I’d like to introduce you to an image you’ll be seeing a lot, even if you don’t realize it. Presenting yet more inspiration from Scotland, what I’m calling UK stone texture (right). Doesn’t look like much, does it? The magic is all in the layering with other pieces. Just look what it does to a work in progress. I’m revisiting my daily collage images, reworking them into new digital collages. For a favorite collage, number 18, I came up with this new composition (left). I liked the blue contrasting with the bronze tones, but overall, it was too dark. A layer of UK stone texture to the rescue (below)! Each layer of the piece has an individual blending mode and opacity. Of all the options for my stone layer, one really popped: Pin Light.  Just some of the texture shows up, as if brushed with pastels, something I often did to my hands-on collage to soften the look. Adding this new composite image to the mix not only lightens and obscures, but subtly adds more interest to boot. Here’s how I made that texture magic – with more blending. The stone image is made up of 5 separate layers from various texture captures here and abroad, below. I like to build up a composite texture layer from similar images, to create an abstract version of the idea. In this case, I chose the following texture images for their similar feel and blended each one with the layer below it.

Glasgow verdigris

Stirling gravestone

Monoprinting palette

Glasgow wall

Edinburgh stone

From left to right, here’s how the images are combined from bottom to top:

Glasgow verdigris

+ 100% Linear Dodge

+ 50% Linear Light

+ 73% Overlay

Final texture

1. The base image, verdigris from a gravestone in Glasgow’s Necropolis, is used as is, 100% Normal in PhotoShop layering terms.
2. The next, darker image, also a gravestone, from my 2013 trip based in Stirling, lightens the base (100% Linear Dodge).
3. Next up, a strange capture from a well-used monoprinting palette unifies the extremes with an overlay (50% Linear Light).
4. Then, peeling wall paint from an alley in Glasgow adds back some interest (73% Overlay).
5. Finally, some more brightening with texture from the years of history at Edinburgh Castle (72% Screen).

Was that too technical? Would you rather watch it happen? Try this video:

When I lay it all out, technical details and all, my process sounds rather clinical, but too much analyzing stifles my creativity. What works for me is to find the spontaneity in the composition process, trying different images and blending options to see how they feel. To be able to travel to Scotland, capture textures, blend them together, and use them in a collage to add to its historical feel — well that just feels magical.