Wood and rock textures are undoubtedly very popular on the internet today, and you don't have to go very far to find vast libraries full of outstanding natural beauty.  Man's creations, however, enjoy far less popularity and some artists have found it rather difficult to find appropriate resources for city scenes.  One particular texture that is hard to find is that of asphalt, and recreating an asphalt texture (complete with road markings) is the subject of this remarkably simple tutorial.

Create a blank document of any size with a 72dpi resolution and with a single active layer. If you don't know too much about resolutions, 72dpi is default for web graphics and, to be honest, is the resolution used for 99% of all online Photoshop Tutorials.

With your Background layer active in the layers palette, go to the main Photoshop menu and run Edit > Fill.  Select 'Black' in the first combo box and press OK.  This will fill your background with a solid black color (if it wasn't black already).   With this minor task complete, run Layer > Duplicate Layer to create a copy of your entirely black layer.   Getting exciting isn't it? ;)

Once you have the two layers, lock the one on the bottom of the layers palette (or just ignore it), select the non-locked layer on top, and then run Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Use the following settings...

Amount: 16%
Distribution: Gaussian
Monochromatic: checked

Once again, run Layer > Duplicate Layer on your top-most (active) layer.

As you can see, these steps will give you a very boring 'starscape-type' image.  Don’t panic, we’re going to fix this little problem.

Run Filter > Stylize > Glowing Edges and enter in these settings:

Edge Width: 1
Edge Brightness: 4
Smoothness: 4

Our image is now starting to look a much better, but we’re not done yet. On the layer blending options, set “linear dodge” and lower the opacity to taste. We’re done, but to add a little finesse, we could add some white paint, so... let’s do this right now!

Create a new blank layer on top of all the others via the use of Layer > New > Layer.  Set your foreground colour to white by hitting “D” then “X” on the keyboard, or set the foreground color manually to hexadecimal code #FFFFFF. Paint whatever you want on the top layer. In our example we've used a Rectangular Marquee Tool and filled the selection with white. Once you’re finished, set the blending mode to difference, and we’re done!

Note: The effects on the optional top layer can change due to the colour you choose. By changing colour (i.e. red instead of white) the blending mode will have different effects, so, you’ll have to experiment a little to obtain the best results!

- Tutorial written by mick-f18

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