Texture Mary Cassatt's painting shows a variety of textures. The lower half of the painting is very textured, while the upper half has softer textures, with the woman's face having a very smooth texture. Cassatt gives the painting texture by using large brush strokes, and a variety of colors. Why do you think that the artist gave this painting so much texture?

Texture Texture is the actual surface feel of an area or the simulated appearance of roughness, smoothness or many others

Texture In this painting the artist used Impasto techniques. Paint is applied so heavily that it feels rough to the touch. Very think paint was applied to the canvas in the face and jacket area of the painting. This is hard to see in a reproduction like this but it is very impasto. In other areas of the painting he created simulated texture. These areas include: his sleeve where the dark light value changes make it look like fabric; his face where it looks like the texture of a face by blending the colors.

Texture Painting Techniques Depending of the style and technique that the painter wants to use, different textural effects can be achieved. By dabbing, dotting, swirling, blending and others, painters make implied textures as they create. Upper left: Alla Prima Paint doesn't get blended together. Quick swirling brushstroke.  Upper right: Blended Paint getst blended (mixed) together. Brush works the colors together. Lower left: Scumbling Lightly pasing one color of paint over others to build it up to show texture and give a blurry effect. Lower Right: Pointillism Paint isn't blended and is dotted or dabbed onto the canvas. Colors visually mix together.

Actual Texture vs. Implied Texture The painting has a lot of different implied textures. Since it is a watercolor painting, we know that there isn't any impasto. The grass, path, wall and windmills look like the real thing and so their textures have been implied or simulated by changing values and shapes. The grass is created with another texture painting technique called dry brush. It is created by dragging streaks of paint onto the canvas. The paint goes on dry and doesn't blend into the other colors under it. It shows grass, feathers and other streaked looking textures. The owl however is a good example of actual texture. It is a 3-Dimensional work of art and so we really can see the actual texture at work. The textural appearance of the owl can be seen. However, it's not real because this owl is not real because it's got a cement body. The different textures between the glassy eyes, the steel legs and the cement body give a lot of textural variance.

Collage Textures    Collage Textures  Collage is French for a term meaning "cut and paste." There are two examples of collage compositions here. The goats are made of fabric and some of it hangs loose. The buildings in the other one are made of a wide variety of materials with different textures and layers of paint on them. Collages often emphasize texture and the contrast that textural changes can create.

Actual textures feel rough surfaces and make ‘rubbings’ label these textures & put them on your texture poster Implied textures create balls (spheres) with 4 of these textures don’t forget your illusions of 3-D form as well!

Create the tonal illusion of an egg using a 2B pencil You may scan this and make copies Now look at the people around you and create textural ‘hairstyles’ for each egg Create 4 of these hairstyles – each one showing a different type of hair Don’t forget your illusion of form while you work on the texture! Hairy egg activity