Here’s a pretty versatile texture for you: a rock or stone texture. Grab it then see how I used it – and read on for a bonus trick too!
Texture 366-14 Rock
I can see so many uses for this one! Here is one image I applied it to. A hawk visited in the back of the kennel one day. Not so much visited, as hunted … a poor sparrow was doing his best to dodge Mr. Hawk in and out of the fencing that was recently delivered but not yet installed. You can rest easy … the sparrow lived through the ordeal! Back to today’s lesson … I applied the texture as a straight overlay over my hawk photo. And if you’ve been following the daily tutorials, you know that you can bring your subject out from behind the texture in one of two ways. You can (1) just use a soft-edged eraser and erase the texture, allowing your subject to come through or you can (2) apply a mask to your texture area, then paint with BLACK (using a soft-edged brush) over the area you want to come thru without the texture effect. I REALLY like the final effect on this! It helps hide the fence in the background and adds a lot of interest to the negative space. I even don’t mind the blown out highlights from the harsh back/leftside lighting on Mr. Hawk now. Go on, give it a try! Here is my before/after image for comparison:
Now for that way-cool-nifty-whoa! bonus that I promised you. I created that rock wall from scratch, right in Photoshop! I woke up today not even knowing such a thing was possible and the guys over at River City Graphix taught me how in no time flat. Now, if I can do it, certainly YOU can do it too! And I learned commands/effects/things to do that I know I will be using in other ways as I spread my own creative wings and soar. Here’s the tutorial from River City Graphix:
Please do post links to how you made use of this tutorial – we wanna see how your used my rock texture, or the ones that you made from scratch yourself! Feedback is welcomed. Now – if you’ve gone wild with a texture and just LOVE it … a small donation showing that love sure would be appreciated (but is not mandatory). Just go to PayPal.com and send your donation to DogBreedz (at) yahoo.com.
Happy Texturing!
Peggy of DogBreedz.net and DogBreedz Blog
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