Texture   Every surface has a texture. Texture is the element of art that refers to how things feel, or how they look as if they might feel on the surface. No one needs to teach you about texture-you know what is rough and what is smooth. There are certain textures you enjoy touching, and there are surfaces you avoid because you do not like the way they feel. When you actually touch something to determine its texture, you experience actual texture.

Actual textures

Actual texture

When you look at a photograph of concrete, wood, rust , brick or metal , you see surface patters of light and dark that brings back memories of how those things really feel. When this happens, you are experiencing visual texture.

There are two kinds of visual texture Simulated / Invented SIMULATED textures imitate real textures. Plastic table tops are made to look like wood. Vinyl flooring is supposed to look like ceramic tile or stone.     :

Simulated texture Artists use simulated texture to illustrate the character of an object's surface. In painting, the light and shadows can be rendered so well that the surface can have the appearance of actual texture. While simulated texture can capture the same details and elements of real texture, in reality it is a smoothly painted surface.

Invented textures Invented textures are not variations of actual textures. They are not simulations or abstractions, but inventions of the artist's imagination, used to produce a tactile surface that is not natural. Depending on the artist's intent, invented textures may not refer to the objective world and often appear in abstract works. Vincent Van Gough used paint to create invented textures in his piece "Starry Night.”

INVENTED textures are two - dimensional patters created by the repetition of lines or shapes. These textures do not represent any real surface qualities, but somehow the patterns of light and dark in invented textures simulate your memories of real textures. The purpose of invented textures is to create decorated surfaces that stimulate unusual textural memories.

Texture –Actual, Simulated and Invented   Actual Texture-A real texture that you can feel. Simulated Texture- a visual texture that gives the illusion of a three-dimensional surface based on the memory of how things feel. Invented Texture - A kind of visual texture that does not represent a real texture but creates a sensation of one by repeating lines and shapes in a two-dimensional pattern.