Introduction

- Adding your hand to the feel of a work can make it unique and immensely inviting. So developing your awareness of color textures is a good place to start. I'd like to show you how textures in color can add dimension, depth, contrast, and a tactile quality to your imagery. This is the finished image from a book I wrote and illustrated called Willow Buds: When Toady Met Ratty. You can see the detail and variety of textures. I'd like to show you how you get some of these textures with this color composite of the same image.

I always use referenced materials when making textures to create a sense of believability in my final image. In this case, I used the images of sky, grass, and trees. I'm Mary Jane Begin, and this is Artist at Work: Textures.