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The Elements of Art: Texture

Grade Level: 3–4

Students will be introduced to one of the basic elements of art—texture—by identifying different types of textures found 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.

Shown from the shoulders up against a white background, an elderly woman gazing at us fills this black and white vertical portrait painting. The portrait is created with tones of light and silvery gray with darker gray in the shadows. Short, wavy, flyaway hair stands off the top and sides of her head, and she looks at us with half-closed, small eyes under arched brows. Her wide mouth is closed, and the corners are pulled back in a slight smile. Deep wrinkles run down from the corners of her mouth to her drooping jowls. There is a deep, round hollow, shaded black, at the base of her neck, which is surrounded by a starburst of fine wrinkles. She wears a light gray, V-neck shirt with white stripes and stylized flowers. The overall impression is that this portrait is painted with delicate tones of gray, but closer inspection reveals that it was made with inked fingerprints. The whorls of fingers in black ink, pressed lightly or layered against the canvas, are visible.

Chuck Close, Fanny/Fingerpainting, 1985, oil on canvas, Gift of Lila Acheson Wallace, 1987.2.1

 

 

Materials

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

Warm-up 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 ways to create different textures. They use different sized and shaped brushes: everything from tiny pointed brushes to flat, wide brushes. They can also use other tools—special knives, sponges, even fingers—to put paint on canvas.

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 top of each other.
  • They mix in sand, dirt, or other materials into the paint.
  • They add white highlights to make things look shiny.
  • They scratch through paint to show colors underneath.

Chuck Close worked from a black-and-white photograph of his wife’s grandmother, Fanny to create Fanny/Fingerpainting. He divided his canvas into a grid, and then, square by square, pressed the marks of his fingers to the canvas to make this portrait of Fanny. Carefully layering his fingerprints onto the canvas, he built up the lines of her face and neck. Close explained, "I like using the body as a tool for painting . . . by using my hand, I can feel just how much ink is on my finger and then I can feel very clearly 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, 38.1 x 37 cm (15 x 14 9/16 in.) (thickness of original panel): 1.1 cm (7/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Five hundred years before artist Chuck Close pressed his fingers to canvas to make Fanny/Fingerpainting, Leonardo da Vinci also used his fingers to smooth oil paint for the perfect skin of his teenage model, Ginevra de' Benci. Da Vinci first used small brushes to paint Ginevra's face. He applied the paint in very thin layers. But in the end, he needed his fingers to get the clear look and smooth shadows that form her face. How do we know? Art specialists looked at Ginevra's face with high tech equipment to discover 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 still wet.

leonardo-thumbprint

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

Leonardo wrote, "See 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 break with traditional painting techniques, which relied on line to define forms. In avoiding line, Leonardo was able to achieve a more lifelike painting.

Guided Practice

Collect examples of the following various 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
  • Delicate lace
  • Smooth skin
  • Shiny satin
  • Scratchy twigs
  • Bristly nest
  • Soft flower
  • Rough, churning water
  • Silky, smooth water
  • 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 vibrant 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 downward 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 white eggs are partially visible in the nest, which is shaped like an upside-down cone. The nest 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 painting. The background is filled with a dense growth of plants and trees, painted with blended shades of muted greens and pinks creating a diffuse, watery haze. The sky takes up the upper third of the composition and is filled with smoke-gray 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 11/16 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 sapphire-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 and across the table or ledge. 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 royal 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 and along the bottom edge. The artist signed the lower 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, 38.4 x 61.5 cm (15 1/8 x 24 3/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of The Circle of the National Gallery of Art in Commemoration of its 10th Anniversary
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 gray 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: “HOMER 1876.”
Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

Winslow Homer
American, 1836–1910
Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), 1873–1876
oil on canvas, 61.5 x 97 cm (24 3/16 x 38 3/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Gift 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 carnation 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 canvas, 62.5 x 96.8 cm (24 5/8 x 38 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Gift 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 is 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 it has a short puff of a tail. Its front legs are straight and the hind legs might be slightly bent. The dog stands on 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 (50 x 39 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Paul Mellon Collection
About two dozen round, pale green plums tumble out of an upended square wooden box onto a reflective, dark brown surface in this horizontal still life painting. Many of the plums have a frosty sheen and about half of them lie in a pile within the basket. The other dozen spill out of the box onto the wood tabletop. Most have stubby stems, and one, closest to us, has a longer stem with two browning leaves. The leaves and round fruit create reflections on the polished wood surface. The box was made by weaving broad sheets of light wood into a square. The layers are visible along the upper edge, which faces us. There are a few dark spots and imperfections in the wood. An ice-blue cloth hangs behind the box and crinkles in folds along the table. The artist signed the work in the lower right, “J.Decker.”
Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

Joseph Decker
American, 1853–1924
Green Plums, c. 1885
oil on canvas, 22.9 x 27.8 cm (9 x 10 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Shown from about the waist up, a woman with smooth, pale 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 rose-pink skirt and sleeves. 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 wooden paint palette, and a rag in her left hand, at the bottom right of the canvas. The painting behind her shows a man wearing robin's egg-blue and playing a violin.
Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

Judith Leyster
Dutch, 1609–1660
Self-Portrait, c. 1630
oil on canvas, 74.6 x 65.1 cm (29 3/8 x 25 5/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss
A nearly nude, muscular man with pale, peachy skin sits in an underground cave 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. His head tips back to look up through a small opening above. He has long, wavy, chestnut-brown hair and dark eyes. A white cloth wraps across his hips, 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 canvas, 224.2 x 330.5 cm (88 1/4 x 130 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
We look slightly down onto a wooden table or buffet with a basket of fruit, a vase of pink and white flowers, a book, and a small tray holding a teacup, saucer, and two 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 has a lip around the edge, and it sits across the front right corner of the table, close to us. One of the oranges in the tray is peeled, and a segment sits near a second, unpeeled orange. The empty white teacup, also in the tray, has a flaring lip and a delicate gold handle, and the cup and saucer are edged in gold. The thick, soft-bound, sea-blue 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 fruit is blush red, golden yellow, or pale green. 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: “Fantin. 1866.”
Textures in Paintings Lessons & Activities

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

How do you think these textures were achieved? You may want to refer to the list in the “Background” section.

Activity

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

As an alternative to accommodate motor control differences, the teacher can cut stencils of a student's chosen object from heavy paper, and then tape the stencils to the other four pieces of paper for the student to paint over.

Extension

Students will then select two of their works of art and use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the process they used to create each piece and what the end product looks like. They should share their findings with fellow student artists.

The Elements of Art is supported by the Robert Lehman Foundation

National Core Arts Standards

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

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

VA:Cr2.1.3 Create personally satisfying artwork using a variety of artistic processes and materials.

VA:Cr2.2.3 Demonstrate an understanding of the safe and proficient use of materials, tools, and equipment for a variety of artistic processes.

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

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

VA:Re8.1.3 Interpret art by analyzing use of media to create subject matter, characteristics of form, and mood.

Color

Line

Shape

Form

Learn more about Leonardo’s Ginevra by watching “Ginevra’s Story” available by loan

Explore a video tour of Leonardo’s portrait

Download family-oriented guides to Leonardo da Vinci and Chuck Close