Texture in art portraiture

In a picture you can't actually feel texture because it has only a two dimensional surface, but you can portray texture through the way you depict it on the paper or canvas. In the example on the left the texture of the child's hair and skin convey a feeling of softness as opposed to the portrait below which has a more rougher feel to it.
 

You can see in this example that this person's hair and beard has a more ruffled and rougher texture to it so it conveys a feeling of roughness which also goes with the actor's personality. There's texture on a person's skin like on the face and this texture can be smooth or rough or it can be anywhere in between these extremes. Be careful using texture you don't want too much of it as it could and probably will distract from the main area of the portrait that you want to portray. The main aim to a portrait is the mood and character and not the texture.

If you are drawing or painting a landscape or even a portrait you only need one texture, if you have two different textures in one picture the viewer wont really know where to look first and it can be very distracting. It is always best to put texture somewhere in your picture where you want the viewer to look first like on a door leading into a cottage or the bark of a tree. Try not to make the texture too large and imposing because it will outdo everything else in the picture, so you only need a small dose of it. Don't forget everything in your picture needs to harmonize so too much texture can disorganize it like the portrait on the left....this is bad....feel your textures....

 

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