Let’s Get Messy: Grungy Textures, Brushes, and Vectors

All this well-organized, time-managed, Pinterest-inspired talk of de-cluttering has kicked the rebel in me into high gear. Sometimes you just want to have an uneven, grungy, or rough edge to your design. I say, “Go for it!” Distress a background, splatter some virtual paint, rip your design apart, and get your grubby little hands all over it. C’mon, let’s get messy!

This background looks like every Amazon box I’ve ripped open in my childlike anticipation of what’s inside (READ: inability to follow opening directions). This would be a great piece for moving announcement cards or maybe Amazon’s product return department.

These Photoshop brushes make old and cracked look good! All the Oil of Olay won’t fix these blemishes, but why would you want to it to?

These oil drop vectors look like India ink droplets to me. I almost expect to see Roger Rabbit come bounding onto my computer screen!

These vector handprints will come in handy at Halloween. Or, you know, those Dexter-inspired birthday party invitations you’ve been dying to make.

This collection of 100 raster textures have been ripped, crumpled, and shredded. If I still wrote my stories on paper, these would perfectly encompass the contents of my office wastebasket.

“Soaked Stains” is a nice set of ten Photoshop brushes that will make your design look like my notebook after the myriad spills and drips from my daily chai.

I’m reminded of my childhood passion for paint-by-number books when I look at this set of ten Photoshop brushes resembling ink and watercolors.

Just because we’re making a mess, doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun. These vector splashes come in all the colors of the rainbow. A tasty-looking pastel-hued rainbow.

Not to keep bringing up Dexter, but these bloody Photoshop brushes are just screaming out for a wooden box filled with microscope slides.

Anyone else remember crackle paint and using it on every piece of furniture you owned? Just me? Anyway, these vector textures bring back those memories.

From the looks of Photoshop brushes like this watercolor pack of 32, you’d think all painters do is spill and spatter paint everywhere. Well, art is in the eye of the beholder. Or something.

If you need someone to make your hand-drawn elements like arrows and lines look messy, then I’m your gal! Or you could check out this grunge pack of over 135 vector icons.

This pack of 193 vector grunge elements has drips, stains, and promises Affliction-style treatment. It’s the ultimate grunge pack. Incidentally, “Ultimate Grunge Pack” is my Pearl Jam/Nirvana crossover cover band.

More paint sloppiness, the Messy Paint Splodge brushes set delivers 42 Photoshop-ready brushes that will lend more credence to my theory about painters (see above).

Sometimes you simply want your beautiful art to be surrounded by schmutz. This collection of a dozen vector shapes will contain your artwork in hand-brushed fashion.

Give your images the look of having hung around in grandmama’s dusty attic trunk with the Dust and Particles pack of ten Photoshop brushes.

In the interest of not mentioning, yet again, a certain serial killer, I’m going to pretend that this seamless vector pattern is made up of amoebae. Or mitochondria. Or bacteria. But definitely not blood. Blood that just goes on forever. And ever…

And not speaking of serial killers, this set of eight Photoshop brushes was created from photos of old trash dumpsters. Not creepy at all.

Erica Gamet has been involved in the graphics industry for over 35 years. She is a speaker, writer, trainer, and content creator focusing on Adobe InDesign, Apple Keynote, and varied production topics. She is a regular presenter at CreativePro Week, regular contributor to CreativePro Magazine, and has spoken at Canada’s ebookcraft, Adobe MAX, and Making Design in Oslo, Norway. Find Erica online at the CreativePro YouTube channel, CreativeLive.com and through her own YouTube channel. When she isn’t at her computer she’s probably daydreaming about travel or living in a Nordic noir landscape.

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