Virtual Museum – Translating Texture

 

Explore how texture can be experienced through our eyes and hands. Create a drawing inspired by a landscape that recreates texture through the use of lines.
 

MATERIALS

  • White paper (2 pieces)
  • Black marker

TRY IT!

  1. What is texture? Texture is something you can experience through your eyes and hands. Examples of texture are: soft, hard, smooth, rough, bumpy, jagged, pointy, and wet.
  2. Find a household object and look at it. Is it smooth, bumpy, jagged…? Now touch it, how does it feel? Does it feel like what you imagined?
  3. On a piece of paper, practice drawing different types of lines (wavy, dotted, dashed, feathered). What do you notice about each line? What kind of texture do they create (i.e. a wavy line appears to be smooth)? Practice drawing lines closer or further apart. How does that change the visual texture of what you drew?
  4. Now that you have practiced your lines, try creating a landscape (beach, forest, desert, city) just with lines! For example, use one jagged line for a mountain range. Use different lines to create other features such as clouds, a sun, trees, buildings.
  5. Once you have the lines of your main features drawn in, fill in each feature with its own set of lines. For example, below a mountain range you can draw dashed vertical lines to create the texture of that mountain.
  6. Assess your drawing: what other lines can you add? How did you use lines to create the textures that you wanted?

GUIDING QUESTIONS

  • What kind of texture did you draw?
  • If you were to draw a cat’s fur just using lines, which lines would you choose to create that texture?
  • What was the most challenging type of texture to draw?

LEARNING BEHIND THE PLAY

  • Supports creative decision making
  • Introduces concepts of visual and physical texture
  • Reinforces observational skills

TAKE IT FURTHER

Challenge yourself and draw a portrait of a pet or family member. Or create an abstract artwork, filling your entire paper up with different types of lines, in different directions.