I have played around with different projects to explore texture with my introductory art classes over the years. This version of it includes a collage element and allows for students to use their imaginations a bit more than in projects earlier in the semester.
First I have students brainstorm as many textures as they can. They tend to come up with more if it turns into a competition between the other classes doing the same thing. As you can see on our instagram page, one class won:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDnhsa4BwvF/?taken-by=rmhsartdept
but of course another class had issues with some of their words:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDn2irbhwqm/?taken-by=rmhsartdept
I was just happy they came up with so many words!
We spend a class period trying to draw as many of these textures as we can with graphite pencils. This is the first time they get to use graphite pencils with varying softness of leads- they practice using line and different values to create some of the textures. We stop and talk about how they went about creating some of the textures they came up with and whether they depended on using symbols or just focused on the surfaces the could imagine.
The next class students search for textures in magazine and then begin thinking about a recognizable shape they could turn them into. For the assignment I ask them to come up with a scenario that includes 12 objects- 6 created from textures found in magazines and 6 drawn by the student recreating the texture in pencil. They need to resolve the background of their piece and incorporate a wide range of values and contrast.
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| mapping out her composition |
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| looking for textures in magazines in class |
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| this project is pretty entertaining |
and here are some of the results, keep in mind graphite drawings are pretty hard to photograph..these look much better in person.
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| City Ducks by Alejandro |
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| Textured Tulips by Catie |
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| Textured Turtle by Courtney |
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| Josh created this bakery scene. |
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| Junaid's textured French toast |
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| Haley went with lots of jeans on the clothes line! |
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| Rachel's textured plant pots |
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| This was my example when I first came up with this project and had nothing to show the students! |
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| Kirsten's flowers |
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| Katie's fleet of sail boats. |
It ends up being a really fun assignment- I love seeing what my students come up with!
