Creating Texture

This is the best part of creating a painting for me. I've learned to see beyond the preliminary washes that start to give shape to a painting and look forward to what can be done with texturing. Sometimes those first washes that establish the composition can look bland and uninteresting. For a beginning watercolorist, those first stages can be the most discouraging. It doesn't look like I want it, you say. That's where texturing comes in to bring those shapes to life.

I use several tried and true techniques to achieve the look I want. My tools are a few very worn brushes, some with just a few bristles. For a worn look, I use scumbling quite often. This technique involves using a dry to damp brush, with fairly concentrated color is rub color onto a shape. Look at the bowl on the right in this painting. To view this image, click here. http://www.weborglodge.com/sl_pasta_tonight.htm

Those darker marks are scumbling. Dry brush is similar, but with this technique, the color is more like being painted on, with a dry brush and concentrated color. The surface of the table was dry brushed to give that wood grain look. Another favorite technique of mine is splatter. I'll use it on most anything I want to give a worn/used appearance to. You can see it on the lower right of the bowl. All these texturing techniques give character to an object. The bowl instead of being just any bowl is a well-used one. Lots of dinners or cakes probably started in that bowl. It also gives it an antique feeling, a feeling I wanted to give this rustic still life.

More subtly, shadows, like those under the onion and of the garlic on the onion, help to establish form. Highlights will do the same thing as also seen on the onion and bowl. I often find that highlights, whether I've saved the white with masking or I've scrubbed off or am using a bit of titanium white really are the icing on the cake. So if something in your painting looks a bit lifeless, give it a life of its own, with some texturing.

Happy Painting!

Chris Dinesen Rogers is a Minnesota artist, specializing in watercolor landscapes of the North Country. Through her work, she strives to capture the unique beauty and wonder of the Upper Midwest. Her art weaves a tapestry of the realistic, natural, imaginative and historic, reflecting her deep love and commitment to the preservation of the natural resources of this area.

Chris is primarily a self-taught artist and has studied with regional artists. Chris's work has placed in juried art shows. Her work is in collections in over 35 states of the US and in collections all over Canada and England. She is represented by Art in the Village Frame Shoppe & Gallery in New London, Minnesota and the Earth Works Art Gallery & Studio in Penn Yan, New York.

• Dukes of Hazzard


• Bless em All


• CNN’s Number One Cities of the World Biased in English and Spanish


• The Dancing Bears of Inuit Art


• It Was a Dark and Stormy Night


• Framed Art the Inexpensive Way


• Transformation of the Fantasy Protagonist


• Blonde Babe Sex Robots


• Nude Hottie Blonde, Brunette, or Red Head Sex Robots


• The Amuc, and Inca Hydra (The Second Adventure; Now in English and Spanish)