Texture & Effects

Try many striking ways to create textured effects when you draw and paint. These techniques are a terrific tool for attracting and capturing the imagination of anyone who looks at your art. Complete the exercises here and you'll be able to work an entire range of techniques easily and more fully. A line can be long and thin, but it can also be composed of dots, dashes, spirals, and cross-hatching -- the possibilities are virtually limitless. The textures you produce can be used separately or overlapped, or washed and drawn over with color. Your introduction to line texture begins with a variety of media, from colored pencils to a ballpoint pen. Now concentrate on watercolors, controlling your brush. Paint the same subject using four methods -- spraying, stippling, sponging color, and knifing out -- to provide an easy comparison of the differences in texture. Using resists to create texture is one of the most exciting and challenging methods in an artist's repertoire. Try masking fluid -- it can be easily removed from the surface to produce interesting effects. If you want to soften the results, you can do so by painting over, either transparently as in ink and watercolor, or opaquely, as in acrylics. Other types of resists you'll work with are hot and cold wax. You might ordinarily associate removing marks on a surface as a correction, but it's an invaluable technique in its own right called lift off. The process of dissolving and taking away watercolor paint gives you soft-edged areas. Tonking -- lifting off oil or acrylic paints -- involves gently laying a piece of absorbent paper, such as a torn piece from an old newspaper, across the wet painted surface. Book jacket.Taggart, Paul is the author of 'Texture & Effects ', published 2005 under ISBN 9781402731037 and ISBN 1402731035.