Creative Explorations: Discovering the Visual World · 2nd Year · Lines, Marks, and Making · Autumn Term

Exploring Textures through Frottage

Using graphite and crayons to capture the physical feel of surfaces through the technique of frottage.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• NCCA: Primary - Drawing
• NCCA: Primary - Awareness of Line and Texture

About This Topic

Texture and Rubbings focuses on the tactile quality of art through the technique of frottage. This topic encourages students to engage with their physical environment by capturing the 'feel' of surfaces using graphite, crayons, or pastels. In the NCCA curriculum, this falls under the Drawing and Awareness of Line and Texture strands, helping students transition from seeing objects as flat shapes to understanding them as three-dimensional entities with unique surface characteristics.

Students learn that texture is not just something we feel with our hands, but something we can represent visually to add depth and realism to our work. By selecting and recording various surfaces, they make active choices about composition and contrast. This topic flourishes through station rotations and collaborative investigations where students can share their 'texture finds' and compare how different materials react to the same surface.

Key Questions

1. Explain how the underlying surface alters the visual outcome of a rubbing.
2. Compare and contrast different textures based solely on their black and white rubbings.
3. Justify an artist's choice of surface when creating a texture rubbing.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the visual characteristics of different surfaces through frottage rubbings.
• Compare and contrast the visual outcomes of frottage created with graphite and crayons.
• Explain how the physical properties of a surface influence the resulting frottage.
• Create a composition using frottage techniques to represent a chosen theme.
• Justify the selection of specific surfaces for a frottage artwork based on their visual texture.

Before You Start

Basic Drawing Skills: Line and Shape

Why: Students need foundational understanding of how to make marks and represent simple forms before exploring texture.

Observational Drawing

Why: The ability to look closely at objects and their characteristics is essential for identifying and capturing textures.

Key Vocabulary

Frottage	An art technique where a pencil or crayon is rubbed over a textured surface placed underneath a piece of paper, revealing the texture.
Texture	The perceived surface quality of an object, including its smoothness, roughness, or bumpiness, which can be represented visually.
Surface	The outer layer or covering of an object, which has distinct physical characteristics that can be transferred through rubbing.
Graphite	A soft form of carbon used in pencils, which can create smooth or varied tonal marks depending on pressure and the paper's texture.
Crayon	A stick of colored wax or chalk used for drawing, which can produce bold, waxy marks and capture coarse textures effectively.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Texture is only something you can feel with your fingers.

What to Teach Instead

Students often confuse tactile texture with visual texture. Hands-on rubbing activities help them see how a physical bump becomes a visual mark on paper, teaching them how to 'draw' feel.

Common Misconception

Any drawing tool works for rubbings.

What to Teach Instead

Students may try to use sharp pencils, which tear the paper. Through experimentation, they discover that the side of a crayon or soft graphite works best, emphasizing the importance of tool selection.

Active Learning Ideas

Station Rotations: Texture Discovery

Set up stations with different materials like wood, metal grates, fabric, and stone. Students move in groups to create rubbings at each station, labeling the 'visual feel' of each result (e.g., 'scratchy' or 'bumpy').

45 min·Small Groups

Think-Pair-Share: The Mystery Rubbing

Students create a rubbing of a secret object from their bag or the classroom. They swap rubbings with a partner who must describe the texture and guess the object without seeing it.

15 min·Pairs

Inquiry Circle: Texture Collage

The class works together to create a large 'texture map' of the school. Each student contributes one rubbing from a different location (the playground, the hall, the gym) to build a collective visual record of their environment.

40 min·Whole Class

Real-World Connections

• Architects and interior designers use texture rubbings as a preliminary step to understand and specify materials for buildings and spaces, considering how surfaces like brick, wood grain, or stone will look and feel.
• Illustrators and graphic designers might use frottage to create unique background textures or visual elements for books, posters, or digital media, adding depth and tactile interest to their designs.
• Textile designers analyze the weave and surface of fabrics through rubbings to inform their own pattern creation and material selection for clothing and home furnishings.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

Provide students with a small piece of paper. Ask them to select one surface from the classroom, create a frottage rubbing using graphite, and write one sentence explaining how the surface's texture affected the rubbing.

Quick Check

Observe students as they rotate through texture stations. Ask targeted questions such as: 'What is different about the rubbing from the brick compared to the rubbing from the wood?' or 'Which tool, graphite or crayon, do you think works best for this rough surface and why?'

Peer Assessment

Students display their frottage rubbings side-by-side. In pairs, they discuss: 'What is one surface you recognize from your partner's work?' and 'What is one thing your partner did that made their rubbing particularly interesting?'

Frequently Asked Questions

What is frottage in the context of primary art?

Frottage is the technique of taking a rubbing from an uneven surface to form the basis of a work of art. It is a key way for 2nd Year students to explore texture and pattern without needing advanced drawing skills.

What materials are best for capturing clear rubbings?

Thin paper (like newsprint or lightweight printer paper) is essential so it can mold to the surface. Large wax crayons with the wrappers removed or chunky graphite sticks are the most effective tools.

How can active learning help students understand texture and rubbings?

Active learning turns the classroom into a laboratory. When students participate in a 'Texture Hunt,' they are physically moving and touching surfaces, which reinforces the connection between the sense of touch and sight. Collaborative investigations allow them to see a wider variety of textures than they could find alone, accelerating their ability to categorize and describe visual information.

How does this topic connect to other subjects in the Irish curriculum?

This connects well with SESE (Science), specifically exploring materials and their properties. It also supports literacy by providing a rich context for using descriptive adjectives and sensory language.