Grunge

Start by creating a new document and hitting the 'D' key to set the foreground color to black and background color to white. On a new layer, go Filter>Render>Clouds.

Add noise by going Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Use the settings: Amount 17%, Uniform, and check Monochromatic. Then, go Filter>Stylize>Emboss and use the settings: Angle 135°, Height 10 pixels, Amount 100%.

Go Filter>Distort>Diffuse Glow and use the settings: Graininess 10, Glow Amount 7, Clear Amount 17. Duplicate the layer by dragging it over the New Layer button.

On the top, copied layer, go Filter>Artistic>Palette Knife and use the settings: Stroke Size 28, Stroke Detail 3, Softness 0. In the Layers Palette, set the opacity of this layer to 80%. Merge the copied layer to with the original below by hitting Ctrl+E (Mac: Cmd+E).

Go Select>Color Range and select Highlights from the drop-down menu. Then create a new layer.

Fill the selection with black by hitting Alt+Backspace (Option+Backspace). Fill the main layer below with white by selecting it in the Layers Palette, hitting Ctrl+A (Cmd+A) to select all, and pressing Ctrl+Backspace (Cmd+Backspace) to fill it with white.

You could stop at this point, but if you thurst for a heavier grunge effect, do continue. Hide the top layer for the time being and create a new layer below it. Apply the cloud filter to it by going Filter>Render>Clouds. Then go Filter>Sketch>Charcoal and use the settings: Charcoal Thickness 5, Detail 2, Light/Dark Balance 68.

Go Select>Color Range and use the default setting of Sampled Colors, 200 Fuzziness. Create a layer above the top layer and fill your selection with black by hitting Alt+Backspace. Delete the layer with the full charcoal texture, leaving the top two layers and the white background.

As a final touch, it is nice to add further detail with grungy brushes, such as those found on our Photoshop Brushes section.