Texture - Visual Texture soft and sharp

This weeks topic from Smagula's Creative Drawing textbook is how to create Visual texture through illusion or simulation of roughness and smoothness -  different from the last couple of weeks where we explored how the roughness or smoothness of various media or drawing paper affects mood through texture.

Visual texture is used to communicate expressive possibilities in art. Texture can be used to create a violent or discordant mood, or conversely, a mysterious, smooth and elusive mood.

The activity this week was to choose a subject and draw it in two different visual textures. I chose a feather - as it was one of the suggestions - and used a sharp H graphite pencil to draw the smooth version, using my finger to blend the tones to create a diffused texture. This is contrasted with the drawing in black paint of the feather using tonal contrasts for discordance as well as sharp, bold and scratchy vigorous, more agitated lines. I actually think I could have gone further with the agitated lines and made them even rougher for more of a contrast.

I enjoyed this particular activity and enjoyed drawing the same subject in different ways to explore this textural contrast.