FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

When it comes to making textures I can make almost anything artificial like bricks and metals but I can't make anything natural like dirt or sand and I can't make cobblestone so can anyone share their texture making methods?

When I hand-render a texture, a lot of it boils down to multiple layers of noise with different filtering effects on each layer, combined with a layer or two of outlines, cuts, etc.

If I need some kind of gradient, that usually gets applied as the last layer.

Usually, each layer gets a different blending effect (e.g. dodge, grain merge, hard light, etc) and transparency level.

Sometimes I'll consult a photograph of the object I'm trying to represent, usually to make sure the basic colors are correct.

The rest is just imagination and m4d t3xtur1ng sk1llz ;-)

So do you mean your textures have multiple layers?
Sorry if I misunderstood anything I'm new to the texturing business.

When I'm doing the initial creation of a texture, yes, as this makes it easier to revise the image, make little tweaks here and there, etc. Of course, when I export it for use in the actual game, I collapse it down to one layer (either by flattening it, or by merging visible layers if the image needs alpha).

Ah thank you for clarifying that and thanks for the help as well