Texture Exploring

'Dead Ideas' Playing with Textures - Click to View Larger Image.

In June my texture book will be released and I wanted to start creating some sample images of how you can use the textures that come with the book in your artwork. Of course the book itself is filled with a ton of great art by over 50 artists using the textures already but I decided to play around with them myself again today.

As you can see from the detail shots above you can create very rich depth of organic flair by experimenting in Photoshop. All the textures used in this are were derived from digital photos I took of found surface textures. A few were created the old fashion way using some tempura paint and old cardboard then scanning it in.

I'll be posting a tutorial on this artwork at IllustrationClass.com soon and that will include a layered PSD file so you can wade through it and see how I set layer effects and such.

Partum Professio = Create Art

'Insolitus' Collage Illustrative Design - Click to View Larger Image.

Since doing my Swat design I've wanted to experiment more with this whole collage method for design. Actually a better description for this whole style is 'Compost Modernism'. (Thank you Scott Hull for that name.)

When I started brainstorming an idea this image instantly formed in my mind. The process was all about experimenting. I'd try something and it didn't work well so I'd try something else. Originally I had a gas mask instead of a skull and it looked cool but like I've said before a skull is one of the top ten themes artists like so I had to go that route.

I decided to work text into this but didn't want it to distract from the overall feel so I used a dead language, Latin. This allows me to get nice type all the while making it more of a graphic element then informational. That said they do translate to what I was after.


Detail of Design.

It's hard to appreciate the subtle textures and overlapping that makes this style appealing so this image shows a more detailed shot of how the images relate. I designed this as a t-shirt design so it needed to be silk screenable.