Wood Texture

  Tutorial hardness:

Rate this tutorial:

When making a wood texture, I go about it in two ways. One way is done in a few simple steps and looks more realistic, whilst the other is made to look more cartoonish and illustrated. In this tutorial I will show you how to recreate both of these methods. If you need any help on executing this tutorial then contact me.

Option 1

The first wood texture I will teach you how to make is the one that looks more realistic. It's very, very easy to recreate. The first thing you have to do it open up a new image on Paint Shop Pro that matches the size you want your wood texture to be, mine is sized 205 x 77.

Fill this canvas with the colour #844B1F (or any other colour you want you wood to be, I've done this technique with grays before), simply duplicate the base layer and go to Adjust > Add/Remove Noise > Add Noise. Adjust your settings to mine below:
Uniform
Noise: 50%
Select OK and set this layer to Normal at 50% before merge the layer down (right click the layer and select merge down).

Duplicate the base layer again and select Adjust > Blur > Motion Blur. Adjust your settings to mine below:
Angle: 90.00
Stregnth: 32.26
Select OK and merge all of your layers together.

Now, the texture looks much more 'wood-like', it's just a case of making it continuous. You will notice the left side will look a little weird; to fix this duplicate the base layer and use the Deform Tool (D) to move this duplicate in order to fill up the space. Merge all of your layers together, and you have your wood texture!

Option 2

The second option is one that makes the wood texture look more cartoonish and illustrated. Start of the same way as you started off the last one; create a new image on Paint Shop Pro and fill the blank canvas with the colour #844B1F.

Next, select the select the Pen Tool (V) () and match your settings to mine below:
Line style: Solid
Width: 1.00
Colour: #000000
Selection type: Point to point
Mode: Drawing Mode

We will use this tool to draw on the lines that make up the texture.

To make it easier, you can use another image as a guide. Here I've simply searched 'wood' on Google Images, selected an image from this page and pasted it (CTRL+L) as a new layer onto my image. I've used this image as a base to trace on some lines. When tracing, make your second pallet transparent (as this is used for a fill); in order to trace your shape with curve, click where you want the shape to begin, click at a different point and then drag the mouse (Example (from illustration guide tutorial).

One you have drawn on some lines convert the layer in a raster one (this makes it easy to work with) and delete the layer containing the image you used as a guide. From here you can do one of two things: 1) duplicate the top layer containing the black lines various times and use the Deform Tool (D) to move and rotate these lines until they fill up the page or 2) thing you can do is continue to use the pen tool to draw on more lines. I've done a mixture of both.

At this point, convert any vector layers into raster layers; then change the settings of any layer containing lines to Soft Light at 80%. Merge all of your layers together.

Lastly, to add depth we'll apply an inner bevel. Duplicate your base layer before selecting Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel; match your settings to mine below:
Bevel: 1
Width: 8
Smoothness: 54
Depth: 10
Ambience: 48
Shininess: 35
Angle: 53
Intensity: 29
Elevation: 40
Press OK and set this layer to Normal at 15%. Merge all your layers together and you're done!