Texture is the feeling of a surface. There are many different textures all around you. Can you find something smooth or rough, hard or soft? In art, “texture” can refer to the actual surface of a work of art, or it can refer to the way an artist wants to portray a surface. Take a close look at this painting. The texture of the painted canvas is smooth, but the objects look real enough to touch. What textures do you see in this scene?
Now it’s your turn to create art with textures.
For this activity, you will need:
- white paper
- colored construction paper or cardstock
- crayons or colored pencils
- glue
- scissors
To make a texture rubbing collage:
- Cover your work surface for easy clean-up.
- Cut the white paper into four equal squares or rectangles.
- Ask your toddler to describe how things feel when they touch them. Then choose four different textures you’d like to explore, one for each piece of paper.
- Working on one texture at a time, have your toddler find a few objects that match each texture. Place the paper over the objects and carefully rub the crayon over the paper.
- Once you’ve filled all your rectangles, you can mount them on the colored paper. Use scissors to trim them to a smaller size so that there’s space in between them. Add glue to the back of the rectangles. Then press them onto the colored paper.
- Help your little artist label each texture.
- Allow the glue to dry and admire your work of art.
