Your class has uncovered ridges, dots and woven patterns with crayons, and the trial sheets look interesting. Then comes the tricky bit: the marks sit there as separate samples instead of becoming part of an artwork.
Give each mark a job. Children might use it to suggest a ploughed field, a tiled roof, a creature's armour or something you hadn't anticipated. The aim isn't to produce matching pictures. It's to choose where a texture belongs, which way it should run and whether it needs to appear again.
Get three contrasting surfaces ready
Try thin paper and broad wax crayons on clean, stable materials before the lesson. Exposed corrugated card, textured plastic and woven fabric can make a useful starting set, provided the materials are permitted, secure and free from sharp edges or loose pieces. Protect the table and keep the paper between the crayon and the object.
Three surfaces give children a manageable choice, but the number isn't a rule. Choose materials that produce noticeably different marks with the paper and crayons you have.
Make a test sheet first
Place the paper over one surface, hold it still and move the broad side of the crayon gently across it. This is a rubbing, sometimes called frottage. The NGV's Frottage forests activity demonstrates the technique with thin paper and coloured pencil; a broad crayon is a practical variation to trial with your own materials.
If the pattern isn't clear, check whether the paper slipped, alter the pressure or try a different paper-and-surface combination. Pressing harder isn't always the answer. Make a small sample from each surface, then compare what actually appeared: ridged, dotted, close together, widely spaced, bold or faint.
Choose a job for each mark
Offer a simple choice: a landscape or an imaginary creature. Ask, “What could this mark suggest?” and “Where might you put it?”
You could place a ridged sample beside a loosely drawn creature and rotate it to show how direction changes the effect. Stop after that one decision rather than completing a model for everyone to copy. Composition simply means how the parts of an artwork are arranged. As the NGV sequence shows, placing and repeating rubbings can turn separate textures into parts of an imagined scene.
Try a landscape possibility
Suppose the trials produced long ridges, scattered bumps and a fine woven pattern. A child might run the ridges horizontally through a narrow foreground patch to suggest a ploughed field. They could repeat the bumpy texture in two tree crowns, then place the woven marks inside a small roof shape.
Drawn trunks and a roof outline can connect the areas without covering the rubbings. Here, direction helps the field stretch across the page, location gives each mark a role, and repetition links the trees. Different trial results should lead to different scenes.
Build an imaginary creature
For a creature, turn the ridged marks across a curved back to suggest armour. Repeat a small bumpy patch on its feet, then place the woven texture inside a wing. Add an outline, eye, legs or connecting shapes as needed.
If the wing and body merge visually, leave a gap between them or return to the test sheet and try the woven marks in another direction. The picture can change while it is being made; it doesn't need to follow a fixed path.
Pause while changes are still easy
Midway through, ask, “Which mark is doing the job you wanted?” and “Is there an area you'd like to try differently?” A child might test another rubbing, rotate a mark or repeat one that is working well. This return to testing fits ACARA's description of creative processes as flexible and cyclical in The Arts.
Keep the artistic decisions with the child
Broader grips, help holding the paper, picture cues or prepared samples can make the activity easier to access. Offer an alternative to direct touching when needed, and accept pointing, speech or home-language descriptions. You can reduce the amount of rubbing while leaving the choice of texture and placement with the child. ACARA's Visual Arts examples of knowledge and skills presents adjustments as possibilities for teachers to select according to their learners.
Compare what it looks like with how it feels
Place the trial sheet beside the finished picture. A rubbing may show marks that look like raised ridges, but it doesn't reproduce the depth of the original card. The paper and crayon still have their own physical surface. Comparing this visual texture with physically changed paper in the NGV's Tactile textures activity can make the distinction clearer.
Ask children to point to one choice, say what the marks suggest and explain anything they changed. Questions about intentions, materials and changes can structure this conversation without turning one picture into a verdict on ability.
Choose one patch in your picture. What did you want its marks to suggest, and what helped you make that choice?
Keep the trial sheet with the artwork so the discussion includes testing and changes as well as the finished picture.