Adding Watercolor Texture to Create Compelling Scenes
Jul 01, 2024Watercolor artists don’t have the same opportunity to form surface texture by building up paint on their paper like artists who use acrylics or oils. But this doesn’t mean that texture in watercolor paintings is less interesting or visually compelling.
Let’s talk about different ways to create and use texture in your watercolor scenes.
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What is Texture in Watercolor Painting?
Texture in a painting gives the scene dimension and visual interest. It lifts certain elements from the page and makes other elements recede. It draws the viewer’s attention to certain parts of the painting, allowing other parts to support the main idea of the piece.
Some artists add a ton of texture to their scenes, and others add just enough to give an impression of the real-world dimensions, consistencies, and complexions of objects and surfaces. This choice about how much texture to add is one (of many) that define an artist’s style.
I tend toward impressionistic paintings that capture the real-life texture. I don’t over-define it or seek to replicate the texture of the real world exactly. As you familiarize yourself with different artists, you’ll find that they land somewhere on a spectrum of less texturized to highly texturized scenes. This is a choice you get to make as an artist, as are the methods you use to create this texture.
Physical Texture vs. Visual Texture
There are two main types of texture that you’ll find in paintings: physical (or surface) texture, and visual texture. Before we cover strategies, let’s define these two types.
What is Physical Texture?
Physical texture, in a painting, is also referred to as surface texture. This is the kind of texture that is tactile. If you were to touch the painting, you would feel the texture. It’s not only an illusion, but an actual dimension that an artist has added to their paper or canvas.
Other than texture that comes from the actual paper they are painting on, watercolor artists do not employ physical texture.
What is Visual Texture?
Visual texture is not tangible. It’s an illusion created through specific painting techniques. Visual texture is the main type of texture that watercolor artists have at their disposal. We’ll cover some of the methods for adding this to your paintings later on in the blog.
How to Create Texture in Watercolor
Watercolor Texture Methods
You can implement several methods of creating texture in a single watercolor painting. Some add subtle texture and others create textural effects that demand attention. Let’s cover some of the most common methods, and then I’ll describe the ones that I employ most often.
- “Cauliflowers” or deliberate blooming. A bloom occurs when paint spreads out and mixes on a wet part of the paper, creating uneven color and irregular patterns. While an inadvertent bloom can ruin a painting, a deliberate bloom in the right spot can add a lot of interest.
- Dry-brushing. Dry brush marks leave a broken line rather than a smooth one. To create this impression, you want to load your brush with pigment, remove excess with a paper towel, and then paint with the side of your brush. These dry marks add some energy to your painting.
- Lifting with a sponge, paper towel, or brush. Lifting is a method of taking paint off your paper after you’ve laid it down. The decision to use a slightly damp sponge, a dry paper towel, or a damp brush will determine how much and what kind of texture is left on the paper.
- Splatters or spattering. Splatters (or spatters/spattering) is exactly what it sounds like: random specks or spots of paint applied to a painting strategically. Often, artists will add an effect like this toward the end of their painting process. It adds some visual interest and can either suggest real-life subjects (like snow, birds, or leaves falling from trees) or simply serve as an aesthetic choice.
- Scratching or Sgraffito. Again, this one is pretty self-explanatory. Scratching is the act of scraping some of the pigment from a painting after it’s dried. You can use the back of your brush, a knife, a credit card, or sandpaper.
- Use of granulated pigments or granulation medium. Some watercolor paints have more granulation than others - meaning they have a natural tendency to mottle on the paper. The pigments that do this create a delicate texture. One way to create this dappled effect with non-granulating paint (or to exaggerate the effect) is to use a granulation medium.
- Wet-into-wet color mixing. Compared to other methods, this one is much more subtle, but it’s a strategy I use in every painting I create. The idea is simple: add variety to your color palette by adding pigment to the paint on the paper. This allows colors to mix and create variation and interest in a single watercolor subject.
- Cling wrap. A strategy employed by some artists that creates a unique effect is the use of plastic wrap (cling wrap) in the painting process. What they do is they apply the wrap to a section of wet paint and press into it gently to create crinkles where they want texture. Then they let it dry and remove the wrap. The impression it leaves is interesting.
- Drawn Lines. Whether you use ink or a brush, hard definitive lines add texture to a painting. Some artists use hard lines sparingly and others use them quite frequently. Again, this comes down to style and preference.
Ways I Add Texture to My Watercolor Paintings
The aforementioned list of strategies to create texture in your watercolor paintings is not exhaustive. You’ll encounter countless methods as you expand your knowledge of painting in this medium. And as you learn, you’ll find that some of them suit your style of painting and others don’t.
The video at the top of this blog walks you through a recent painting I completed and highlights the ways that I added interesting textures to this scene.
Before you read the rest, what texture do you notice in this painting? What strategies do you think were used to create the texture you see?
First Wash - Wet into Wet Color Variation and Lifting
I want to bring your attention to a couple things in this first wash. Notice that on the stone wall I have added some variation already. Instead of just painting a flat. monotone beige, I added texture to this light value wash.
Second Wash - Wet into Wet Color Variation
In this second wash, notice that, as I worked on that large, connected shape, I also dropped in a variety of colors and allowed them to mix in a way that created texture on the subjects.
Third Wash - Broken Marks and Dark Lines
In this third wash, I added quite a few dark lines and markings that suggested the detail in the stonework of this wall. While adding these details, I would choose a section, make a few marks and then stand back to observe, pivoting to a new section. I was careful not to overwork any one section and to make the marks count so the overall impression was visually interesting.
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