Photoshop - Textures etc.

I'm basically wanting to get better at using Photoshop, so have been experimenting with Texture and Blur features after reading an ImagineFX article by Erik Jones - teaching 'How to Apply Filters and Textures Easily'. His work can be found here http://theirison.deviantart.com/ .


I applied some of the techniques to a sketch of mine, to see how they worked and whether I could create a slightly 'comic book' looking image.

Gaussian Blur: The image to the right is a screen shot of using the Gaussian Blur filter on a layer, it's effective and allows control.
(A tip given by Jones was to use a lot of Layers, which also allows control - and then allows these filters to be used for more specific areas)


Textures: I found the textures very interesting and will have to explore them thoroughly at some point, I mainly focused on the 'Pixelate' Feature as well as 'Mosaic' giving a slightly blocky texture.
The 'Pixelate' especially is interesting, as it has the potential to help when creating more realistic skin textures - which I may attempt at some time. 


For the moment, this is the end result from experimenting with these features.