils similar to the ones used in silkscreen printing. I made several line drawings that included three layers with overlapping shapes. The image that I picked was simplified to three shapes. The process I wanted to experiment with required me to think in shape. I found it a challenge to think in shape while drawing with line. I knew that I didn’t want a key line to trap the different colors and that I wanted to have areas of overlap so that there was a possibility of visual color mixing.

The line drawing was on a piece of 8.5 x 11 paper. I placed the page on a light table with a clean sheet of paper on top of it. Then I used black acrylic paint to paint one of the three shapes. I repeated this process until I had finished each of the three shapes.

The original paintings were just a couple of inches tall. When the images were scanned I increased the scale to show the details of the edges and brushstrokes. The image is about 250% larger than the original paintings.

Rescanning the images with the film settings shows the brush strokes more clearly?

The first time I scanned the images I used the normal scanner settings for reflective art. Then I noticed the light box built into the scanner for scanning film. What if I rescanned the images with the film settings, would the brush marks show more clearly?

Then I opened the scanned images and converted then to gray scale. (I should have scanned them in gray scale. It would have been faster.) When an image is gray scale there is a simple process that can be used to remove the white background.

photoshop tip | Open a black and white (gray scale) image open in Photoshop. In the layers pallet a there is a layer named Background (in italic). Double click on the icon in the layers pallet. This will open a dialog box for renaming a layer. The default name is Layer 0. You may rename the layer if you would like but it is not necessary. Click OK in the dialog box. Now the layer is named Layer 0. In the Menu bar go to Select > Load selection > Background gray. Click OK and then all of the light areas of the image will be selected. Click delete and the white will become transparent. In the Layers pallet click the Lock Transparency button. It is in the pallet header and is a small checker board. Now that the transparency is locked, the layer can be filled with any color. Change the color mode from gray scale to RGB, Image > Mode > RGB. Select a color you want to fill the layer with. Hold down the option key and press Delete (the backspace delete, not the forward delete) and the layer will be filled with the foreground color. Only the opaque pixels will be filled.

Once I have changed each of the three scans so that they are opaque to transparent I combine all of them in one file and begin experimenting with different colors. I found that two layers worked fine, but the addition of the third layer hid too much of the image underneath. So I began changing the layer modes. The top layer in this image is a light yellow and the layer mode is set to soft light. The soft light layer mode seems to work well when it is over dark colors.

The last layer that I added was a solid texture layer that I made with ink and a roller. The texture was a nice contrast to the brush marks. I added it as the bottom layer and liked the dotted pebbly texture. The complete texture was too much where it extended beyond the edge and so I selected each of the other layers by holding down option and shift and clicking on the three original layers. By holding shift, the selection is added to each time a new layer is clicked on with the option and shift keys held down.

Once all of these layers were selected I highlighted the new texture layer and added a layer mask. The layer mask removed the color from the edges of the image leaving it the paper color.

Significant discoveries

Using the film scanning mode to make the brush strokes show more.

There are several processes that I use all of the time that I have had a hard time explaining in this post. I should make a post about them that I can just link to in the future. Removing the white background, creating a compound selection from multiple layers, and clipping groups.

I made some textures using block printing ink and a roller. I prepared the ink as I would for block printing and just rolled it onto paper instead of the block and then scanned the paper. I am excited to experiment with this process. I really like how it looks at the bottom of the image.

Process

Original texture: Silver printing ink on 8.5 x 11 white typing paper. I used silver ink because I didn’t have black.

Duplicate the layer and offset: Select the layer and duplicate. With the new layer selected from the menu bar: Filter > Other > Offset. This process will make a seamlessly tiled texture.

Repeat this process until there is an even ink coverage. I flipped some of the layers horizontally or vertically for variety. Edit > Transform > Filp Horizontally