Rust, Scratches & Dirt

The Metal Bar

In this Photoshop tutorial, we are going to discuss how to add rust and scratches as well as dirt to objects in Photoshop. This technique will increase realism dramatically to your images and designs.

Let's get started. Obviously, rusting will only happen to metal objects. Therefore, we are going to make our metal object first of all. Start by dragging a rectangular shape with the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Then, choose the Gradient Tool and right-click anywhere on the canvas.

A gradient pallete should pop out. Click on the little arrow button on the upper right corner, like the one shown in the screenshot. In the menu that appears, choose "Metals". This loads the "Metal Gradients" pallete. There will be a dialogue that asks whether you want to replace the pallete with the "Metal Gradients Pallete". Choose Yes.

Now, choose the gradient named "Silver". Drag the gradient from the top to the bottom of your selection. Then, create a new layer and, keeping the selection, choose the arrow button again and choose "Reset Gradients". Choose the "Foreground to Transparent" gradient and set your foreground colour to black (#000000).

Then, drag the gradient from the middle-bottom up to the middle part. Reduce the opacity of the black gradient layer to about 50%. You should be able to get a result like the image here. There, we have our metal object ready to be rusted and scratched all over!

Scratch...

Before we begin to scratch up our metal bar, let's set up our brushes properly.

First, select the Brush Tool and click on the Brushes tab on the upper-right corner of your Photoshop interface. Then, go to "Brush Tip Shape" and select a grungy type of brush. I chose "Spatter 39 pixels". Next, go to the "Textures" tab and select a grungy type of texture. I chose "Blistered Paint".

Whatever your settings are, they have to give a result like this. Now, make a new layer above the white gradient and and rename it "scratches_shadow". Then, using black (#000000) as your foreground colour, paint the scratches on the metal bar. When you're done, CTRL+Click on the layer "scratches_shadow" in the Layers palette to load a selection of your newly painted grunge.

Press Left and Up once on your keyboard to nudge the selection, and press Delete on your keyboard. What you should get is fine black lines on your metal bar. Now, duplicate the layer by pressing CTRL+J and rename the copied layer "scratches_highlight". Choose the Move Tool and nudge the layer one pixel down and one pixel right (press Down and Right on your keyboard). Then, change the opacity of both "scratches" layers to around 50%. Finally, press CTRL+I to invert the black colour to white. You should get something like the image.

... and Rust.

Now for the rust.

First, create a new layer renamed "rust". Still using the same grungy type brush (or you could switch settings if you think it's too boring), set your foreground colour to a dark orange-brown hue (something like #774900). Paint near the edges of the metal bar, where rusting is most likely to occur. Don't worry about painting over the border, you would want to do just that.

When you're satisfied, choose the Eraser Tool and again right-click on the canvas. This time, choose another grungy brush (I chose spatter 29px). Now, blotch out some parts of your earlier painted rust. Don't worry about the rust going beyond your metal bar, as I said just now. Avoid making long strokes with the grunge eraser, as it will seem unnatural.

When you are done with the erasing, choose the Move Tool and CTRL+Click on the metal bar layer in the layer palette. You should get a rectangular selection of the metal bar. Then, click CTRL+I to invert the selection and go to the "rust" layer. Press Delete on your keyboard and the portions of rust out of your metal bar area should be cleared.

This rust technique can also be used to create "dirt" effects; for example use a dark green colour to make a moss effect. Always experiment with what you know and you may discover new and exciting ways to do things! This concludes our short tutorial on how to make scratches and rusts.