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