Texture is used a lot in abstract art to make a painting less flat and have much more depth and often to create subtle meanings or suggestions. With texture on a painting you can have different colors showing through the painting from underneath creating a kind of air of mystery to your abstracts.
The most common substance for adding texture and depth to a painting is gesso. You can use this to add brushstrokes and sometimes thicker texture but it is not conducive to really deep texture. You can also use paint itself to add texture, particularly left over paint if you are using acrylics.
There are other things you can create texture with that are cheaper than gesso and also give you a thicker base. See this article on alternatives to gesso for details.
One thing you can do to create fantastic and unusual texture is to add things to your base substance to give it character. Some examples of what you can add are:
- Rice
- Split peas
- Peppercorns
- Mustard seed
- Sand
- Glass beads
- Tissue paper
- String
These are just a few examples and the options are pretty much endless. As long as you coat the substance in the texture to seal it (if it is a foodstuff) then it will be fine, particularly once it is painted over. Try to choose things that are not too big to start off with and see how you get on, then you can always move on to using things like nails, screws and other larger things if you want to be experimental.
Try using the added materials just in one area of the painting or use the rule of thirds to accentuate certain areas of the painting with the texture.
The options are pretty wide as to what you can use to add to your texture base. It just needs to be a substance that won’t degrade in time. Generally if you coat it with the texture and then paint over it most things will be sealed in to the painting and so will not degrade. So, experiment, have fun, and see what you can create.
Immobilienmakler Heidelberg Makler HeidelbergSource by Marian Lishman