How do you guys work with textures so well?

[Keyboard Warrior]

Seriously. I've been doing this for like... three years now? I've improved significantly but I'm still terrible at it; literally awful. The best I can do is use of the heal and clone tool, and even then I'm awful with it. I usually use it just to blend textures and such, IE this piece of clothing has a big symbol on the back, I'd use heal and clone to remove it and make it look like regular tunic on the back, matching the front.

 

Got a little off-topic. Anyone have some good tips for me? I use GIMP, by the way.

[Deedlit]

for entire body its better using mudbox,zbrush 3dsmax(not so good at least for me), idk about blender, i still suck at that, but most of people use that tools, but besides that its like you already said photoshop/gimp, but be prepare to pain , i use clone tool like hell when mixing textures from other bodies , like lips from one, eyes area from another,etc, and test in various enbs (i use like 5-7 for tests) and light effects / sources, i just that if its a large area i start with spray at multiply and just use the clone / smooth to fine tuning, test with enbs and redo with clone / smooth the gaps.

That pic from my sign its almost all from sg with some things changed if i remember right eyes and lips.

[Guest LogicFoxX]

Reference and tutorials. It's like composing music, you basically take what you like, combine it with something else you like and see if it works together, then try to combine it with other stuff and see if it works but don't make it like Picasso, it has to make sense and look good. Sooo, basically, watch a tutorial on how to use gimp/photoshop to learn the filters, I've found it's almost always about the filters that makes cool unique designs, and then you need a goal picture. Let's say you want to make an eye texture. Pick a good picture of a cool eye that you want to 'borrow' some of the assets, basically copy it up to a point using your skills you learned from the tut's and then select another picture of an eye that you think would go good with that eye and finish your own picture. Check your blend, if it works great, if not, try again. Basically use everything as part of your color pallet for painting. How well it turns out depends on a few things: #1 your ability to recognize good art from bad art. The time you took to do the prep work. Your knowledge of the programs tools and how to use them. And finally, how it well it fits into the application you are using it for. 

If you are asking how to I decide what to use and what not to use for references? Visit a site like devart, there are maanny good artists that show their work in stages, learn from them, what they started with and how they finished it. Also, I don't know about everyone else, but it helps to listen to music that motivates you emotionally. Like Phantom Power - Overpowered, for me, is a good example. E.S. Posthumus - Unstoppable is another one (many out there)

+1 for zbrush as well. I haven't mastered that program but from what I've used, I love it, it's like sculpting with clay in virtual reality.

Oh, and get Gmic for gimp, just adds a whole new world to gimp. If you used photoshop/3ds/maya, I'd recommend goodtutorials.com 

Just start doing random tutorials to learn, trust me, it'll come in handy later.