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Home / Piece of Art That Has a Lot of Texture

Piece of Art That Has a Lot of Texture

The Elements of Art: Texture

Grade Level: 3–four

Students will be introduced to one of the bones elements of fine art—texture—by identifying different types of textures plant in multiple works of art and hypothesize what materials and techniques were used to achieve that texture. Then, they will experiment with a variety of media and materials, including found objects, to create different textures.

Chuck Close, Fanny/Fingerpainting, 19851985

Chuck Close, Fanny/Fingerpainting, 1985, oil on sail, Gift of Lila Acheson Wallace, 1987.2.ane

Materials

  • Smart Board or computer with ability to project images from slideshow
  • Heavy cardstock (4 pocket-size sheets per students) or other surface sturdy enough to build upwards texture
  • Multiple sizes of brushes
  • Variety of media: paints (tempera, watercolor, etc.), colored pencils, oil pastels, crayons
  • Establish objects like leaves, sand, stones, twigs, etc.

Warm-upwards Questions

Do you recognize these marks? How do you think the artist applied paint to the canvas?

Background

Texture is the look and feel of a surface. Painters have many means to create dissimilar textures. They utilise different sized and shaped brushes: everything from tiny pointed brushes to flat, wide brushes. They can too utilise other tools—special knives, sponges, even fingers—to put paint on sail.

What are some ways that artists create texture?

  • They brush paint on in watery strokes and thick drips.
  • They put paint down in short, fat dabs and long, sleek strokes.
  • They twirl their brushes to make circles and curls.
  • They apply paint in thick layers that stick out from the canvas.
  • They put different colors on pinnacle of each other.
  • They mix in sand, dirt, or other materials into the paint.
  • They add white highlights to brand things expect shiny.
  • They scratch through paint to evidence colors underneath.

Chuck Close worked from a black-and-white photograph of his wife'southward grandmother, Fanny to create Fanny/Fingerpainting. He divided his canvas into a filigree, then, square by foursquare, pressed the marks of his fingers to the sail to make this portrait of Fanny. Carefully layering his fingerprints onto the sail, he built up the lines of her face and neck. Close explained, "I like using the torso equally a tool for painting . . . by using my hand, I can feel just how much ink is on my finger and so I can feel very conspicuously how much I'm depositing on the painting."

leonardo-ginevra

Leonardo da Vinci
Italian, 1452–1519
Ginevra de' Benci [obverse], c. 1474/1478
oil on panel, 38.i ten 37 cm (15 x 14 9/16 in.) (thickness of original panel): i.i cm (7/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Five hundred years earlier artist Chuck Close pressed his fingers to sail to brand Fanny/Fingerpainting, Leonardo da Vinci as well used his fingers to smooth oil paint for the perfect skin of his teenage model, Ginevra de' Benci. Da Vinci beginning used small brushes to pigment Ginevra'southward confront. He applied the pigment in very thin layers. Only in the finish, he needed his fingers to become the articulate look and smoothen shadows that class her face. How do nosotros know? Art specialists looked at Ginevra's face with loftier tech equipment to notice the traces of da Vinci's fingerprints (pictured below). Scholars believe he used his fingers to smooth and soften the edges and surfaces of her face while the paint was all the same wet.

leonardo-thumbprint

Detail of da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci showing his fingerprint

Leonardo wrote, "Encounter that your shadows and lights blend like smoke without strokes or borders." This technique, which came to be called sfumato (literally "smoky"), represented a radical suspension with traditional painting techniques, which relied on line to define forms. In fugitive line, Leonardo was able to reach a more lifelike painting.

Guided Practice

Collect examples of the post-obit diverse textures for students to examine and feel. Then view the slideshow below and have students find those textures in the works of art:

  • Poodle fur
  • Lion mane
  • Curly hair
  • Soft velvet
  • Fragile lace
  • Smooth skin
  • Shiny satin
  • Scratchy twigs
  • Bristly nest
  • Soft flower
  • Rough, churning h2o
  • Silky, smooth h2o
  • Sleek, shiny leaves
  • Waxy plums
  • Wrinkled skin

Slideshow: Textures in Paintings

Against a distant, hazy, verdant forest, a petal pink and amethyst purple orchid grows from a mossy branch close to us, to our left, while three jewel toned hummingbirds gather around a nest to our right in this horizontal painting. Two pale pink, ruffled petals of the orchid flare up and out from the hot pink, furled center. The lip-like petal below is amethyst purple brushed with pale yellow along its top. Three narrow, pink petals create a triangle behind the center of the bloom. Some of the pale honeydew-green pods and leaves growing from the base of the plant are speckled with brown spots. The orchid grows on a gnarled brown branch painted with daubs of white, burnt orange, goldenrod yellow, and scarlet red along its length, which spans the width of the painting. Three hummingbirds with narrow, pointed beaks tend a nest built further along the branch to the right of the orchid. The largest is perched with its back to us. It has a parakeet green body and a two-pronged, crimson red tail. Its head is turned up and to our left, looking at the second bird fluttering on a branch across the nest. The second bird's avocado green and dusty rose pink body curves downwards from outstretched wings. The third bird is perched on a nearby branch to our left, its head turned to the right to look at the others. Two shell white eggs are partially visible in the nest, which is shaped like an upside-down cone. The next is woven with wavy, dangling strands of burnt orange plant material. The orchid, birds, and nest fill the center of the composition. The scene is brightly lit from upper left. More leafy branches covered with hanging vines rise on either side of the canvas. The background is filled with a dense growth of plants and trees, loosely painted in shades of muted greens and pinks with a diffuse layer of white creating a blurred, watery haze. The sky takes up the upper third of the composition and is filled with smoke grey clouds except for a small circle of blue sky peeking through the branches of the tree in the upper right.

Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

Martin Johnson Heade
American, 1819–1904
Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds, 1871
oil on wood, 34.8 x 45.6 cm (13 11/sixteen x 17 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation

Twigs of a magnolia tree with light green, glossy leaves and three cream-white blossoms lie on a cerulean-blue cloth in this horizontal still life painting. Brightly lit from our left, the blossoms and leaves nearly fill the composition, and the cut ends lie on the fabric to our right. The blue fabric cascades from the upper left, presumably over a tabletop. The three flowers are in various stages of bloom. The tightest bud is to our left, overlapped by a stem and the tender, unfurling leaves of a branch. The blossom next to it, at the center, is starting to open. The petals of the third blossom, to our right, splay open around the flower's oval-shaped stamen. Light glints off the waxy leaves surrounding the flowers. The tawny-brown underside of one leaf is visible where it turns over, near the cut ends of the branches. Light shimmering on the fabric darkens from bright blue to our right, to deep, sapphire-blue in the shadows to the upper left, suggesting the fabric is velvet. The background is streaked with tan and pine-green behind the fabric, and becomes nearly black in the shadows of the upper right corner.

Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

Martin Johnson Heade
American, 1819–1904
Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth, c. 1890
oil on canvas, 38.four x 61.5 cm (15 1/8 ten 24 iii/xvi in.)
National Gallery of Art, Souvenir of The Circle of the National Gallery of Art in Commemoration of its tenth Ceremony

Seeming close to us, a young man and three boys sit or recline in a small sailboat that tips to our left on a choppy dark green sea in this horizontal painting. The billowing sail extends off the top left corner of the canvas and is echoed in the background to our right by the tall sails of another ship in the distance. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and puffy grey and white clouds sweep across the turquoise sky. The sun lights the scene from our right so the boys' ruddy faces are in shadow under their hats. The young man and boys all face our left so they lean against and into the boat as it cants up to our right. The boy nearest the sail to our left reclines across the bow. Next to him to our right, a younger boy perches on the edge of the boat and holds on with both hands. The oldest, in a red shirt, sits on the floor of the boat as he maneuvers the sail with a rope. Closer to us and to our right, a younger boy sits with his bare feet pressed together in front of his bent knees on the back edge of the boat, gazing into the distance over his right shoulder as he handles the tiller. The artist signed and dated the painting in dark letters in the lower right corner:

Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

Winslow Homer
American, 1836–1910
Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), 1873–1876
oil on canvass, 61.5 x 97 cm (24 iii/16 x 38 3/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Souvenir of the W. L. and May T. Mellon Foundation

Near the center of the painting, a masted wooden ship floats against a vibrant sunset that fades from lilac-purple to bubble gum-pink along the horizon line, which comes about a quarter of the way up this horizontal landscape. The boat is angled away from us and to our left with one sail tied up near the top of one of the two tall masts. Four people stand on the lumber-filled deck and tie up other sails. A second boat floats in the distance, its rigging and masts silhouetted against the vivid pink sky. The water is deep blue along the bottom edge of the canvas and lightens where it meets the hills along the horizon. Slivers of wispy slate gray clouds sweep across the sky.

Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

Fitz Henry Lane
American, 1804–1865
Lumber Schooners at Evening on Penobscot Bay, 1863
oil on canvass, 62.5 10 96.8 cm (24 5/eight x 38 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Souvenir of Mr. and Mrs. Francis W. Hatch, Sr.

A dog with short, curly, white hair stands in a wooden boat facing our right almost in profile, though it turns its head to look at us in this vertical portrait painting. The dog spans nearly the width of the canvas and seems close to us. The dog's ears hang down the side of its face to its chin. Its eyes are light brown and rimmed in black and the lower lids are pink. The dog has a thick torso covered with tight curls, and a short puff of a tail. Its front legs are straight and the hind legs seem slightly bent. The dog stands a slat spanning the width of the boat, which is angled away from us to our left. The landscape behind the has a calm, sage-green body of water with a tall, willow-like tree to our left and a lower band of leafy trees to our right. A few smoke-gray clouds float over the treetops in an otherwise pale blue sky.

Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

George Stubbs
British, 1724–1806
White Poodle in a Punt, c. 1780
oil on canvas, 127 x 101.5 cm (fifty ten 39 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Fine art, Paul Mellon Collection

Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

Joseph Decker
American, 1853–1924
Green Plums, c. 1885
oil on canvas, 22.9 x 27.8 cm (9 ten 10 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Fine art, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Shown from about the waist up, a woman with smooth white skin sits in a chair facing our right in front of a canvas on an easel in this vertical portrait. She leans onto her right elbow, which rests on the seat back. She turns her face to look at us, lips slightly parted. Her dress has a black bodice and a deep pink skirt and sleeves, and she wears a translucent white cap over her hair, which has been tightly pulled back. A stiff, white, plate-like ruff encircles her neck and reaches to her shoulders. She holds a paintbrush in her right hand and clutches about twenty brushes, a paint palette, and a rag in her left hand, at the bottom right of the canvas. The painting behind her shows a man wearing blue and playing a violin.

Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

Judith Leyster
Dutch, 1609–1660
Self-Portrait, c. 1630
oil on sheet, 74.6 10 65.one cm (29 3/viii x 25 5/8 in.)
National Gallery of Fine art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss

As if sitting in an underground cave, we look onto a scene with a nearly nude man, muscular with pale, peachy skin sitting among seven male and two female lions in this horizontal painting. The man sits to our right of center with his legs crossed, elbows close to his body with hands clasped by his chest, head tipped back looking up towards a small opening above. He has long, wavy, chestnut brown hair and has dark eyes. A white loincloth covers his groin and he sits on a scarlet red swath of fabric draped up over a rock next to him. The nine lions stalk, sit, or lie down around the man. One male lion next to the man, to our left, opens his mouth with his head thrown back, curling tongue extended beyond long fangs. A human skull and other bones are strewn on the dirt ground close to us. The rocky cave curves up around the animals and man to a narrow, round opening showing blue sky above.

Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Flemish, 1577–1640
Daniel in the Lions' Den, c. 1614/1616
oil on sheet, 224.2 x 330.5 cm (88 one/iv x 130 one/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

We seem to look down onto a wooden surface, a table or buffet, holding a basket of fruit, a vase of pink and white flowers, a book with a sea-blue, soft cover, and a small tray holding a teacup and saucer and two pieces of fruit like oranges in this horizontal still life painting. The wooden surface is highly polished and has a red tint, like cherry. The oval, rust-red tray holding the teacup and oranges has a lip around the edge. One orange is peeled, and a segment sits near an unpeeled fruit. The empty white teacup has a flaring lip and a delicate gold handle, and the cup and saucer are edged in gold. The tray sits across the corner of the table, close to us, and extends off the table to our left. The thick, soft-bound book is placed beyond the tray, to our right. Behind the tray, a tall, goblet-like, cobalt-blue vase with a pedestal foot holds five flowers, possibly carnations, among green leaves. Two blossoms are cream-white, two are ruby-red, and the fifth flower is streaked with both colors. To our left, a rectangular, woven, wicker basket holds three pears, two apples, and a quince. The pears are blush red, golden yellow, or pale green. One apple is butter yellow and one is red streaked with buttercup yellow. The quince is lemon-lime yellow. A pale-yellow quince and red and yellow apple sit on the table in front of the basket, near the tray. The background is painted a muted sage green. The artist signed and dated the work with dark green paint in the upper right corner:

Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

Henri Fantin-Latour
French, 1836–1904
Still Life, 1866
oil on sheet, 62 x 74.8 cm (24 7/16 x 29 7/xvi in.)
National Gallery of Art, Chester Dale Drove

How do you think these textures were achieved? Y'all may desire to refer to the listing in the "Background" section.

Action

Each student should select i object examined in class and represented in a painting in the above slideshow. Accept them draw the basic shape of the object on iv separate sheets of paper. Adjacent, have them fill in each line drawing using different media and tools to create various textures. If attainable, take students on an outdoor walk to collect various objects (leaves, twigs, etc.) to try out in the classroom. Students should experiment past using multiple sizes of brushes, mixing in anarchistic materials like sand, creating different patterns, adding more media or scrapping it abroad, or other creative avenues they arrive at using the materials responsibly and safely.

Equally an culling to accommodate motor control differences, the teacher can cut stencils of a student'south chosen object from heavy paper, so tape the stencils to the other 4 pieces of paper for the educatee to paint over.

Extension

Students will and so select 2 of their works of fine art and use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the procedure they used to create each piece and what the cease production looks like. They should share their findings with fellow student artists.

The Elements of Art is supported past the Robert Lehman Foundation

National Core Arts Standards

VA:Cr1.1.4Begin multiple approaches to a creative art or design problem.

VA:Cr1.2.3 Utilise knowledge of bachelor resources, tools, and technologies to investigate personal ideas through the art-making process.

VA:Cr2.1.three Create personally satisfying artwork using a variety of creative processes and materials.

VA:Cr2.two.3 Demonstrate an understanding of the safe and proficient utilize of materials, tools, and equipment for a variety of artistic processes.

VA:Re7.1.3 Speculate about processes an artist uses to create a piece of work of art.

VA:Re7.2.4 Analyze components in visual imagery that convey messages.

VA:Re8.i.3 Interpret art by analyzing use of media to create discipline thing, characteristics of class, and mood.

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Source: https://www.nga.gov/learn/teachers/lessons-activities/elements-of-art/texture.html