Particles Textures

Azuremonkey has a nifty set of four of free textures. One of them has really awesome color, well at least it appeals to my tastes. Check em out by clicking the download link on the left of this page.

Particles

Hand Written Fonts

Web Design Ledger has a great post about hand written fonts. Many of them are nicely textured so think about how you can use typography to add texture and richness to your illustrations, web design, and other artworks.

21 Best Fonts for Hand Drawn Style Web Design

Halftone Brushes

Making halftones and screentones can be a bit of a pain in Photoshop. But here's a quick shortcut for you, BRUSHES!!! Yes must have more brushes.
>Halftone Brushes

Splatterz Brushes

This is the best splatter brush set I've seen! Forget those other splatter brushes, check out this one made by physicalmagic
> SplatterzBrushes

Wood Texture tutorial

Here's a video tutorial for how to create a wood box texture in Photoshop

Orange Dream Texture

A nice texture for you. Free to use as long as you credit Dalistock and notify him.
> Orange Dream

Free Texture site, Texture King

Don't want to pay high prices for texture stock photos? No problem. TextureKing has a good base of free stock images. Their Concrete and Wood/Plant collections are particularly good.

>TextureKing

29 Grunge Brushes

KeepWaiting at DeviantArt has created a fantastic set of grunge brushes. These are fairly high resolution too, so they are very flexible for whatever size project you're working on. Definitely check these out.

>Old Grunge Photoshop Brushes

Concrete Texture Stock

Here's a stock image with some gritty/cracked texture. This one will cost you a few bucks though from Fotolia. But it's pretty nice!

Concrete Texture Stock

RoughSea Brush [exclusive]

I've created a new brush called RoughSea. Crazy textures, yeaaaar!
> RoughSea Brush

Star Field brushes

A sweet set of brushes for that more realistic space look. Also can make a great texture for sand or dirt. These are awesome. You must download them.

> Star Field Brushes

Mix n Match photos, patterns, colors in web design tutorial

Here's a great tutorial from TutsPlus on how color and texture can change the look and feel of a web page. It includes detailed step by step instructions on how to make a webpage layout in Photoshop. If web design isn't your fancy, it's at least worth taking a glance at the screenshots toward the bottom.

> Mix n Match web design tutorial

50th Post!

Rough It Up has reached its 50th post! 

We are still a relatively new blog and we are off to a great start. Now is your chance to tell us what you think. Do you want to see more brushes? Or are the textures really what get you excited? Or would you like to see more featured artwork? Please contact us and let us know what it is you'd like to see more of. 

Please post a comment on this entry to let us know what you think! Every person who responds gets a free taco!* 

*This offer does not actually include free tacos.

Dry Brush Strokes Brushes

Dry brush stroke brushes. For that really authentic traditional media look. They are also free for commercial use.

> 25 Dry Brush Strokes

Splat Brushes

These are some nice splatter brushes you should really check out.

> Cazilu's Splat Brushes

Fire brushes

I just saw that movie Snakes on a Plane and man I hate snakes. Burn those mofos with these hot brushes.

>Insight Fire Brushes

Bamboo Brushes

Here's a nice set of 13 bamboo foliage brushes. I like all the different leaves on here.
> Bamboo Brushes

Cracked Dry Earth

Wow this is a really neat stock find from Superstar-stock. This really dry and cracked space in the ground makes a nice texture.
> Textura Tierra Seca 01

Abstract forrest texture

Joannastar-stock has created a nifty forrest like texture image. Usage guidelines.

> Abstract 03

Rust Texture Pack

A pack of 5 rusty textures for use in your projects. These are free to use and created by nighty-stock.
>Rust Texture Pack

Splatter Brushes

You can never really have enough splatter brushes. So here are some more. These work in PhotoShop and in GIMP.
> Splatter Set II

Featured Art - Visions

Helena Markos, has created a wonderful work of art depicting a mischievous cat snooping around on the kitchen counters.

Note her use of browns and yellows to indicate background elements. Rather than outlining everything in black, she's outlined it in a midtone brown to allow that black cat and the steam to really pop. She's also got a grunge texture going on with the background elements that kind of makes it appear like it was all done with a silk screen process. The shaded areas are also created with a screen tone adding another layer of texture. Be sure to check out the original so you can see it in its fully textured glory.

>Visions

Also check out her website.

Foliage Textures and stock

38 free stock images and textures of ivy, plants, grass, leaves, and other foliage. These were intended for use for 3D textures. But there's no reason you can't use them for other things like backgrounds, brushes, and photoshop textures.

> Foliage Textures

Paper & Plastic Packaging Textures

Wow... 30 fantasmic textures, and at high resolution to boot. This is a great find. Very versatile high resolution paper and plastic textures.

> 30 High Res Paper & Plastic Textures

Vintage Texture Pack

A sweet collection of fancy vintage motifs. Great for that wedding blog. You can use these without citing credit. Check cloaks' terms for details.
> Vintage IV

Check out Cloaks' other vintage packs as well:

Vintage I, Vintage II, Vintage III

Stock Music Texture

Musical notation on a textured piece of paper. Great for that new band website. Details on usage linked from the original entry.

> night-fate-stock's music texture 8

Chalk Brush [exclusive]

Here's a brush you can use to mimic chalk or pastel mediums. This .abr file comes with two variants of the brush. Blend with other brushes in your arsenal for even more variants. Brush available under Creative Commons.

> Chalk Brush

Featured Art - After the Rain

Check out the nice crosshatching work that Dienle has done on her art piece "After the Rain." The crosshatching technique creates a nice texture, especially onthe mushrooms and on that really awesome umbrella.