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Applying Marbling

The Marbling effect creates intricate distortions of an image, following a technique that dates back to the 12th century. Marbling is created by dragging a fork, or rake, across an image, which produces an effect similar to a fork dragging through a mix of chocolate syrup and melted ice cream.

marbling effect

Before (left) and after (right) applying the Marbling effect

Each time you drag a rake across an image, you create a step. You can create marbling "recipes" that include several steps — each one using a different rake, direction, and waviness. You can save marbling recipes and reuse them.

Marbling works best with patterns or textures. Using the Blobs effect is an excellent way of creating the raw materials for marbling; filling with a pattern is another. For more information, see Applying Blobs.

To create a marbling recipe Back to Top

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Selections can help you control the marbling when you have a particular effect in mind. For example, the rake path normally begins from the edge of the image. If you want the rake path to begin in the center of a blob, select an area that begins at the blob’s center.

Steps are applied in order, so subsequent steps are based on the result of each previous one.

The final look of the marble largely depends on whether you start horizontally or vertically, and whether you work with a fine comb or a coarse rake.

Each step you add increases the time it takes to apply the recipe.

To save or load a recipe Back to Top

 

In the Apply Marbling dialog box, click Reset. The current recipe is deleted.
In the Apply Marbling dialog box, click Save All Steps. In the Save Marbling dialog box, specify a name.
In the Apply Marbling dialog box, click Load Marbling Steps. In the Marbling Recipes dialog box, choose a recipe.

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