First off, Alex and I apologize for being down for the time being. We forgot to update our publisher, so we were hacked. Alex contacted the wonderful support people at PowWeb for being amazingly awesome and rescuing the site. They truly are THE BEST! Thank you guys from the bottom of my heart! I say it again: YOU ARE THE BEST!

In other news, Sketching House is now on Facebook! Type in Sketching House in the search box, and become a fan!

It’s the wonderful and beautiful month of September! The color begins to fade from the trees, the air turns more crisp, children are back in school, and fall festivals are about to start! I can’t wait! With the fall festivals comes pumpkin roll, and with pumpkin roll comes a very happy Mari! I LOVE pumpkin roll! If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend that you do because you will NOT be disappointed!

Class started again today, and so far, I love the composition class. Tomorrow’s class I already know I will not like. *Yawn* But like you guys care, right?

In that case, how about a tutorial?

I just recently discovered how to create a wood texture in Photoshop, which is really neat and very simple too. So, if you want to create boxes and even trees, this is the tutorial for you.

First, pick a base color that you feel will be fitting for your wood background. Use lighter browns for oak and ash wood, reddish-brown for cherry wood, dark brown for mahogany, and black for teak.

Once you have done this,  choose a light shade that will serve as your light grain. When I first did this, I used a shade that was three to four shades lighter than the color I originally used. Next, choose a hard brush and set the opacity to 45%-55%. On the box, add random lines for graining. I used a brush that was between 13-23 for the graining. Also, make sure you don’t but your lines too close together, because the wood will looked warped later on (I made this mistake!).
Now, before I continue, I must add that my tablet is currently MIA, so my lines are sloppy and hanging all over. Blah!

Next, pick a shade that’s somewhat darker then the light grain shade you used. Keep the opacity the same–between 45%-55%, although I do recommend increasing the opacity slightly– for your hard brush. However, change the size of your brush until it’s between the sizes of 9-18. Begin adding the darker lines. With this, don’t be afraid to overlap your light and dark lines. In fact, I think doing this makes the wood look more interesting. With this, though, make your lines somewhat shorter than the original light lines you created.

Next, change the brush opacity to about 75%. Change the hard brush size to between 1-8. Choose another dark color for fine graining. I used a color that’s brighter, yet slightly darker than the color used in the previous step. Add these thinner lines on top of the thicker grains, and be sure to add them in more frequency. Once you’ve added the desired lines,  use the blur tool on them. Use a soft brush for the blur tool and set the opacity to below 50%. Lightly blend these lines.

Next, choose white or a color close to white. Keep the paint brush at the same opacity and width as the previous step, and lightly add some white lines on the wood. Once more, use the blur tool to smooth the edges.

Now that the wood texture is complete (easy right?), add embellishments to complete the look to your liking (as you see, I have already done that). Once you’re happy, you can start shading the wood. Please, use different layers for this step.

With wood shading, choose a soft brush and set the opacity to around 30%. Pick a smaller size brush, like between 5-20. For dark shading, I choose a brown color that is almost black, but don’t worry. Since the opacity is low, it won’t look black, but just like a regular shadow. If you created a box like I did, add your shadow along the creases. If you have ornate edges or gems like I do, shadow the along the bottom portion of these adornments to create depth. Additionally, shade areas that are hidden by overhangs as shown in the image below.

For the top shadows, choose a light brown color that is almost white in order to create a light source. Add this along the top portions (or wherever your light source is) in order to create more depth using light.

Once you’re happy with your shading, you’ve created a wood texture. Now, you don’t have to get as fancy as I did, but this was the only way I could how to do the shading.

And with that, this concludes this tutorial. I’m glad to be back!

Until next time,

Mari!