How can I create more texture in my paintings?

One way to guarantee a more textural piece is to start building up your surface before the paint has even touched it, using mixed media. You might tear up paper or cardboard and stick it to your surface, for example. Or you could take some gauze and set it on your canvas using a paint-like substance called gesso. This is a quick and easy way to build a relief piece, or to make your prepared surface more dynamic before the painting itself even starts! An easy yet popular technique for creating texture is impasto, which involves applying paint to your surface in thick, heavy layers, with visible brushstrokes. You can identify this technique in works by figures like Van Gogh. Some artists, such as Frank Auerbach, take it to a far greater extreme and lay the paint on so thickly that it stands several inches out from the canvas!You could further kick things up a notch by experimenting with mixed media. The German artist Anselm Kiefer incorporates materials like straw, sand, sticks and other found objects into his large scale paintings, while British painter Kurt Jackson will compliment his landscapes by attaching shells, stones and such to the canvas.