Texture in Painting
Texture is the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface. Artists use texture to add depth, interest, or balance to different areas of their artwork (Megan Coyle, 2018). Texture can be characterized by color, shape, movement, and other visual attributes (Chenyun Wu et al. 2020). Overall, texture is an excellent tool to create a sense of emotion / mood, theme, style, or atmosphere in your art. It can be used to create a sense of flow which can guide the viewer’s eye across key points in the scene.
When creating an acrylic painting, there is two kinds of texture that artists can apply to their work:
Physical texture (also known as “actual texture” or “tactile texture”) is the physical surface of the painting. Paint and their applied surfaces on their own have a texture, and paint can be built up or chipped away to create a raised, lowered, or otherwise create an altered surface which you can feel with your hands. This is a kind of textile method that a lot of modern painters use to create three-dimensional depth in their works. Aside from using paint, other objects like sand, salt, and grit, may be added to paint to alter the physical texture. Paintings on wood canvases have a wood grain texture by default, and non-conventional objects, like shells, can be added to mixed media paintings by pressing them into the wet paint and letting them dry.
An Example of Physical Texture: A subject in the foreground of a painting is raised up from the surface so that they pop out more from the background.
Slava Ilyayev, “Stroll in the Park” (year unknown), oil on canvas.
An Example of Physical texture. The artist has used large globs of paint to raise the leaves to create depth.
Visual Texture is an illusionary practice which implies textures that do not physically exist on the painting. These kinds of textures are two-dimensional and are all about creating the illusion of a sensation by applying techniques to trick the viewer, despite the painting being otherwise flat. The most common way to utilize Visual texture in paintings is by using a repetition of shapes or lines in your brush strokes.
An Example of Visual Texture: Painting a dog to look extra fluffy by making a lot of small and short strokes across its body to look like soft fur.
Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889
An example of Visual Texture. The paint, though it has a texture, was not used as a textural surface, instead it is the strokes and their directional repetition that creates the texture of the painting.
TASK 1 | Read the Following Article:
Why do Artists Use Texture? by Megan Coyle
TASK 2 | Complete the Activity:
Read Chapter 2 of “Acrylic Fusion” by Dan Tranberg and pick one texture method to replicate in your sketchbook.
This exercise is all about experimentation with texture, and is graded on completion. Do not be afraid to try an unfamiliar technique and make mistakes along the way!
Please label which technique you tried to make on the back of the page or canvas.
“Acrylic Fusion” by Dan Tranberg | CHAPTER 2
Techniques for Experimenting with Acrylic Paint
Art of Expression 