New texture - Autumn leaves (I know, I know...)

It's Sunday again, which means that I have the time and energy to spend some time at the computer working through some of the online classes and experimenting with creating textures. And that's what I've come up with, using several layers to create a texture. The layers are scans of book covers, old paper and a piece of hand made paper with leaves and dried flower petals in it, which is absolutely gorgeous.

One of the biggest problems with creating your own textures really is finding a suitable name for them. I'd like to try to avoid just giving them numbers, but deciding on a name just seems to take up at least as much time as creating them. Well, I decided to call this one "Autumn leaves textures".

Another great problem with a texture is the question of where to use it. The texture itself might be vey pretty indeed, but is it any good for being used with a photograph? And if yes, with which picture and in what way? This texture has much of an autumn feel, I think. I was therefore looking for some pictures taken earlier this year, with some brown tones. I found one which I thought might be suitable and gave it a try:

I think it works quite well and I like the sort of painterly effect of it and the bright whitish patches help to intensify the cool feel (this was taken in late January/early February on a very cold and grey day) and goes well with the snow on the roof.

Admittedly, this picture (and the texture) does not fit the spring season at all. At this time of the year, we're weary of the cold and the bare look of everything outside and welcome the warmer weather and each tiny little piece of fresh green and colourful blossom that appear outside. But unfortunately, I'm still without my camera *sigh* so all I can do is using my old pictures - and experiment with creating textures :).

If you would like to try it out yourself, feel free to download it here or click on the image of the texture above.

But oh I wish I had my camera back! I feel like I've been waiting for ages! Spring is early this year and it's been exceptionally warm in the last day or two and the trees are all rapidly beginning to bloom. The magnolia tree in my street will be in full bloom very soon, as will everything else - and I can't take any pictures of it all :-(.

So I'll just have to go on experimenting with textures in the meantime, I suppose. I've even started with a painted one and hopefully, I'll manage to finish it today and scan it next week. I've also set up my easel in my study and started working on a big canvas to make a new picture for the living room. I've slightly altered the colour scheme and the picture which is there now just doesn't really fit anymore. That's the convenient thing with painting - if you want a new picture, you can just paint one. It's much cheaper than having to buy something and it saves you the trouble of having to find the matching colours as well. And it's fun to do as well :-). It just takes some time...