Things feel different: a cat is fuzzy, sand is grainy, water is smooth, bark is rough. In a drawing, the kind of marks you make can show how something feels. This is called texture.
Key idea
Short strokes for fur, dots for sand, long smooth lines for water, wavy lines for wood.
Why it works
Our eyes remember how things feel. When a drawing uses fur-like marks, we can almost feel the fur, even though the paper is flat.
Worked example: Let's look
What marks would you use for a sandy beach?
- Sand is made of tiny grains.
- Tiny dots look like grains.
Answer: Lots of tiny dots.
Common mistake
Some children color everything the same flat way. Try different marks for different things: short lines on the cat, wavy lines on the tree, dots on the path.
For the grown-up. Make crayon rubbings: put paper over a leaf, a coin or a bumpy placemat and rub the side of a crayon over it. Then ask your child to draw those textures with marks.