Collage to Photorealism

Essential Questions

Is still life only about the objects seen in the image or also about those not in the image? If so, what questions does this beg?
Do still life artists most often commodify the image of the product represented or the still life itself?
Why is combining real and implied imagery together helpful to an artist who is trying to create a sense of photorealism within a design?
How can the artist perceive the beauty of movement, the subtleties of color, and the richness of texture better than cameras in poorly lit conditions?

Your assignment is to create a 3-dimensional collage on a 3 x 3 inch paper. The theme is “The Hand of My Muse” and the content are up to you as an artist. (Remember artistic intent is always important!) I am requiring a strong composition and interesting construction carefully balancing color, rhythm, texture, and focal point.

Once the collage is completed, you need to create a grid pattern with string over the mounted 3x3” collage. You will grid off the 12” square painting canvas and create a scaled cartoon on the canvas showing all content and tonal changes.

From this point, you will paint with acrylics as realistic an image as possible. The image needs several considerations:

1. Ambient light – the light that is around in the air surrounding the objects being painted. This is a subtle difference but painters pick up this difference and use it to help create photorealistic images. Look at your hands next to a window. Do you see the warmer colors on the side toward the interior and cooler colors one the window side of your hand?

2. Underpainting – This is part of a process of painting called indirect painting. This a technique learned taught the Old Master's like Rembrandt, Carravaggio, Titian, and Rubens. This method produces paintings that capture and emit ambient light, infusing the works with a unique jewel-like glow. The light filters through translucent layers of glazes. The first paintings done after the cartooning of the canvas is the underpainting. It is sometimes referred to as the wrong color painting because it does not have the same colors as the finished layer of paint.

3. Reflected light- light bounces off of every object around us. If I have a blue shirt on and stand next to you, you will have some blue light reflecting onto you. Anyone painting your portrait will shift chroma to the blue end slightly to show this effect. Blue could be added as a glaze - nearly transparent layer - over the normal color image to give this effect as well.

4. Tonal range – Highlights really make this field pop. Look at photorealistic images and focus on the highlights and how the artist uses them in a hyper-realistic way. If anything else, photorealism is employs painting highlights on steroids. The whites are pure white and crisp. This is done with small brushes and great control by the artist.

5. Overpainting – This is the final coat of paint put on the image. It usually is heavily weighted with medium, either acrylic or polymer for acrylic painting and oil with oil painting. This give the image a glass like sheen. The trick to get a convincing painting is the subtle manipulation of color in this overpainting layer. It is all a game of finesse at this point.

Click on the Close painting below for links to Chuck Close. His graphing technique will be the technique we will use to scale our work.

Artist References:

Cesar Santander

Frank McVeigh

Curt Hoppe

Quicktime Image Reference slide show