How To Add Texture To A Canvas

Adding texture to your canvas is a simple way to add a rich, visceral, three-dimensional feeling to a 2D medium. The idea of texturing a canvas can be as subtle as a layer of primer, or as outlandish as gluing stones and feathers to the finished work.

In this article we’re discuss why you should be adding texture to your paintings, and how you can do it with some super simple techniques.

Why add texture to your painting?

There are many different reasons why an artist may incorporate texture into their work. I’ve summarized these into three ideas as follows: realism, emphasis and mood.

Realism: The most common reason to add texture is to create a realistic effect or look. This could be reproducing the grain of tree bark, or the streaks of tall grass, or even the crashed of waves at the beach. Adding an actual texture can add depth to your artwork as the image now protrudes off the canvas, and will make the image look more like it would in real life.

Emphasis: You can use texture to convey a sense of distance in the painting by keeping objects that are far away smooth and flat, and gradually adding more and more texture as you move forward in the scene with the focal point having the most texture and height off the canvas. Texture can also be used to highlight the subject – or multiple subjects of the work.

Mood: You can even use texture to convey mood and feeling in your paintings.

• A smooth surface could be used to convey a restful mood.
• A rough surface can convey hardship or a busy mood.
• A pattern can convey a sense of rhythm.
• Uniform texture can create a sense of order, while competing texture would suggest chaos.

As you can see adding texture to your paintings is a great tool to convey your intent in the artwork, and something interesting and appealing for people to look at.

How to add texture to a painting?

For simplicity I’m going to break this down into two different sections.

1. Using a texture medium: such as gesso or modelling putty to texture the canvas. This is the most common method, and something I’d suggest you still do, even if you want to venture into the second method as a means of priming your canvas

2. Using supplementary materials for texturing. This could be cloth, paper, sand gravel or feather. Usually I’d recommend using PVA glue or the previously mentioned texturing compounds to adhere these to the canvas.

Use a texture medium

One of the simple steps to add texture to your painting is by adding a texture medium. You will find it in a paste or gel-like form and its readily available from any art supplies store or online. Some common names for this is Gesso, modelling gel, and modelling putty.

You can either add this to the paint, or directly apply it to the canvas.

If you choose to add the texture medium to your paint, you will notice that the colour of the paint will also change as you add the gel and also the sheen – so be mindful of this as you’re mixing colours. Then you can apply it to the canvas. When applied with paint, the gel solidifies to create a form. In this way, you can use the paintbrush to make diverse textures on any surface.

Another (and my preferred way) to use the texture paste is to apply the paste directly on the canvas making shapes and textures before I start to paint. This also acts a really good primer to make sure the paint sticks to the canvas later on.

Variations in texture medium

In the art shop you’ll find many different types of texturing compound.

Make sure before you buy a medium to read the instructions on the container carefully. It should tell you what type of gel it is and how it works. You should always try using it on a text canvas first to be sure how that specific compound works. A few examples of differences in texturing compounds are as follows:

• Some gel will dry off fast, whereas others will slow down the drying process. You can choose them depending on the texture you have on your mind.
• See how the compound mixes with paints. If you have an opaque gel, then it can give off a different appearance after combining it with colour.
• Some will dry with a glossy appearance, while others will be render matte.
• Some gel can be opaque in the container, but once they dry up, they become transparent.

So, try it on a blank canvas to see how the colours come out. Once you understand that, you can start working on the original painting.

How to apply the texture to a painting?

One of the best parts about making a texture painting is that you can use a variety of tools to create them. Different tools form different textures on the canvas.

If you like, you can use a palette knife, various types of brush, or other tools to make the texture on the canvas. Some people even use their thumb to shape parts of the painting.

I recommend starting with a palette knife to get a feel for applying texture, and then trying out some of the other methods below once you build your confidence.

Here are some methods of making texture on a painting:

1.      With a palette knife

Spread and smudge the medium onto the canvas as you would butter a slice of bread. Try varying between short sharp strokes and long smeary strokes to control the number of ridges you create on the canvas.

By changing the pitch of the knife in your hand you can change the intensity of the texture.

2.      With a brush

The humble paintbrush yields some great results when applying texture compound too. Long streaks with the brush leave behind graceful flowing lines, while jabbing the texture on with the tip of the brush will render a kind of granular noise on the canvas.

3.      Pouring

You’ll need to water down the medium for this to work, or mix it with a watery paint. Then pour the whole lot on top of the canvas! You can use a utensil to coerce the river of texture compound into the right places, or simply tilt the canvas as desired and let gravity take control.

4.      Stamping

No, I don’t mean stamps from the office stationary cupboard. I look out for items with interesting texture, fabric, rocks, shells, buttons and gauze etc. Look around your home with an eye for pattern and see what you can find that you could use to “stamp” something.

For instance, Aluminum foil scrunched up, and then flattened out again leaves behind a really neat crinkle pattern.

5.      Combing

Collect a few different combs with different size teeth and tooth spacing’s. Combs can be used to create the linear patterns found in nature, to make patterns of hair or cloth, or to create abstract dotting, swirls and lines.

6.      Sgraffito

Sgraffito is the art of scratching out, which is usually done to paint, but you can also use Sgraffito techniques with texturing too.

7.      Sanding

One final method that I’m still playing around with is sanding back the texture once dry.

Apply the texture as you would normally, then once dry, sand it down a flatten out the hard edges prior to adding paint. You can also use sanding to remove colour too.

Using other media for texture:

In this section I’m basically just talking about sticking things to the canvas to change the texture. I normally use PVA glue for this, but you can use one of the texturing compounds mentioned above too as they also have adhesive qualities.

1.      Cloth and Tissue Paper

Layer some PVA or gesso down and then press cheesecloth or tissue paper into it. Bunch the cloth, a lot or a little, to leave varying amounts of texture behind.

2.      Feathers.

Feathers can be interesting addition to any painting and can be used in quite a few different ways if you think creatively. I’ve used feathers as the base to form trees but arranging them vertically, and then also created waves by gluing the feathers more chaotically

3.      Sand and Gravel

You can find painting mediums with sand or silica added to them, or you can add sand directly so you have more control over the grittiness. Just remember, if you’ve collected your own sand, you may need to sift it first unless you want the natural grungy look.

Final words                                                             

As you can see, adding texture is great method of adding complexity and interest to a painting – and doesn’t have to be a difficult to achieve as it may seem.

If you are new to this, start my getting some gesso and texturing gel from the art supply store, as well as some palette knives if you don’t already have them. It is best to test a medium first to understand how it works, and see what you feel comfortable using – so get an old canvas out and have a play around. I’d also always recommend mastering one medium before moving onto the next.

With time, you will learn to make texture paintings with the methods mentioned above. You may also come up with texture techniques of your own.

You can read part 2 of this article here: Mastering Gesso