Chuck Close Experiment
In my Visual studies class we have been studying and experimenting with painting in a grid, our teacher has shown us some of the work done by Chuck Close. Here are some web sites for further investigation:
Most of the work by Chuck Close is very large, 9 feet tall, which is way too big for an experiment, so I chose a size larger than our class exercise, where we are using 1/2 inch squares on a grid. I chose 2 inch squares which resulted in a 28" x 40" picture. I purchased a large piece of canvas, cut it to the desired size, applied gesso and once dried, lightly sanded it and drew the grid. Using the original photograph as a guide. I worked square by square. Initially filling in the square with a large circle of that square's base color. I then outlined each square in another color, hoping that from a distance the final picture might at least resemble the original.
The first image is an animation of the slides showing stages of the process, this is followed by each individual slide. The last picture shows a side-by-side with the original photograph.
Animation - Loops 3 times
Slide 1: This is just the canvas treated with the Gesso
Slide 2: This is just the canvas with the grid drawn, 14x20 2in squares
Slide : I have added my hair to the picture. Initially I was trying to fill in the entire square, but as the painting progressed I found in easier to just paint a large dot.
Slide 4: On various boxed I outlined them in black for areas with deeper shadows and with yellow for the lighter areas.
Slide 5: I filled in all of the squares with the mid-tone flesh paint I had prepared.
Slide 6: I painted black circles for my shirt
Slide 7: I have a blue border for all of the boxes in my shirt, and started altering the tones in my face. I also outlined the boxes with a correspnding flesh color containing more red, I also started adding more yellow to the areas I wanted to hilight
Slide 8: I touched up areas and added my eyes and mouth
The final image shows the enite piece side-by-side with the orginal photograph, click on the image shows a larger copy.
