• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • About
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
    • Blogging
    • Business Tips
    • Design
    • Photoshop Tutorials
    • Illustrator Tutorials
    • Freebies
  • Shop
    • Creative Market
    • Spoonflower
    • Design Cuts
    • Patternbank
  • Resources
    • Resources
    • The Library
  • Contact
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Bloglovin
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

Elan Creative Co.

whimsical graphic design

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

April 22, 2016

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

Marble is one of those classic textures that will never go out of style and it’s becoming very popular in graphic design. I’ve seen it used as a background for styled stock photos, cards, and even websites. If you want to use a light background for your blog or graphics, you can create a marble texture in Photoshop instead of using photographs.

If you’ve ever wondered why I love to use Photoshop so much for patterns and textures, this tutorial is your answer. It’s so easy to create a detailed texture with only a few filters.

Learn how to make a marble texture in Photoshop for your blog graphics or design projectsClick To Tweet

Watch on YouTube

I’ve recently started a new YouTube channel where I will show you how to use Photoshop and Illustrator to create seamless patterns and graphics for your blog, business, or social media. Please subscribe to Elan Creative Co’s channel if you want to see more video tutorials.

I’m very new at this and very nervous, so please excuse my mistakes ?

Here’s how to make a marble texture in Photoshop. Scroll down for the written tutorial.

How to make a marble texture in Photoshop

Open a new document in Photoshop, choose your desired dimensions and resolution. I’m creating an 800x1200px canvas at 72 pixels/inch because I want to use it for this post’s featured image.

Make sure your background is white and set the colors to the default colors by pressing D on your keyboard or using the default colors button.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

We are going to use a filter to create a marble effect and then adjust it until we get the perfect marble texture. Go to Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. You will get a black and white cloudy image.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

Add Difference Clouds (Alt + Ctrl + F ) a few times until you have a texture that you like. Remember, this won’t look like marble yet.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

Tip: If you want the veins to have different colors, change the Foreground Colors every time you add a Difference Cloud.

Now go to Image > Adjustments > Equalize. This small adjustment will make the lighter parts of the image white and the darker parts will change to black.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

Then go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and move the sliders until the image is lighter and the veins are thinner.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

While this might look more like marble, we still have to add a few filters to get the final marble texture. Duplicate your layer and go to Filter > Distort > Twirl. Set the angle to 50 degrees and click OK.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

The next step is to rotate the top layer. I’m going to use the Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal command. This will be of great help if you want to create a seamless pattern.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

All we have left to do is blend the two layers. On the top layer, set the blending mode to Screen. Now you have a beautiful marble texture.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

How to color the marble texture

You can lighten it or add a bit of color by adding another layer on top of your marble layers and coloring it by using the Paint Bucket Tool. I’m going to use a gray layer and the blending mode set to Overlay to make the veins a bit lighter. The Overlay blending mode will only color the veins.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

If you want to change the color of the background, but leave the black veins, change the blending mode to Multiply.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

And you can even have lighter veins and a colorful background if you add two layers. I’ve used a gray background set to Overlay to colorize the veins and a pink one set to Multiply to colorize the background.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

Tip: Use Blur or Gaussian Blur to make the veins softer.

How to make a seamless pattern

I’ve created another marble background, this time using a square 800x800px canvas. I want to create a seamless pattern so I can use it over and over again on documents of different sizes.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

Select the two layers in the Layer panel and press Ctrl/Command+E to merge them.

We are going to use an Offset Filter to create a seamless pattern. So go to Filter > Other > Offset and set the horizontal and vertical values to half the size of your canvas. Since I have an 800x800px canvas, I’m going to set the value to 400px. Make sure Wrap Around is selected.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

If you look carefully at your image, you’ll notice a clear line in the center. This is the most tricky part. You’ll have to use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) and a soft brush to erase it.

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

Use a brush of 100px and 10% hardness and click on the area around those lines while holding down the Alt/Option key. This will copy the selected area. Then click on the lines to replace them with the selected texture.

Once you remove those lines, your pattern should be seamless. To add it to your pattern library, just go to Edit > Define Pattern and save it. Don’t forget to save your pattern collections using the Presets Manager (Edit > Presets > Presets Manager).

How to create a marble texture in Photoshop

To use the marble pattern, open a new document and go to Edit > Fill (Shift + F5).

Let me know if you have any questions.

Tweet
Share1
Pin3K
Share

Photoshop Tutorials

You might also enjoy:

How to make seamless patterns using Photoshop actions
Make seamless patterns using Photoshop actions
How to make a glitter texture in Photoshop
How to make a Glitter Texture in Photoshop
How to create a color palette in Photoshop
Create a color palette in Photoshop
Convert Photoshop patterns into Illustrator pattern swatches
Convert Photoshop patterns into Illustrator pattern swatches

About Cristina Silvia

Hey there! I’m Cristina, and I’m a self-taught graphic designer and illustrator. With an everlasting love of all creative endeavors, I found joy in sharing with others what I’ve learned over the years and helping bloggers and entrepreneurs bring their dreams to life through beautiful designs.

The Newsletter

Subscribe to our mailing list to get the latest posts in your inbox + news and special offers.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Allison G. says

    June 12, 2016 at 1:04 am

    Thank you for this tutorial! Very easy to follow. Much appreciated!

    • Cristina Silvia says

      June 13, 2016 at 5:43 pm

      Glad you like it, Allison!

  2. Selina says

    November 22, 2016 at 7:34 am

    Wow, this tutorial is awesome! Thank you so much, Cristina. I already made two templates to use for designing greeting cards etc. Will definitely check out all your other tutorials 🙂

  3. hannah says

    February 9, 2017 at 6:20 pm

    This is awesome guid!!! Thank you so much.

  4. Carrie says

    January 27, 2020 at 9:52 pm

    Thank you so much for this… I have a marble happy client and thanks to you it looks amazing on her website. xo

Trackbacks

  1. Project 5 – IMC Practice – Tiffany Trujillo says:
    October 2, 2017 at 1:48 am

    […] I wasn’t exactly sure how to create a texture like this, so I Googled it and found a great blog post on how to do so. To create the marble, I created a rectangle using the shape tool and made sure I […]

  2. Marble For Barbarian Temple Column – ART, COMPUTERS, AND STUFF says:
    March 24, 2018 at 1:10 am

    […] https://www.elancreativeco.com/create-marble-texture-in-photoshop/ […]

Footer

Discover

  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • The Library
  • Contact

Learn More

  • Policies
  • Terms
  • Licenses
  • F.A.Q.

Looking for something?

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2022 · Elan Creative Co