Hot & Dirty Tutorial: Textures

Ah! So as I mentioned I've been photographing textures to expand my own personal library. 'What in the heck are textures,' you ask?

"In the visual arts, texture is the perceived surface quality of a work of art."

Here is a hot and dirty tutorial:

Boring ol' image.

Slap on a texture with a mask!

(and a little text..and a gradient)

Zing Pow!

Now, imagine the applications! Paper textures, wood grain textures, soft velvety textures. You can use them to add dimension to any project you're working on. Here is a FANTASTIC texture tutorial by a favorite artist of mine, Noelle Stevenson (aka Ginger Haze).

In her tutorial, she uses a pre-painted water color piece to texture her digital work. Making her digital pieces have that cozy hand-painted feel (well, technically it is hand painted.. err I mean traditionally paint and paper hand painted?)

Of course, this tutorial uses photos for texture. You can also make your own textures from scratch in photoshop! That's another lesson, a little more in depth I'll post up later on.