Making Textures from Scratch (by Vered)

NOTE: This tutorial was created in Photoshop 7 but should be suitable for Photoshop 6. Also, this tutorial assumes you understand Photoshop layers, brushes, and the location of photoshop tools.

1. Start with an empty image. My choice is a new image with a black background. Usually it will be quite large in size, but for this tutorial I won't be using something too large.

2. Add a new layer and in it draw a rectangular selection:

3. Now reset your brushes and choose a rounded feathered one of whatever size you wish:

4. And draw in the rectangular selection, using as many colours as possible:

5. Now go to the "filter" menu, choose "pixelate" and then "mosaic". Play with the filter settings until you are happy:

6. Now deselect the selection (CTRL+D) and then go to the "edit" menu, and to "transform" and choose "distort". Play with the distort options until you are happy:

7. Go to the "filter" menu => "blur" => "motion blur" and run the filter so that the distorted mosaic is blurred in the same angle it was distorted into more or less. The amount of blurriness is up to you:

8. Repeat stages 2-7 as many times as you see fit, all the while adding more layers with colourful blurs. Use layer blending modes to merge the blurs together into a nice composition. When you distort the next sections, make sure you drag the points into a different direction so that the image becomes more 'interesting'. The following is just one possiblity:

Now, essenttially you already have a nice texture, but here's my take on additional enhancements.

9. In a new layer draw rectangular selections and for each selection go to the "edit" menu and choose "stroke" using a single pixel. The colour should be light, but not necessarily white:

10. Duplicate the last layer twice and hide the original copy. On the first layer run motion blur horizontally:

11. On the second run it vertically:

12. Now add another layer and using the lasso tool with a feathering of at least 30, select a part of the image. Then make sure the foreground colour is very light and the background colour is very dark (doesn't have to be black & white, though). Now go to the "filter" menu => "render" => "clouds":

13. Next blend the cloud into the image (I used the "screen" blending option"):

14. Add as many cloud sections as you need, until you are satisfied:

15. Next select the entire image (CTRL+A) and go to the "edit" menu and choose "copy merged". Then, making sure you are in the top most layer, paste the merged copy 3 times and hide the first pasted image (it's there for backup purposes only).

16. Go to the next copy and then =>"edit" menu => "transform" => "scale". Make sure to "maintain aspect ratio" and then change the image to 60% of its size (doesn't have to be 60%, this is just my take on it):

17. Now Go again to "edit" menu => "transform" and "distort":

18. Blend the distorted image. (Here "screen" mode was used for blending):

19. On the next merged copy, repeat stages 16-18 on the next merged copy that you duplicated, but this time chage the scale to something else and change the distortion to a different angle:

20. And here's the final result:

Basically the above just demonstrates one way to achieve textures. There's lots of possibilities but this can be your starting point.

Tutorial by Vered