Visual & Actual Texture

      This is a great lesson for this time of year!  The leaves are changing, the air is crisp, & the colors are vibrant and warm.  I found this lesson at www.thatartistwoman.org/.  She does an amazing job teaching lessons that involve layers of interesting materials, colors, and themes.  Check it out!

      First, we worked on tagboard because the yarn can be heavy when glued to paper.  The students cut out circles from brown poster board and used long pieces of yarn to glue around the circle.  Since this is a skill that can take a LOT of time, I had them fill the inside of their circle with pre-cut pieces of yarn.  This way, we still get the radial design of the circle with added texture in the middle.  Next, the students cut the tree trunk from pieces of brown poster board in the shape of a letter "Y".  Lastly, I demonstrated how to paint the background to depict visual texture.  This painting technique involves NO BRUSH WASHING, which makes the project move faster.  We started with blue for the sky and added white for contrast.  The colors mix to create a lighter hue and eventually the brush will dry out from making the left-to-right brushstrokes.  Then, they dip the brush in the green, make sideways brushstrokes until their brush is dry and use white again for contrast.  Next, the dip their (dry) brush in the red, then in the orange, yellow, and lastly white again.  Now don't get me wrong, some of the students DID, in fact, end up with a brown ground because their brushes weren't totally dry before they dipped into the red.  But, that's OK... a brown ground is just fine!  Here are some finished 5th grade works of art:

 By Victor 

 By Stephen

By Diamond