Checkered Portraits & Color Theory

​This exploration was inspired by my need to do grid drawings with an Art 1 class, and something a bit more challenging with my Art 2s. I have always thought it would be interesting to try and emulate Chuck Close’s technique, but I also knew what he does effortlessly comes with years of experience. (For teachers with younger students, read on for a simplified option idea for grades 4 through 8 or so.)
 
When examining Chuck’s work a few general things seem consistent:

• Grids need to be a bit tight (more squares)
• Cool colors are used in the backgrounds
• Warm colors are used in the face
• Neutral colors for hair and clothing

Fragment of self portrait by Chuck Close

​I also require my students to bring in an image they are connected to: Family Member, Best Friend, or Themselves. If they choose a celebrity, I let them know it will have a slightly negative impact on their grade because a personal connection to your subject is addressed within the rubric. Liking someone is different than knowing someone. However, if a teacher wanted students to pick heroes or historical figures, it might make a nice cross-curricular tie-in.
 
We worked with 18 x 24 in. canvas board and a photo, slid into a plastic sleeve, that had a 10 x 14 square grid on it. After doing a little math, we found that the grid on the canvas should measure about 4.5 cm for each square or a tad smaller. Those who could, measured with rulers. Those who struggled (504/IEP) were given a strip of thick paper that wide to trace and create their larger grid.

Transferring the image was straight forward except we focused on contours of the hair, face, and clothing. We ignored small details like fly-away hairs, and we did not draw facial features like the eyes, nose, and mouth because they would need to be redrawn later anyway. 
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For painting, I had students pair up to share colors. This would help conserve paint and avoid waste. Students created mixtures for 2 warm colors and 2 cool colors in small cups with lids. By pairing each warm with a cool color, neutral mixtures were made. This meant that each pair of students had 6 small cups of paint; about 2 or 3 ounces of each color.
 
We painted the canvas this way:
Background – Alternating Cool Colors
Flesh – Alternating Warm Colors
Hair – Alternating Neutral Colors
Clothing – Neutral Colors or Student Choice

​When the face was complete, that’s when students went back to draw in facial features. They understood that the technique would mean that small details would be lost, so they did not need to worry about the transfer being exact. 

​​When painting, we worked with the background first, hair and clothing next. The face was always last because that required the most attention to detail. By doing the background and hair first, it gave us some experience before moving onto the face.  

​Starting with that background, we mixed each cool color with a tint, shade, and tone giving us 6 colors to work with plus the unmixed cool colors for a total of 8 options. We tried to look at each square as having 3 levels or parts: center, ring, and frame. Working fairly randomly with these colors we painted in each square for an even yet random area of color. When done with the first pass, I told students to squint and look again. If a square stood out as too light in value, they were to add a dark value color. If a square was too dark, to add in a lighter value color.

I really kept at them to USE the vocabulary we had been learning so it would become second nature. With this project, these words now have meaning as they had to apply what once may have just been a concept. 

Some students chose to “play” with patterns in the background. I saw dollar signs in one, African Kente patterns in another. This was another option that added a layer of personal connection to the work and was praised. 

​For those who teach younger students, there was something compelling and interesting about the portraits at this stage. I could see them as complete and perhaps tied to pop art. So if the Chuck Close surface treatment may be too much for your students, why not stop here and  play with cultural patterns in the background? These might even translate well into mural size images of people, something I may try next year.

​Click on images below to see them more large.

​Similarly to the background, we created our 6 colors for the hair, using our two neutral colors and adding tints, tones, and shades. (Plus 2 more if you count the unmixed colors) This time however, we paid attention to the direction of the hair and tried to add paint in a way that emulated or enhanced that texture. Clothing too was handled this way, paying attention to fabric folds. Students were able to ignore patterns in the clothing if it made the area too challenging. 

​The face was the most challenging are and required several layers of paint and a different pallet of colors. Students needed both black and white, plus the tints, tones, and shade we had before, but we added 2 more very light tints that were mostly white for highlights on the flesh. The first painting pass was to give all the squares a basic treatment that emulated the value of the square (it’s lightness or darkness as compared to other squares).

It was important to balance the need to stay within the squares and the need to incorporate angles that would show off the features. In my Dali’ example, most of the squares are whole, but where the moustache crosses, I did break the square format, but tried to keep brushwork contained within the square. I alternated colors when I crossed a line to maintain the square continuity.
 
When this first pass was done, I asked students to squint at their work, to note squares that might be too dark or too light. Then we modulated that value by adding a lighter or darker value to fix the issue. A third pass was often necessary to “tune” the value correctly based on the gridded photograph. I even had to add highlight in the facial hair so it would stand out against the background. I initially wanted to have a hidden eye in the background but felt it was a bit distracting so I removed it from my final version. 
 
Here are some done by my students.

Below are some videos that I shared with students during our lesson.

​This project is very challenging and should not be done by students who are new to grid portraits, or painting. My simplified version mentioned above though, would be easy enough for middle school students.

The ideas of value are tough to explain, identify, quantify, and execute. Some students struggled to work within the constraints of a grid and others flourished. Everyone had to “step up their game,” improved their understanding of these color theory concepts, and gain an appreciation of the artwork of Chuck Close and the masters that preceded him. 

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