Chuck Close

Biography Born July 5, 1940 in Monroe, Washington American painter and printmaker Suffering from severe dyslexia, Close did poorly in school but found solace in making art. Studied at the University of Washington MFA from Yale in 1964 In 2000, President Clinton named Close a recipient of the National Medal of Arts

His Work Visual artist, who used inventive techniques to paint the human face Best known for creating large scale photo-realistic portraits – Photo Realistic Painter- artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium By the late 1960s, Close and his photo-realist pieces were entrenched in the New York City art scene Used several different Medium throughout the years – Airbrush, fingerprints, crayon, acrylic, watercolor, oil, pencil, paper, and paper collage Phil.1969 Acrylic on canvas, 108 x 84"

Black and White Earlier work Focused on black and white because his subjects were “too interesting” No interpretative freedom- just realism Worked from photos

Technique Grid Technique – Applies one careful stroke after another in multi-colors or grayscale. – Methodically works starting his loose but regular grid from the left hand corner of the canvas – His works are generally larger than life and highly focused. – To create his grid work copies of photos, Close puts a grid on the photo and on the canvas and copies cell by cell

Turning Tragedy into Technique

Newer Work New studio New technique New style

Still uses grid technique Several colors make up each piece of the grid All together they make a unified whole Self Portrait

What you will be doing… You will create a Chuck Close inspired painting using acrylic Instead of portraits… we will be doing your favorite food.

Day 1 Choose your favorite food Find or create a picture of this food – You can search on the internet for an image – Shoot your own photos of your favorite food – Make a print **Must be either 4”x 5” or 8”x 10” **Must be an interesting composition **Try to zoom into your food, really getting in a lot of textures and detail.

Good Examples

Grid Method An easy way to enlarge a painting or drawing using ratios The grid method involves drawing a grid over your reference photo (Image of food), and then drawing a grid of equal ratio on your work surface (canvas) The important thing to remember when drawing the grids is that they must have a 1:1 ratio

1. Start by drawing the grid lines on the reference photograph Draw lightly Make sure the lines are evenly spaced apart using a ruler

2. Label the ROWS and COLMUNS with letters and numbers

3. Grid your work surface to exactly match the reference photo using the 1:1 Ratio

**If your work surface is larger than your reference photo, you need to enlarge it appropriately Reference photo 5” x 7” The size of your artwork must always be equally proportionate to the size of the reference photo

4. Check proportions -Are there an equal number of rows and columns on the canvas as there are on the reference photo? -Are the squares on the canvas perfect squares, just like the squares on the reference photo?

5. Square by square, draw your reference image on your canvas

6. Once every detail is drawn on, start painting!