Chuck Close Using a grid to enlarge artworks and images
Keywords for Students Photorealism Value Tint Shade Monochromatic Painting gridding
Value Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue or neutral color. A value scale is the range of values from black to white and light to dark. Tint is the light value of a color made by mixing with white. Shade is the darkness of a color; may be achieved by adding black.
Who is Chuck Close? Born 1940 American Painter, Printmaker He began studying art when he was about ten years old. He is best known for his monumential, detailed paintings of portrait heads
His Works
Big Self Portrait Acrylic on canvas 107 1/2 x 83 1/2" Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Dorthea 1995 Oil on canvas, 102 x 84" The Museum of Modern Art
Georgia 1984 Handmade paper, 56 x 45" Signed, lower right
Fanny / Fingerpainting 1985 oil on canvas 102 x 84 x 2 1/2 in. National Gallery of Art
Self Portrait 1997 Oil on canvas 102 x 84" Private collection, New York.
Lyle color silk screen 65 1/2 x 53 7/8 in. Metroplitan Museum of Art, NY
His Methods
He begins each new work with an extreme close-up, usually of a face, taped to a board. The photograph is then squared so it can be enlarged and transferred by hand to canvas. He has painted in thousands of tiny airbrush bursts, thumbprints, or looping multi-color brushstrokes. The enormity of the completed painting magnifies each realistic detail of the subject's appearance, including wrinkles and freckles.
Maquette for April 1990 Polaroid Polacolor ER print with tape, ink, and paint, mounted to foamcore Image: 20 x 24 in. Getty Museum, LA Along the right-hand border of this image, Close tested a range of paint colors in an attempt to find the appropriate balance for the painting.
Self-Portrait in. x 30 in. x 1/4 in. Polaroid with tape, ink, and oil, mounted on board Collection SFMOMA Notice the grid drawn on top of the image!!
Self Portraits / Scribble / Etching Portfolio /4 in. x 15 1/4 in. etching on paper Collection SFMOMA This art work is monochromatic!!
gridding
The assignment As a class create a monumential portrait Each student will paint a value scale and a monochromatic scale The class will select a cultural icon to depict The image will be gridded in 2 inch sections Each student will be assigned one section to grid onto a 12” square sheet of paper each student will paint one monochromatic section using
Resourses and Credits htmhttp:// htm mhttp:// m