Painting Texture and Details by SVS Learn

SVS Painting Texture and Details is an advanced online painting class from the School of Visual Storytelling, taught by illustrator Will Terry. Where most teachers warn against details, this class focuses on them: understanding the structure of different textures so you can paint convincing focal points. It covers edges, light and shadow, form, and predicting colour on smooth, shiny, transparent and translucent surfaces. The class has 25 lessons with about six hours of video, a workbook, a template and three assignments, and is included in the SVS Learn membership.

You can work traditionally, printing the template and painting on it, or digitally in Photoshop or on a tablet such as an iPad. The demonstrations range from Swiss cheese and cantaloupe to fur, a tiled roof and water.

What You Will Learn

• Basic repeating structures found in most textures
• How to draw and paint each simple structure
• Controlling and painting different kinds of edge
• Making basic colour predictions
• Painting smooth, reflective, dull and shiny surfaces
• Transparent and translucent objects, and subsurface scattering
• Examining a texture to identify its key features

Who Is SVS Painting Texture and Details For?

The class suits painters and illustrators who already handle light and colour and want their focal points to feel tangible. It is an observation class, so it rewards patience. Beginners should take Light and Shadow for Illustrators and Painting Color and Light first.

How the Class Works

The class moves from simple textures to complex ones. After a review of light and shadow and a demonstration of painting edges, you paint simple texture studies, then sphere studies that test how colour and surface interact, and finally full texture paintings using a list of suggested subjects or your own choices.

Course Structure

1. Welcome: introduction, finding reference photos, workbook
2. Simple Textures: light and shadow review, texture forms, painting edges demo, Assignment 1
3. Color and Surfaces: colour review, predicting colours, smooth reflective, dull and shiny, transparent and translucent surfaces, different values and colours, Assignment 2: sphere studies
4. Painting Textures: Swiss cheese, cantaloupe, fur, tile roof and water demos, subsurface scattering, reference photos, Assignment 3: texture paintings

What You Will Make

You will produce a sheet of simple texture studies, a set of sphere studies and several finished texture paintings. Together they form a personal reference library of surfaces you can return to when painting illustrations.

Why Study Texture?

Texture is what tells a viewer whether a surface is soft, wet, rough or polished, and it is often what makes a focal point believable. Studying it also sharpens skills that apply to every painting: edge control, light and shadow, form and colour prediction. That is why the class works as both a specialist study and a general painting workout.

Price and Access

The class is included in the SVS Learn membership. SVS lists its Studio membership at $29.95 a month, and class pages show a $300 annual option. A 14-day free trial is available with a card and becomes a paid subscription unless cancelled.

About the Instructor

Will Terry has been a freelance illustrator for 26 years, with early clients such as Time and the Wall Street Journal, and has illustrated about 30 children's books for publishers including Random House, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic and Penguin.

How It Fits the SVS Curriculum

Painting Texture and Details is part of Level 4 of SVS Essentials and the most advanced painting class in the curriculum. It follows Painting Color and Light.

Things to Consider

• Time: six hours of video and three demanding assignments.
• Medium: traditional paint on the printed template, or digital.
• Reference: gather your own texture photos as you go.
• Before this: Painting Color and Light.
• Feedback: share your studies in the SVS community.

Start the Course

Interested in learning with SVS Learn?

Start Painting Texture and Details

For the full curriculum and membership options, visit the official SVS Learn website.

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Last verified: October 26, 2026