Natural Textures by Pearlywinks
 
Natural Textures is a collection inspired by the surfaces, colours and imperfections found all around us — from weathered tree bark and driftwood to stone, clay, sand, cork and beautifully worn natural materials.
I wanted this collection to feel earthy and tactile without becoming too heavy. It brings together textures that have real character, but many of them remain soft enough to sit behind your artwork and simply add that extra layer of depth.
The palette moves through warm creams, sandy beige, stone, terracotta, natural wood and cool slate greys, making it incredibly easy to combine these textures with florals, wildlife, landscapes, vintage artwork, contemporary designs and mixed-media projects.
Inspired by real natural surfaces
Within the collection you’ll find a wonderful variety of finishes including slate, terracotta clay, sand, tree bark, natural fibres, cork, sandstone, travertine and limestone, alongside river pebbles and a selection of beautiful wood grains.
There are smooth and subtle surfaces, rough weathered finishes and much stronger textures such as peeling birch bark and deeply layered tree bark.
The stone textures are particularly versatile, ranging from soft cream limestone and pale travertine through to fossil-rich and weathered surfaces, while the warmer terracotta, cork and natural wood textures introduce a completely different character.
And because nature is never perfectly uniform, those little changes in tone, grain, cracks and markings are exactly what make these textures so useful.
Use them as papers or transform your artwork
Although Natural Textures work beautifully as complete backing papers, they have been created with layering and overlays very much in mind.
You could use them to:
Add realistic stone, wood, bark or cork texture to digital artwork
Create natural-looking backgrounds for botanical and wildlife projects
Introduce earthy detail into mixed-media compositions
Fill shapes, frames, lettering and decorative elements
Add woodgrain to signs, panels and rustic artwork
Use slate and stone textures for contemporary or masculine projects
Create woodland and nature-inspired journal pages
Add weathered surfaces to ephemera and vintage-style designs
Combine different textures to build completely new surfaces
Use sections of bark, stone or clay as accents rather than full backgrounds
Blend natural surfaces into photographs, landscapes and focal artwork
Use them with masks, opacity, blending and double exposure
Made for overlays
One of the things I particularly like about this collection is how different the textures become when they are used as overlays.
A sandstone texture at low opacity can add the faintest grain to artwork. Bark can introduce depth to a woodland piece. Travertine can turn a plain background into something resembling an old stone wall, while weathered wood can completely change the atmosphere of rustic or coastal artwork.
You can keep the texture strong and obvious, or reduce it until it is barely visible.
That gives you far more control than simply choosing a patterned backing paper.
Nature becomes another creative tool
The textures are supplied as high-quality A4, 300dpi digital papers, suitable for digital designing and high-quality printing.
They work beautifully inside Atelier by Pearlywinks, particularly when used with layers, blending, opacity, masks and double exposure, but they are not restricted to Atelier and can also be used in other compatible graphics and crafting software.
This is another one of those collections that isn’t really about creating one particular style.
It’s a creative resource.
One day you might need the warmth of oak, the next the softness of limestone, the ruggedness of bark or the cool layered detail of slate.
Natural Textures by Pearlywinks — bringing the beautiful surfaces of the natural world into your digital craft room.