How to Draw Realistic Textures

Hello everyone, today I'm going to show you how to draw textures. Whether it's capturing the roughness of bark, the unevenness of stone, or the reflections of metal. They may seem complex at first, but with a bit of method and practice, you'll find they quickly become fun to work with.

WHY DRAW TEXTURES?

You might think: "Drawing textures is fine, but why?" The answer is simple: drawing textures brings your drawings to life. It's through textures that we understand the true nature of an element and can distinguish them from each other. A tree with rough bark, soft fabric, an animal's fur... Of course, you can suggest materials by other means, such as color or stroke, but it's the texture that will provide real credibility.

Textures also help to tell a story: a cracked wall can imply something ancient, while a well-polished metal suggests something new or precious. By mastering textures, your drawings will become more expressive and the storytelling will be more evident.

Note: No matter what drawing style you prefer, textures are always present. They simply adapt to the style: for instance, very detailed for realistic rendering or simplified for a cartoon style.

METHODOLOGY FOR DRAWING TEXTURES

There's not just one way to learn how to draw textures. However, here is the methodology I recommend, as it will enable you to succeed in drawing all types of textures. The more comfortable you become with simple textures, like wood or stone, the more you can gradually tackle more complex textures.

OBSERVATION IS KEY

It cannot be said enough: observation is key! Whether it's understanding perspective, composition, movement or textures. Seize every opportunity to observe: look at what makes a tree appear rough, metal reflect light, or fabric seem coarse or silky. Observation enables you to fill your mental library with valuable information that will be useful later on.

You can also study the work of other artists to understand how they choose to represent different textures. This can inspire you and help you to develop your own style.

SHADOW AND LIGHT

 

This step goes hand-in-hand with observation: it is about understanding how shadow and light affect the object to create its texture. Indeed, a texture works like this: the object has irregularities on its surface, with which the shadow and light interact. Generally, the more pronounced the irregularity, the more it will be lit, and conversely, the deeper the irregularity, the more it will be in shadow. This is particularly evident with tree bark, which consists of striations. The light does not reach all the recesses of the bark, thus creating this very recognizable texture.

Note: If you have trouble spotting shadows and light, you can use your camera in "black and white" mode. This will allow you to directly observe the impact of light.

SIMPLIFYING THE TEXTURES IN YOUR DRAWING

We are now at the final step: simplification. Everything is already in the title of this step: the goal is to review the main lines that form the textures, in order to be able to reproduce them in the most recognizable way possible without going too much into detail.

Even if you want to draw ultra-realism, it's an interesting step because it allows you to lay the foundation for textures before adding more details. The more simplified the drawing style you choose, the more you can also simplify the textures.

Let's consider the example of the log just below. By observing, we see that the texture of the bark and the wood slice is not exactly the same. The bark forms with streaks, while the slice is smoother and shows the different layers of the wood, creating circles. We can also add cracks to indicate that the wood is dry. With just a few lines, we can already represent a widely understandable wood texture.

THE COLOR OF TEXTURES

You can limit yourself to suggesting textures through line work, which works very well and is more than sufficient for many drawing styles. But if you want to go further and represent texture in a more realistic way with color, here's how to proceed:

2 EXERCISES TO IMPROVE THE TEXTURE OF YOUR DRAWINGS

To delve deeper, I recommend two exercises. The first is an exercise in everyday observation. Arm yourself with your sketchbook and walk around, observe the different textures and try to identify the patterns that make them recognizable. To see if you've succeeded, you can ask friends or family to differentiate the textures you've observed. Don't try to draw the objects themselves, focus on their textures.

For the second exercise, you will draw textured cubes. The idea here is to focus only on the texture, forgetting the subject itself. You can make the exercise a bit more complex by drawing them in color. Observe the details that make each texture unique.

And there you have it - you now have all the tools you need to draw textures! Apply the methodology: observation, analysis and simplification, and you'll see that drawing textures isn’t so complicated! 😊

Writer and Illustrator: Chloé Pouteau