Chuck Close inspired Fingerprint Portraits

Blind students use hot glue lines and their finger prints to fill in the value for their portraits

There's more than one way to build value on a drawing. Graphite and charcoal are the popular ways to draw value, but why not follow the example of a young Chuck Close and use fingerprints. 

Studying Chuck Close is especially meaningful to my students because he is an example of someone who never let disabilities get in the way of making Art. When Edgar Degas and Georgia O'Keefe lost their sight, they just changed their medium. Chuck Close turned to Art when his learning disabilities kept him from exeling academically. He tackled his Face Blindness head on, by actually painting the heads of people he knew to flatten them out make them more recognizable. When he became paralyzed, he strapped a brush to his hand with a velcro brace. He stopped climbing ladders, and instead inserted a slit into his studio so that the canvas could be lowered into the floor for him to reach all parts of the canvas from his wheel chair. his hyper realistic style changed, to something more colorful and abstract, but it was still quality representational art, that allowed him to be Clinton's Presidential Portrait artist. After watching a PBS video of him telling his life story while completing a self portrait over the course of the month, we made our own fingerprint portraits in his early style. All you need is an inkpad and a piece of paper. It helps to have a black and white photo to trace and replicate the value. Start with the darkest parts and then as the ink lightens move to some lighter areas before dabbing the ink pad again for dark ink. The biggest issue I saw, was students going directly from the ink to a light area and making a dark mark. It can't be erased. With that warning, try this project on your own and see what you come up with!

I also showed this video of Chuck Close writing a note to his younger self. He died three years ago, but the advice he gave to never let anyone define what you are capable of. "Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us show up and work," he explained. And he teaches you don't have to invent the wheel every day. You just keep doing what your doing and you'll eventually get somewhere. After seeing this, a few students wrote a letter to their younger selves, and I did too. It's a powerful exercise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxR3ELuZjLw

Transfer Drawing Portraits

I have loved making transfer drawings for decades, since I discovered Paul Klee and his art. I like to use a breyer and relief ink to create a tacky surface on paper, which I then flip, ink side down onto my artwork. I draw onto the back of the inky paper, to transfer the drawing onto the final surface. It works like carbon sheets, but it has a lovely speckled texture and ephemeral aesthetic. I didn't have any relief ink, but I had some oil paint and I thought I could paint that on a surface to create a similar affect.Above are my first two attempts at this process, as I took a planning period to figure out the process to teach my students.

Instead of having students pick something to draw, I printed out pictures of them, a family member, or celebrity. This took the subject mostly out of the equation. We were staying in our "Portrait Unit" perimeter, but focused more on media and process then anatomy.

student self portrait

Most of the drawings were hidden in the dark mass of transfered brush strokes. It looked like the project was going to have to be trashed, but I realized that edges could be defined and harsh lines softened by using oil pastel. 

Painting a piece of paper to transfer, left bits of paper sticking to the final product. Likewise, using scrapbook or decorative paper for the base was also problematic as it would tear as we pulled the tacky paint off. Ultimately painting on a piece of laminating plastic and transferring to wall paper samples worked best.

I love the distressed, unfinished look with the vintage wall paper patterns peeking through. It's just another tool in the box of how to make an image.

 

Kehinde Wiley Art Project for the Blind

Visually Impaired Middle and High School Students' attempt at portraits in Wiley's style

Kehinde Wiley is one of the great portrait artists of a generation. He takes every day people and elevates them to classical aristocracy of the 18th century. He draws inspiration from Ingres and Jaque-Louis David, and their work. 

The first Wiley paintings I saw was in Detroit

His subjects are graceful and commanding, but they share the viewers attention with the pattern that fills the background. In fact, sometime's the pattern competes to the point that it creeps into the foreground. Even the presidential portrait of Barrack Obama has the leafy background come forward to cover some of Obama's legs. Studying Wiley is a great way to teach students about negative space,  figure-ground relationships, activating the background, and creating figure-ground confusion. These can be tricky concepts even for people with vision, but it's an extra challenge for my students who are are working with little to no vision.

Students started with a drawing of a person. Some used waxy-strings for their drawing to make it tactile.

I traced the Wiki-Stix with hot glue to make a more permanent way to feel where the lines are. Then they painted the background. Some low-vision students asked that I trace the lines with paint so they could see the shapes better and stay in the lines.

Once the background was dry, students picked out a stencil or two and a color of spray paint. They would decide how to space the stencils and then came the magic of activating the background. The figures were then painted in the foreground with as much value as each student could figure out. 

I used painter's tape or paper stencils to help protect the background for some students. A big part of my job is providing accommodations for each child to work as independently as possible.

Bits of pattern coming to the foregroun

The final part of the project was making the back ground a little more busy: adding colors and shapes so that it held more visual weight than simple wall paper. And of course, students had to find a way to bring some of that pattern in front of the figure. Most students used paint pens to add more colors and complexity. I offered simple stencils for those who needed help making pattern by hand.The students were all very happy with the added pizzaz the pattern brought to their paintings and I think they have more respect for Kehinde Wiley's style and message as a result.

Inktober 2024

sketch for prompt "trek"

sketch for "exotic"

 Every October, my husband try and I try to participate in Inktober. It's a great creative exercise to see what you can come up with, given prompts that you didn't choose yourself. It's a great way to keep up with or sharpen your drawing skills, specifically ink skills. It's also a great way to be part of something bigger than yourself join with thousands of other artists in tackling this project in tandem.

Each day, I post a drawing, even if it's rushed and not great just to check off that it was done. There's something motivating about the accountability from friends telling me that they were looking forward to seeing my sketches, so there was another layer of motivation. The joy of just sitting with a sketchbook is motivation enough. I forget how relaxing and fun it is to draw if I go too long without doing it. So pick up your sketchbook, give yourself 15 minutes of mindfulness therapy, and remember how fun it is to doodle.