Texture

Texture is the way surfaces look and feel. Artists can create the illusion of texture in their drawings and paintings. For example think about how an artist could paint a wet pavement, dried autumn leaves, delicate silk sheets or slices of a juicy melon.

Apart from creating the illusion of texture in your artwork you could also make:

• prints from textured surfaces by creating a collotype [collotype: A type of relief print made from an assortment of found materials such as card, string, sandpaper, embossed wallpaper, tinfoil, in fact anything that's relatively flat and textured. ]
• a textured artwork by creating a collage [collage: A collage is an image that is made up of a mixture of materials, such as newspaper, magazine cuttings, string and so on. ]

Collotypes

A collotype can be made by layering corrugated card, bubble wrap, string, sandpaper, embossed wallpaper, tin foil, thick areas of pva glue - in fact anything with a texture - onto a base. This can then be inked-up and printed from.

Examine the textures in the images below by clicking on them to see a bigger version. (If you have Flash, click Magnify to see the detail - to remove the viewfinder just click Magnify again.)

Louise's collotype influenced by natural forms

This student has created a collotype by gluing different materials to a cardboard base to create a tactile, textural surface to print from.

Collages

Take a look at this photo of a student's collage below:

Katie's collage influenced by natural forms