6th Grade: Alternative Self-Portraits

At the end of the year I have my kids draw an image of themselves to help them assess their artistic progress. We did a twist on our portraits inspired by the artist Chuck Close.

1.We watch a short documentary on the work of Chuck Close to help us get to know him and his style.

****Art Lesson with Chuck Close

Other great videos:

Note to Self: Artist Chuck Close Explains why he became an artist

Chuck Close on following a grid Why does Chuck Close use a grid?

2.  I took photos of my students in front of our white board, printing them as large as I could on printer paper. Once printed, students used a ruler and a pencil to draw a grid on top of their photographs. Inside these boxes they drew a simple shape a pattern using geometric or organic shapes.

3. Before we colored, we criticize various images of Chuck Close's portraiture. Why the shapes? What's up with all the colors? How does the grid help him create his images?

4. We used colored pencils to create patterns within the grid pattern mimicking Chuck Close’s style of painting. Paying close attention to warm and cool colors. Cool colors in the gray and black areas and warm colors for any white space.