"Exasperated"
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Inspiration & Research
This piece is directly inspired by Chuck Close's early and later works. I took inspiration for my black and white palette from "Big Self Portrait", as well as a general inspiration for a type of facial expression to be present in the piece. His image was taken when he wasn't exactly clean, and the emotion on his face is not a traditional solemness of self portraits or the smiles of modern, everyday images. "Lucas I" inspired the method of my piece. Both use his signature grid method, however "Lucas I" uses much larger squares to create an abstract impressionist piece. I took inspiration from both in terms of framing, only showing the shoulders up in the piece, and the focus on details of the face and surrounding features. Having an entire body could take away from the face itself, which was his focus in his pieces.
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The grid method itself is pretty self explanatory. A grid was created on the original image, and a grid was created on a canvas. Each square on the image translates to a square on the canvas, recreating the image larger than before, often large enough to cover an entire wall. That was the goal of his earlier works, to flawlessly reproduce an image taken on a large-format camera into something much larger. Later on, when his work steered into a more abstract zone after losing the ability to move his hands quite so meticulously, there was more of a goal to visually break down the human face than ever before. Each square has a few colors dabbed on together to reproduce the general facial features and shape without being photo realistic like his earlier works. However, both forms of his work are still highly detailed take months to years to complete to his standards.
Planning
While planning this project, I mainly focused on the potential facial expressions I could be making. I sketched some up, based on how I was feeling at the time. I then used those as references for facial expressions while I was taking photos of myself. One never quite translated, where I was intending to look sad & upset. However, I never figured out how to make myself cry, so I just tried to look dismayed. I intentionally took these in the morning, after laying down for a while to make my hair a little bit messy, and didn't take a shower prior so that my hair looked a little bit greasy. I also perpetually have eye bags that are kind of puffy, which added to the "just finished crying" kind of look.
I also took many other photos, but many of them are blurry or framed in a way that was not conducive to this piece. Taking pictures and not being able to see what I was doing or check if I was in focus was kind of difficult.
Process
After I took my images, I sifted through them and found which one I wanted. Then I brought it into Photoshop, and cropped it down to the framing I needed for the piece: from just above the top of the head down to around the bottom of the collar bone, from mid shoulder on each side.
Next, I used the black and white filtering tool in Photoshop, and played with the values of each color a bit. Red, green, cyan and magenta were all darkened, whereas yellow and blue were lightened a bit. The blue was especially important, to make sure that my hair wasn't unreasonably dark. Next I messed with the brightness and contrast of the image. I knew that since there's no color, there needs to be a wide range of values to make sure it is visually interesting. I brought up the brightness to make the whole image a bit lighter, as the background was a little dark. I took up the contrast in order to get that wider range of values, like the shine in my hair and on my nose that was less noticeable prior. Next was to add the grid. I pulled a transparent grid off of the internet and pasted it twice to make it the size it needed to be, and adjusted it so there was a full square on all edges. After that, I made a canvas in Paint Tool Sai that had the same ratio of height and width that was larger than the original, and put the grid on it to paint in. In the screenshot to the left, I have completed an entire row and turned off the grid to see what it looked like so far. To the left is a detail screenshot of what I had been doing. Each square was tackled independently, with the colors being picked directly from the source image. Most squares don't completely connect, they just have lines and colors that are the generally correct direction, which adds to the more abstract look. While working on the piece, I had the basic areas that I had completed marked off to help keep track of how far I had gotten. I also used a single red dot as a marker, and there would be one on both images that could be used to get my bearings when I got lost in the squares. |
Experimentation
My main experimentation for this piece was at the beginning, where I couldn't decide if I should use Photoshop for the painting. In the end I went with Paint Tool Sai instead, because I'm much more comfortable with it as a drawing program. I also tried to use the grid more as a reference at first rather than fully following Close's method. I felt like I was missing the point a little bit, and I switched to his method entirely for the piece.
It was also originally intended to be realism, more akin to his early works. However, I found that I had no way to make it in a reasonable amount of time and switched to a more abstract style like his older pieces. |
Reflection
Overall I'm very satisfied with how this piece came out. I wanted to do something with a nice, simple concept which was easy to deal with, yet have a piece that is technically impressive. This piece was extremely tedious, having to deal with over one thousand squares, which was terrifying but feels satisfying that it is finished. However, I did have a few issues. My largest one was deciding how much texture each square should receive, especially when putting together my hair. Some sections are mainly very small textures, with tiny shades and highlights, but it's an unreasonable level to consider adding to relatively abstract piece. So there was some squares that had a bit due to large ranges of values, and some are just one shade, which can make some of them look out of place. I also had an issue with deciding how much space there should be between each square. Some had a bit of white space, and some had none, but it was so tedious I wasn't able to pay it that much attention. I may go back and change it up a bit so they match better.
My piece is inspired by both eras of Chuck Close's work. I specifically liked the black and white palette of his early work, and the abstraction of the older work. My piece is obviously different from "Big Self Portrait" in that my piece is less detailed and not realism. However, I went for the kind of facial expression found in it and other similar pieces, which is unpolished and unsmiling. I explicitly wanted to include the things on my face that bother me, like my eyelid which folds over, in similar way to Close's unshaven face. My piece is also clearly different from "Lucas I" in multiple ways. One is that it is not colorful like that piece. Another is that it is more abstract than mine, with many more and smaller squares. Both of these pieces are also a lot larger than mine, which are around the size of a wall. Mine is not that large, due to material limitations. I also didn't use the same medium as him. My piece is a digital painting, and his are acrylic, one applied with a brush and the other applied with an airbrush.
My piece is inspired by both eras of Chuck Close's work. I specifically liked the black and white palette of his early work, and the abstraction of the older work. My piece is obviously different from "Big Self Portrait" in that my piece is less detailed and not realism. However, I went for the kind of facial expression found in it and other similar pieces, which is unpolished and unsmiling. I explicitly wanted to include the things on my face that bother me, like my eyelid which folds over, in similar way to Close's unshaven face. My piece is also clearly different from "Lucas I" in multiple ways. One is that it is not colorful like that piece. Another is that it is more abstract than mine, with many more and smaller squares. Both of these pieces are also a lot larger than mine, which are around the size of a wall. Mine is not that large, due to material limitations. I also didn't use the same medium as him. My piece is a digital painting, and his are acrylic, one applied with a brush and the other applied with an airbrush.
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect on upon your artwork.
I used the same method for creating "Exasperation" as my inspiration, Chuck Close. I also made an effort to use similar color palettes and work from a relatively candid base image, the same as his.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
They feel that his pieces are very interesting in that the subjects of his paintings are not celebrities or anyone important, but ordinary people, which makes them feel more anonymous yet casual.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc while you researched your inspiration?
I have come to the conclusion that people value the idea of the faces of individuals. People like the idea of studying these individuals and thinking about what kind of person they would be only based off of their faces.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I researched the value of different faces and people, and the portrayal of humans as they are.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
That Chuck Close has been an extremely valued member of the art scene since the completion of "Big Self Portrait".
I used the same method for creating "Exasperation" as my inspiration, Chuck Close. I also made an effort to use similar color palettes and work from a relatively candid base image, the same as his.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
They feel that his pieces are very interesting in that the subjects of his paintings are not celebrities or anyone important, but ordinary people, which makes them feel more anonymous yet casual.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc while you researched your inspiration?
I have come to the conclusion that people value the idea of the faces of individuals. People like the idea of studying these individuals and thinking about what kind of person they would be only based off of their faces.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I researched the value of different faces and people, and the portrayal of humans as they are.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
That Chuck Close has been an extremely valued member of the art scene since the completion of "Big Self Portrait".
Sources
“Big Self-Portrait.” Walker Art Center, walkerart.org/collections/artworks/big-self-portrait.
“Chuck Close | Lucas I | The Met.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/484760.
“Chuck Close.” Walker Art Center, walkerart.org/collections/artists/chuck-close.
“Chuck Close.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 17 Aug. 2015, www.biography.com/people/chuck-close-9251491.
“Chuck Close Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-close-chuck.htm.
“Chuck Close | Lucas I | The Met.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/484760.
“Chuck Close.” Walker Art Center, walkerart.org/collections/artists/chuck-close.
“Chuck Close.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 17 Aug. 2015, www.biography.com/people/chuck-close-9251491.
“Chuck Close Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-close-chuck.htm.