The Downsides of Textured Art, Honestly

The main disadvantages of textured art are that it is slow, heavy and unforgiving if you get greedy with the material. Each raised layer has to dry before the next one goes on, so you physically cannot rush it, and the finished canvas ends up thicker and heavier than a flat one. Pile the texture on too thick and it can crack as it cures. None of that is a reason to avoid it, but you deserve to know it before you pick up a palette knife.

There are smaller annoyances too. Texture collects dust over the years, it photographs terribly under flat overhead lighting, and it is fiddly to store or post. Here is the honest rundown, what a guided session does about each one, and why people decide the trade is worth it anyway.

It is slower than flat painting, and you cannot hurry it

This is the big one. Raised layers need to be touch dry before you build on top of them, otherwise the whole thing slumps and blends into mush. Flat acrylic work lets you keep moving. Texture makes you stop and wait, and no clever trick gets around drying time.

What a guided session does about it is put something worth doing in the gap. Our textured nights run three hours with singalong moments and trivia dropped straight into the waiting windows, so the pause is the part you remember rather than dead air with a hairdryer. It does not make the paint dry faster. It just means you are belting out a chorus while it happens.

The finished canvas is heavy and thick

A textured piece carries far more material than a flat one, and you feel it the second you pick it up. Getting it out to the car takes two hands and a bit of care while the top layers are still curing. Hanging it needs a proper hook rather than the sad little nail you had in mind, and it sits further off the wall than a standard canvas.

Nothing fixes this. It is the format. Worth a thought if the wall you have in mind is plasterboard with a picture hook already sagging.

Dust settles into the ridges

Give it a couple of years and you will notice fine dust sitting in the raised bits, particularly on pale colours. A textured surface has nowhere for dust to fall off to.

The care is genuinely easy, a soft dry brush or a clean makeup brush every few months, going gently across the ridges. What you must not do is take a damp cloth to it. Wet cloths drag grit into the peaks and can lift the finish. Dry only.

Too thick and it cracks

The most common beginner mistake is treating the medium like cake icing and loading a peak on far too heavily. A very thick deposit dries on the outside first and keeps shrinking underneath, and that is when you get hairline cracks running through your best bit.

In a guided session you are shown how far is far enough before you start, and someone walks the room and quietly says "that is plenty" before you build a mountain. It is a skill you pick up in about ten minutes, but you do have to pick it up.

It is awkward to store and post

Flat canvases stack. Textured ones cannot go face to face without the peaks pressing into whatever is in front of them, so a stored piece needs space around it. Posting one interstate is a bigger job too, because the surface has to stay clear of the packaging.

It is a bigger commitment of material

If what you want is a quick, simple, one and done piece, textured art is the wrong pick. A textured art session asks more of you than a flat painting night does, and the paint and mediums used for textured art are heavier bodied for the same reason.

So why does anyone put up with it

Because the finished thing looks bought, not made. That is the whole answer. A flat canvas from a fun night out looks like a painting you did. A textured one has real shadows in it, and it changes through the day as the light moves across the room, so the piece you hang in the hallway does not look the same at breakfast as it does at six in the evening. People hang these in the good room, not the spare room.

If you have never held a palette knife, that is not a barrier. No previous painting experience is needed, and every artwork comes from our catalogue with the colours tweaked to suit you at no extra charge. Doing it as a private paint and sip party works well too, since the drying gaps turn into the social bit rather than a queue of bored people. Public sessions are $59 AUD per person and you can see what is coming up on the textured art paint and sip events page.

Go in knowing it is slow, heavy and a bit precious for the first week, and you will be very happy with what ends up on your wall.