Those of you who pay attention to this site may recall that, several months ago, I solicited your suggestions for future episodes of my weekly Deke’s Techniques. Well, today’s episode marks the first answer to such a suggestion, one posted by dekeOnline member henrymatt. Many more are to come. (Incidentally, I’m still very much interested in your wants, hopes, and desires on this topic. Please post any suggestions you may have to that same page. Don’t be a lurker; feed my Frankenstein!)

In this week’s video, I show you how to create synthetic wood grain, altogether from scratch, inside Photoshop. If you watch the video—which is is as entertaining as it is educational—you’ll note that I never once mention dekeOnline member henrymatt. And that’s because, miraculous as it may sound, I just so happened to answer his question before he asked it! So please don’t take offense, dekeOnline member henrymatt. I cannot help that my many powers include reading your mind.

Here’s the official description from my buddy Colleen at lynda.com:

If you’ve been following these Deke’s Techniques blog posts for a while, you know my favorite are those that require nothing but Photoshop; that is, Deke takes a mixture of effects, smart objects, filters, and color information, and with no source material whatsoever, creates something that looks like something else. After watching this week’s episode, I know if I were stranded on a desert island (with Photoshop and a power supply for my laptop, of course), I would be able to create 100%-synthetic, natural-looking wood to go with my faux starscape and fake curtains created in previous weeks’ episodes.

The fake woodgrain results from a combination of the Clouds, Emboss, High Pass, and Noise filters; plus an adjustment layer or two and a color overlay effect. After watching this week’s free movie, you will be able to create something like this:

Without a single pixel harmed or tree destroyed!

For lynda.com members, Deke has created another exclusive video inside the Deke’s Techniques course in which you’ll learn how to put several of these wooden slats together and carve a message into them. In fact, subscribers to the Online Training Library can see the entire collection of Deke’s Techniques (which now number 38!), with plenty of great tips and tricks for creating your own world of real and imagined textures, words, and images.

Next week, I’ll show you how to kern the interior of a single character of type. Sound weird? It’s awesome. You’ll see.