This tutorial will walk you through how to create a seamless texture in Photoshop. I created the tutorial using Photoshop CS2, but it should work almost exactly the same for most versions of Photoshop from 7 and up. (It may work for 6 and under, too, but I’ve never used those so I have no idea.)

Please keep in mind that this tutorial is for TEXTURES…. NOT PATTERNS. A texture is something like granite, dirt, or bark, while a pattern is something like lace, or anything with a design on it. I do plan on creating a tutorial for how to create a seamless pattern somewhere down the line, but the technique used is completely different from that I’ll be giving in this tutorial.

Enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions!

Go Now to the Tutorial Page!

I mentioned last week that I was working on redoing all of my tribal brush sets. To make them larger… much larger. They should end up all being around 2000 pixels tall or wide, and some of them started out at about 100 pixels (the ones in the “Tribal (Small)” set really WERE that small). Want to know how I’m doing it?

That’s exactly what this tutorial will explain. As well as how to use paths in general, and some tips on creating hair and lines that fade out or become smaller in diameter as they go along. There is SO much that you can do in Photoshop with paths. And they’re great for any kind of vector work (not as good as Illustrator, I’m sure.. but I don’t have that one yet).

No brush tips this week, because this tutorial is made up of a bunch of tips, as well as how to use paths in general. Enjoy!

Go Now to the Tutorials Page!

The flames brush set has always been one of my most popular sets. I’ve seen some people do amazing things with it.

Similarly, one of my most popular questions is: “How do you make your flames brushes look like they do in your preview?”

Well, not only do I give you an in-depth tutorial as an answer, but I am also providing a tool to help make it even easier to achieve those realistic flames looks that you desire.

There’s a double release today, since they kind of go together… the realistic flames tutorial and a set of completely seamless flames patterns.

Go Now to the Patterns Download Page!

Go Now to the Tutorial Page!

Some brushes were made to be transparent, others were not. And because of the nature of Photoshop (or PSP/GIMP) brushes, sometimes they end up looking that way when they shouldn’t. This tutorial will explain how to remove the transparency from brushes, when needed. It is the singlemost important concept in making brushes look realistic.

The tutorial has been made with Photoshop in mind, but these principles are all very basic. If you understand how to use layers in PSP (Paint Shop Pro) or GIMP, you should be able to follow along with this tutorial.

Go Now to the Tutorials Page

A bit of an odd brush set, but I got the idea for this one a while back and wanted to give it a go.

It’s holes, tears, ripped areas, etc in jeans.

I’m going to write a little mini-tutorial to go along with this set, so that I can explain how best to use these.

Go Now to the Downloads Page

Here’s the mini-tutorial:

1. Have the jeans texture on its own layer. Here’s a denim texture you can use to play around with it and follow along with this tutorial: denim texture.

2. Make a new layer. (You can do this by clicking on the jean texture layer and then clicking on the “create a new layer” button on the lower right of the layers palette.) Name it “rips” (right click on the layer, select layer properties, and rename it there).

3. On that layer, using white or off white as a color, use whichever of the ripped jeans brushes you like.

4. Make a new layer BETWEEN the jeans texture layer and the “fraying” layer. (Again, do this by clicking on the jean texture layer and then clicking on the “create a new layer” button on the lower right of the layers palette.) Call it “holes” (again, right click on that layer and select layer properties to rename it).

5. Using a regular round brush and black as your selected color, paint in a “hole” beneath where you used the ripped jean brush, wherever you think it looks like it needs it. Check out the image below for samples of the various brushes and what the holes beneath them look like, if you like.

6. Click on the “rips” layer to select it. On the bottom left of the layers palette, click on the “layer properties” button and select bevel & emboss. Add an inner bevel with only a few pixels in size. I added a few pixels worth of softening, too, so that the shadows weren’t so hard edged. Here’s my settings:

7. That’s it! Your brush should look something like those below. Here’s some samples for you.

*** These also work great for if someone is wearing the jeans. Instead of that blackness beneath, you’d see the flesh of someone’s knee, leg, etc. To accomplish that, instead of making that black layer, you could just erase some of the jeans texture layer to let that leg show through. Don’t forget to add shadows! ***