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Photoshop 7 Rock Brush

Click here to see the final image used in this tutorial.

  1. Start with a scene of some rocks you've already shaped, shaded, and prepared for final texturing. I suggest making a duplicate of your rocks before you do this to them, because you can't just wipe that layer. You CAN undo it, but if you decide you don't like it after you've closed the window, you're screwed. Here's what my rocks looked like (big zoom) when I started.

  2. Select the brush options as shown in the picture. This is the 45 pixel Splatter brush in the default brush set. Set Opacity to 30%, click the airbrush option, and in the drop down brush options dialogue, select texture. Use the Bark texture and check "Texture each tip".

  3. I really suggest selecting the area you're painting over before you start painting to avoid getting outside of where you want painted, or being willing to go back with a good eraser or something.

     

    There is a catch to using this brush. If you don't do the entire area in one single section (that is, DO NOT let go of that mouse button until the entire area is painted over) it will overlap, and look bad. See the red arrowed sections in the image below. You don't want it to overlap because the texture wont look right, it'll darken it too dark in those areas and generally will be unpleasing. So, select the area, and do it all at once with one action. Yes, this means undoing it might undo the ENTIRE area. No one ever said art was easy.

    You can burn, dodge, etc on top of this, but don't smudge unless you want the texture to look funny. It'll ruin the lines in it. If you think this is for the better, then I'm glad you like it. :)

  4. This is what my final looked like, upclose.

  5. And here's the size my final is supposed to be.