Texture in Art and Composition

You know what else plays a big part in the feel of an art piece, sometimes literally? Yep, texture. Texture can be used in a composition to draw the eye to specific parts of the piece. Another thing texture can be used for is enhancing the look of objects that would otherwise look rather bland. There are two main types of textures: tactile and visual.

Tactile: Tactile texture is one that is 3d. It lives in 3d space so it can be seen when light hits it in a certain way and can be felt when touched. One example of this is painters who use thick brush strokes. These can be seen and touched (if allowed)

Visual: Visual textures are textures that are, well visual. They do not have the same qualities as tactile, but are merely made to look like they have a tactile texture, but are actually 2 dimensional.

 This painting has tactile texture in it, you can see it especially well in the trees.

 This drawing is an example of visual texture as the texture seen is implied.

Some more examples of visual texture.

This piece had some very noticeable tactile texturing.