Splattery, grungy tutorial

[swalkr]

Please bear with me. This is the first tutorial I've EVER written, so if you find mistakes, or steps left out, please let me know so I can correct them. I have PSE 6, so you may have to adjust for different versions.

This tutorial requires a texture layer. In step 18, there is a link back to a post that have links to free textures to download.

Open photo.

1. Duplicate and save original.
2. Double click background to make into a regular layer
3. Create a new layer below the photo layer
4. Image>Resize>Canvas size. Make the canvas any size that looks appropriate for your photo.
5. Fill the canvas layer with a color of your choice
6. Select photo layer. Ctrl click on photo layer to get the marching ants.
7. Choose a drop shadow from the effects palette, click on small "f" in that layer, and make the drop shadow a tad larger and add an inner glow.
8. Select the canvas layer.
9. Make a new layer above the canvas layer. (Change your foreground color to black and your background color to white.)
10. Click on the brush tool (above the gradient tool)
11. Choose a grungy brush and make the pixels fairly large (I chose 950 px)
12. Go over to the right of the tool bar, click on the brush icon, and change the settings that will give you the best results (I chose 1582 for fade, 46% for hue/jitter, 25% for scatter and 25% for spacing.
13. Lower the opacity of your brush strokes layer to about 24%.
14. Make a new layer above the splatter brush layer.
15. Select the rectangular marquee. Make a rectangle about 1/2 inch inside the outer edge of the canvas (make sure you are still on the new layer.)
16. Go to edit>stroke. I chose 25 px (inside) with the color black.
17. Go to your effects palette and scroll down to WOW Chrome and choose WOW chrome reflecting. Ctrl>D to deselect.
18. Choose a texture of your choice (there are some nice ones free on the web. Links to a few of those websites are here in this post.
19. Open the texture in PSE. Ctrl>A to put the marching ants around it.
20. Select the Move tool and drag it down on top of your photo project in the project bin (this only works for PSE 6. In other versions, you must drag the texture up from the project bin onto your photo project).
21. Move the texture to the top of the layer stack (if it isn’t there already), and lower the opacity of that layer to around 40%. And that should be it. Have fun and let me know if there is something missing or unclear.

[efarnstrom]

Thanks....I'm going to save this and try it out.

[SharLamb]

Thanks for the tutorial. I have attached my first effort. As far as instructions are concerned, here are some things that would have made it easier for me (an admitted relative newbie): -----Step 7: in version 5, the symbol is a small sun, not an "f" -----There are several places where I would have like some specific settings mentioned. -----Where does one find a "splatter brush?" I couldn't find a #950 in my brushes (step 11). -----It wasn't clear to me when/where to apply the brush strokes (somewhere between steps 13 and 14). -----After Ctrl + clicking a layer to get marching ants, it would be nice to be reminded to deselect them when no longer needed (Ctrl+D) -----Step 18 might be a little confusing..."choose a texture...." If someone isn't familiar with this, and doesn't have any already, this wouldn't be a fun time to go in search of them. It might be nice to have a warning at the beginning that a texture layer will be required, and how to get one. -----I sympathize with your learning curve on writing instructions. It is a very difficult task, especially for so many steps. You made a good start! Thanks again. -----Shar -----

[SharLamb]

whoops! I just realized that my before and after aren't exactly the same...I took several pictures of that barn, and selected the wrong one when I was making the comparison. I think you get the drift though. Shar

[swalkr]

Thanks Shar for the input. As I said, this is my first try. I'll try to add your suggestions and update this - hopefully later tonight. Thanks again. I appreciate your opinion.

Originally Posted by SharLamb

Thanks for the tutorial. I have attached my first effort. As far as instructions are concerned, here are some things that would have made it easier for me (an admitted relative newbie): -----Step 7: in version 5, the symbol is a small sun, not an "f" -----There are several places where I would have like some specific settings mentioned. -----Where does one find a "splatter brush?" I couldn't find a #950 in my brushes (step 11). -----It wasn't clear to me when/where to apply the brush strokes (somewhere between steps 13 and 14). -----After Ctrl + clicking a layer to get marching ants, it would be nice to be reminded to deselect them when no longer needed (Ctrl+D) -----Step 18 might be a little confusing..."choose a texture...." If someone isn't familiar with this, and doesn't have any already, this wouldn't be a fun time to go in search of them. It might be nice to have a warning at the beginning that a texture layer will be required, and how to get one. -----I sympathize with your learning curve on writing instructions. It is a very difficult task, especially for so many steps. You made a good start! Thanks again. -----Shar -----

[swalkr]

Answer to your specific concerns:

“Step 7: in version 5, the symbol is a small sun, not an “f”. I jumped from version 4 to version 7, so I was not aware there had been that change.

“Where does one find a “splatter brush”; I couldn't find a #950 in my brushes (step 11).” I have the splatter brushes under my choice of brushes – possibly something I downloaded. The actual name is “easeyelements Splatter brushes”. But I would think any type of grungy brush would do. Just experiment and see what you like.

“It wasn't clear to me when/where to apply the brush strokes (somewhere between steps 13 and 14)”. I just clicked around on the canvas layer until I got what looked good to me.

“After Ctrl + clicking a layer to get marching ants, it would be nice to be reminded to deselect them when no longer needed (Ctrl+D)”. Yes, I agree about inserting the step to deselect.

“If someone isn't familiar with this, and doesn't have any already, this wouldn't be a fun time to go in search of them. It might be nice to have a warning at the beginning that a texture layer will be required, and how to get one”. I did put a link back to an earlier post that have links to free texture papers.

I will edit the tutorial re: your suggestions. By the way, I really like what you did on the barn. Very nice!

Originally Posted by SharLamb

Thanks for the tutorial. I have attached my first effort. As far as instructions are concerned, here are some things that would have made it easier for me (an admitted relative newbie): -----Step 7: in version 5, the symbol is a small sun, not an "f" -----There are several places where I would have like some specific settings mentioned. -----Where does one find a "splatter brush?" I couldn't find a #950 in my brushes (step 11). -----It wasn't clear to me when/where to apply the brush strokes (somewhere between steps 13 and 14). -----After Ctrl + clicking a layer to get marching ants, it would be nice to be reminded to deselect them when no longer needed (Ctrl+D) -----Step 18 might be a little confusing..."choose a texture...." If someone isn't familiar with this, and doesn't have any already, this wouldn't be a fun time to go in search of them. It might be nice to have a warning at the beginning that a texture layer will be required, and how to get one. -----I sympathize with your learning curve on writing instructions. It is a very difficult task, especially for so many steps. You made a good start! Thanks again. -----Shar -----

[SharLamb]

As you could see, I did figure out the questions I had, at least to a certain degree! However, I did not find the link you mentioned, and I'm always delighted to find textures. Shar

[swalkr]

The link in the tutorial (the word "here" was blue and underlined) was back to a something I posted a few days ago that had the texture link in it, but here is the link to the site itself, and one that Tony posted in that same posting.

http://www.tutorial9.net/resources/9...etal-textures/

http://www.cgtextures.com/

Originally Posted by SharLamb

As you could see, I did figure out the questions I had, at least to a certain degree! However, I did not find the link you mentioned, and I'm always delighted to find textures. Shar

[SharLamb]

Thanks Suzanne. I went back and looked again, and by cracky! there it was. Guess I had my blinkers on when I looked yesterday. LOVE those textures. Shar