CHUCK CLOSE

July 5, 1940 Lives in New York

Art One : A Jacobson Production

 CHUCK CLOSE
American painter/artist
and photographer who
achieved fame for his
massive-scale portraits

Although a catastrophic spinal

artery collapse in 1988 left
him severely paralyzed and
forever in a wheel chair.
Overcoming his disability he
straps brush strapped onto
his wrist with tape to paint.

Suffering from severe

dyslexia, Close did poorly
in school but found peace
in making art.

Graduated from University

of Washington with a B.A.
Working from a gridded
photograph, he builds his images
by applying one careful stroke
after another in multi-colors or
grayscale.

He works methodically, starting his

loose but regular grid from the left
hand corner of the canvas. His
works are generally larger than life
and highly focused.

Close suffers from Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness,

in which he is unable to recognize faces. By painting portraits, he
is better able to recognize and remember faces.
By the late
1960s,
Close and
his photo-
realist
pieces
were
entrenched
in the New
York City
art scene.
Although his later paintings differ in method from his earlier
canvases, the preliminary process remains the same. To create
his grid work copies of photos, Close puts a grid on the photo
and on the canvas and copies cell by cell.
Viewed from afar, these squares appear
as a single, unified image or
Divisionism. TURN AND TALK TO YOUR
NEIGHBOR.. Divisionism What other
His biggest fear was that, "Since I'll never
be able to move again, I would not be
able to make art. I watched my muscles
waste. My hands didn't work."
"Art saved my life,"
the artist says today
with enthusiasm.
"It made me feel
special, because I
could do things my
friends couldn't, but it
also gave me a way to
demonstrate to my
teachers that, despite
the fact that I couldn't
How to Use the Grid to Draw an
image from a Photo

What you will need:

How to Make a Grid Traditionally
Step 1
Print out your
photograph at a
reasonable size. It
doesn't have to be
gigantic but you need
to be able to see the
details so you can
copy them. I prefer to
print it out in black
and white so that it's
easier to see the
edges. My portrait is
How to Make a Grid Traditionally

Step 2
Figure out an appropriate size of the grid
spacing. For most images, I prefer 1/2"
between each line but sometimes 1/4" or
3/4" works best. Here I'm going to use
1/2".
How to Make a Grid Traditionally

Step 3
Draw the grid
out on your
printed photo. I
prefer to use a
color pencil or
ink pen here so
that it's easier to
see on top of
the photograph.
 How to Make a Grid Traditionally
Step 4
Label the boxes on
the sides of the grid.
I prefer to go A, B, C,
etc. on the left and
right sides and 1, 2,
3 on the top and
bottom. Labeling the
boxes makes it much
easier when you get
into the middle of the
grid and you start
getting lost
Prepare Your Drawing Paper (or Canvas)

Step 1 Step 2
Determine Measure and
the final size draw out the
of your outer
drawing. rectangle/squar
Here you'll e of your final
have to do drawing. Here
some quick I'm making the
calculations. final drawing
Are you twice as big as
doubling the my original 5" x
photograph? 7" photograph
Prepare Your Drawing Paper (or Canvas)
Step 3
Use your ruler to Step 4
determine the new Draw out your final grid
size of the grid. If on your drawing paper
you're doubling the
size of the photograph
and your grid squares
are 1/4" by 1/4", then
your new grid squares
will be 1/2" by 1/2".
Since my original
grid was 1/2" boxes,
my final grid will be
1" boxes
Prepare Your Drawing Paper (or Canvas)

Step 5
Label your new
grid identical to
the smaller grid on
the photograph.

Begin Drawing
Step 1
Pick where to start.
I like to start at a
recognizable point.
Perhaps it's the
bottom of a chin or
the part in
someone's hair.
Here I'm starting at
the bottom left of
the chin.

Begin Drawing
Step 2
Look at the box
that contains your
starting point and
find the
corresponding box
on the bigger
paper. For me,
that's box J4. Copy
the outline line in
that box. I drew in
the curve of the
chin in box J4.
 Begin Drawing
Step 3
Follow the outline from box to
box, using the grid labels to
help you know where you are.
I usually work left to right and
slowly make my way around
the head first. A good tip is to
look at where the outline
starts and ends in each box.
Is it touching the middle of
the outer grid box line or the
corner? It becomes a bit more
mathematical when you do it
this way but you won't get
Step 1
Draw All the Large Shapes
Continue drawing until
you have all of the big
shapes penciled in. If
your lines don't meet
up in the end, go back
to the labels on the
boxes and double-
check yourself box by
box. By big shapes I
mean the outlines of
the people or
landscape or animal
that you're drawing
Begin Adding the Details
Step 1
Now that you have
all the big shapes
drawn in, begin to
pencil in the
smaller details like
hair lines, eyes,
ears, etc

Begin Adding the Details

Step 2
Keep looking at the
grid labels to check
that you're making
the details in the
right boxes.
Generally if you're
going to get lost,
you'll do it here

 Step 1
Check Box By Box then Erase the Grid

Go in with an
eraser and begin to
erase the grid lines
as well as you can.
This may take a
very small eraser in
some parts

You're Ready to
Now Create Your
Masterpiece!