Step 3: Build Texture
Layer Like a Storyteller, Each Mark Holds Memory
Texture is where your journal page begins to breathe, where your past layers meet the present moment and start to whisper something deeper.
It’s not just about what you see, it’s about what you feel under your fingertips.
It’s where history builds. Where accidents become portals. Where the subconscious speaks.
Why Texture Matters
Adds depth and dimension, visually and emotionally
Encourages slow looking, viewers want to linger, trace, and wonder
Creates contrast with smooth and rough surfaces, matte and gloss
Supports symbolism, scars, layers, hidden fragments, and revelation
Makes the work uniquely yours, no two textures are ever the same
How to Build Texture in Layers
You can repeat these steps over and over, there is no limit. Each cycle deepens the visual language of the piece.
1. Dab, Scrape, or Sponge More Gesso
Add patches of gesso on top of your color layers to soften transitions or reintroduce white space.
Use a dry brush, sponge, paper towel, or even your fingers
Let some areas be thicker, these will hold marks beautifully
Try dabbing through mesh, lace, or fabric for subtle imprint textures
2. Collage and Blend
Choose paper elements with emotional weight or narrative significance, vintage text, receipts, drawings, old letters, tissue paper, and fabric scraps.
Glue them down with matte gel medium
Brush or scrape clear or white gesso over the edges to blend
Tear rather than cut for a more organic, integrated look
Let pieces peek through future layers for mystery and memory
3. Add Raised Texture with Stencils
Place a stencil over the page and use a palette knife or old card to apply:
Gesso (for a matte, subtle texture)
Modeling paste (for thicker, raised designs)
Heavy gel medium or sand gel (for coarse or tactile effect)
Let it dry completely before continuing.
🎭 This is like sculpting the surface—each ridge becomes a contour in your story.
4. Add More Color
Once everything is dry, reintroduce color:
Let pigments settle into the crevices of your texture
Use fluid paints or watered-down ink for grungy flow effects
Dry brush with metallics across raised stencils for shimmer and depth
Consider using neutrals here to tone back the intensity and unify the layers
Repeat. As Often As You Want.
There’s no rush to get to the “final image.”
Layer. Dry. Respond. Add again.
Let the piece evolve like weather, like memory, like ritual.
Each new layer adds history, your journal becomes an archeological site of self.
When You’re Ready: Add Meaning
Now your foundation is rich with energy and texture. It’s time to begin listening.
Ask: What wants to emerge now?
Add images, figures, or silhouettes
Include meaningful symbols or motifs
Incorporate words, poetry, or quotes
Doodle, sketch, or write into crevices
Let parts be hidden, others illuminated
Finishing touches don’t close the page, hey deepen it.
Optional Materials for Texture Play
Lace, burlap, mesh, string, gauze
Paper towels, tissue, torn kraft paper
Corrugated cardboard, bubble wrap
Modeling paste, sand gel, crackle paste
Found objects (keys, leaves, coins) pressed into wet medium
Sewing or embroidery over the page
Make It Ritual: Texture as Inner Topography
As you build the physical surface, ask yourself:
Where are the rough patches in me right now?
Where am I layered? Fragmented? Revealed?
What deserves to be buried? What is ready to rise?
Your texture becomes a mirror of your emotional landscape.