Texture: The Overlooked Element

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. Starting October first, I am teaching an ONLINE class titled "Painting Textural Effects In Watercolor" at the Art Students League of Denver. It will meet once a week on Tuesday afternoon from 1:00 to 3:30. I chose this painting of mine to advertise the class because it is a mixed media watercolor full of texture.

In oil painting, an artist can create texture with thick paint and, in watercolor, texture is created with several different techniques. For example, dry brush is where the artist uses less water and more paint so that the brush skips over the textured paper leaving bits of unpainted white paper showing in the brush strokes. Two other techniques for creating texture in watercolor are the use of hard, soft, blurred, and ragged edges, and allowing colors to blend together on the paper. Finally, spattering is another technique and it is just what it sounds like. In the lower part of this painting, where you see the pedestrians and taxi's there are blurred colors, hard and soft edges, spattering, all creating texture which ties that area together and relates it to the rest of the composition. Horizontal shapes and lines leading down to that area also accomplish the same thing.

Because pastel, when used correctly, can cover watercolor without making a mess, it was used for the final solution to create texture, direct the viewers eye, and finalize the painting. If the whole thing is working, it is hard to distinguish where the watercolor ends and the pastel begins. Texture also adds a sense of depth to this painting where you can see the buildings drifting into the background and even the the sky is full of visible brush strokes which create texture. This is accomplished by letting the paint dry before adding more brushstrokes.

I don't have black on my palette and the darkest colors in this painting are a mixture of burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue with very little water. Because I am not intent about stirring up this mixture you can see some of the dark areas are predominately brown and others are predominately blue. I find this more attractive than just plain black. The sky is cerulean blue and some gray mixed with cerulean and cadmium red. Along with the dark colors, the buildings were painted with yellow ochre, cobalt violet, cerulean blue and mineral violet. The taxi's are lemon yellow and yellow ochre with cadmium red tail lights.

I am looking forward to teaching the ONLINE class "Painting Textural Effects In Watercolor" at the Art Students League of Denver and Click Here to get more information. I invite you to join me and learn how texture can enhance your artwork. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton