Tactile and Visual Texture

Now to get a little more in depth with some common concepts often found within patterned and textured images.

At the base level, texture can be grouped into one of two categories: Tactile Texture and Visual Texture.

Tactile Texture is a texture that can be felt and is a physical quality of the textured object. An example of the could be fur.

Fur is a texture that can be felt (if one were to see fur in person). The pattern of the bristles of hair could actually be felt. A painting by Lucien Freud (below) may look gruff due to the impasto style of painting, and so the texture of the surface of his painting would be considered tactile.

Visual Texture on the other hand, is texture that cannot be felt, as it is only implied by the way it is presented, be it drawn, painted or presented some other way. Take a look at this.

The rock shown here cannot be touched. You cannot run your fingers across the page and physically feel the texture of the drawing, as it is just pencil and paper. This trick-of-the-eye, or trompe l'oeil, is a Visual Texture, and is just implied by the way it is drawn.