PAINTERS: any advice on the technique of Chuck Close?

Question

ive attempted once but i really need some insight, anything would help- even a link or something Im in an awful rut

Answer 1

Good luck! Close is a frickin' GENIUS and I don't usually like modern art technique. I can tell you this, he became intrigued with his style when he was kid and was fasciniated with looking at the tiny dots that form newspaper coloring. I was too, I used to look at newspapers with a magnifying glass and I was INTRUIGED too. Close's canvasses are HUGE, I mean like 8 or 10 feet by 15 or 20 feet. As you probably know the process is sort of dots inside of circles of complementary or analogous colors. The overall effect is patterns of light and dark that result in color masses that make up a image like a paint by number picture. Try this: make a simple line drawing, break it down into light and dark masses and then decide what colors shoud go into each mass. If the color is bright use analogous dots of say, red surrounded by orange. If the area is dark use dots of purple surrounded by blue (again analogous). If the area is neutral use complements of red surrounded by green, purple surrounded by yellow, blue surrounded by orange which will neutralize it and give the impression of a grayed color because it is a combination of complements which will neutralize it. Good luck!

Answer 2

Rent the video Chuck Close: Close Up. Or, go to a museum and Observe his painting.
I don't know why you are trying to copy someone else, in the first place... but it sounds like an assignment on of my friends had our foundation year in art school.
Try thinking of pixels in an image. Try playing with the filters in photo shop.
I mean, really Chuck Close is the only Chuck Close, but you can mimic his style if you try by taking a photograph, then gridding it out, then gridding out your canvas and mixing colors. It's all color percentages, how much cad red is in this square, versus, phalo blue, etc.
Good luck.

PS.
The opinions posted by others here are just that, OPINIONS. Only you can decide if his work is valid to you.

Answer 3

i don't think he's a cheat. try to think of your image as collection of colors or blotches of elements. have you ever seen the time magazine cover of marylyn monroe that was made up of small images of other time mag covers? you gotta realize that's chucks paintings were HUGE. i mean really HUGE. you can't make a similar piece unless you have a large canvass and room to stand back and look at it. come to think of it, it is interesting that his name is close, and you have be far away to see it...don't you think?

Answer 4

That guy's a phony. Whats the point of being an artist without creativity? What's the point in living a life as an impersonator?

Answer 5

learn to do it the real way.. in the art world, he is seen as a cheater who takes shortcuts.