Learning Objectives

Students will be able to identify Chuck Close and Georges Seurat work and painting process. Students will be able to identify color schemes and will demonstrate basic understanding of color theory. Students will be able to demonstrate techniques used for optical color mixing through acrylic paint. Students will also demonstrate the process of using a grid to scale up an image.

Materials

11 x 14 Bristol or Illustration Board
Pencil
Self-Portrait Photograph
Ruler
Acrylic paint (at least the primaries and white)
Paintbrushes (small)
Small cups for water
Plastic Palette or lid top (white)

Time

4 Classes

Homework

Work on painting outside of class.

Process

Using the photo taken in class, draw a box (crop) your image to 5.5 x 7 inches. This is 1/4 the size of your finished painting. Using a ruler and a pencil, draw a 1/4” grid on top of your photograph. This should give you 22 boxes horizontally and 28 boxes vertically for a total of 616 boxes. You do not need to count them.

On your 11 x 14 sheet of Bristol or illustration board, draw a 1/2 inch grid. This will also give you 22 boxes horizontally and 28 boxes vertically. Now that we have exactly the same number of boxes on your photo and the same number on the illustration board, we can easily scale the 5.5 x 7 image up to 11 x 14. To make things easier, write A, B, C… horizontally across the top line of boxes and 1, 2, 3… vertically along the left side of boxes. Do this on both the photo and sheet of illustration board. This allows you to easily transfer what is in box B1 on your photo into B1 on your drawing/painting.

Now that you have your grid drawn out, start drawing your portrait. Transfer what is in the boxes in your photograph to your illustration board. This should be a very basic drawing as the details will be addressed when you start painting. On a separate sheet of paper and/or using some of the links to the right, decide on a color scheme. You may approach this project several different ways, either trying to paint the colors in your photo as they look or creating an entirely new color scheme.

The goal of the project is to create an engaging image in terms of color, composition and technical skill. You should see the blocks in your final painting so be careful not to paint over the lines. If you need to cut a block in 1/2 or into a 1/4 you can.

Resources

Chuck Close Wikipedia
Chuck Close Process and Collaboration
Georges Seurat Wikipedia
Chuck Close Interview MoMA, Part 1
Chuck Close Interview MoMA, Part 2