A Grin Without A Cat

How to Replicate Chuck Close's A Grin Without A Cat Portrait Technique

A Grin Without A Cat is Chuck Close's 1982 portrait of Robert Mapplestone, a photorealistic work that looks almost unsettlingly alive until you step back and see it's built from a rigid grid of abstract marks. The piece is notable because Close never painted from life. He worked entirely from a black-and-white photograph, projecting it onto a massive canvas and then breaking the image down into a structured system of geometric cells. The result is something that sits right at the edge of photorealism while also demanding you engage with the painting as pure pattern. If you want to produce something in this style yourself, the process is methodical. It is not fast. A standard A3-sized piece in this approach takes me roughly six to eight hours from start to finish, depending on the complexity of the source image. Larger canvases multiply that time significantly. Close worked on canvases that were often four to six feet across. You do not need to go that big to get the effect, but scaling down too far loses the essential tension between the recognizable face and the abstract surface.

Essential Tools for A Grin Without A Cat Style Work

You need a few basic materials. A stable grid reference is non-negotiable. I use a transparency sheet or a lightbox to overlay a printed grid on my source photo, then transfer those same grid lines lightly onto the canvas with pencil. Fine-tip mechanical pencils work best for this. I also keep a set of brush sizes on hand, usually ranging from a small round two to a flat six, plus a palette knife for certain texture work. Acrylics dry fast enough to work with, which is important because you will be making dozens of small decisions in quick succession. Oil paints give you more blending time but require solvents and longer drying periods that can slow the whole process down. The paint itself should be fairly opaque. Transparent glazes will not hide the grid lines or the underlying values correctly. I use tubes from brands like Winsor & Newton or Golden for the heavy body acrylics. The canvas needs to be primed. A gessoed cotton or linen surface works fine. Pre-primed panels are easier for beginners since you do not have to worry about sizing or preparation steps.

Setting Up the Grid System

The grid is the structural backbone of the entire piece. Close used a 6-by-7 grid for the A Grin Without A Cat portrait, with each cell containing a distinct arrangement of marks that correspond to a specific area of the photographic source. When you are setting up your own grid, measure your canvas and divide it into equal sections. I recommend starting with an 8-by-10 grid for a smaller piece. That gives you eighty cells to work through, which is manageable without being overwhelming. Here is where most people go wrong. They draw the grid too heavily, leaving permanent visible lines in the final paint layer. I use a very sharp HB pencil and apply only the lightest possible pressure. The lines should be just faint enough to guide your edges without competing with the paint you lay over them. If you find yourself pressing hard enough to create a groove in the canvas, you are doing it wrong. Transfer the grid onto your canvas using a measuring method rather than freehand estimation. Measure from the top, bottom, left, and right edges of the canvas to each grid line and mark those points first. Connect the dots after. This eliminates cumulative error that happens when you just eyeball the spacing across a large surface.

Transferring the Source Image

Before you can paint anything, you need a clean source photograph. A Grin Without A Cat was based on a photograph that Close took himself or had a collaborator take. The original photo was high contrast black and white, which made the value structure easier to read. If you are working from a color photo, run it through a conversion tool and then adjust the levels so the midtones are clearly separated from the shadows and highlights. You want at least three distinct value zones to work with. I project the image onto the canvas using an overhead projector or a simple smartphone rig with a magnifying lens. This gives you a live preview of where each grid cell should land before you commit any paint to the surface. Once the image is projected and aligned, trace the major shapes lightly within each grid cell. Do not fill everything in at this stage. Just map out the primary forms: the eye sockets, the nose bridge, the mouth line, the jaw contour. These anchor points prevent the portrait from drifting out of proportion as you move through the cells.

Painting the Individual Cells

Each cell in a Close-style portrait contains its own micro-composition. Some cells are filled with horizontal brushstrokes. Others use cross-hatching or stippling. A few rely on flat color blocks. The variation within the grid is what makes the finished piece interesting when viewed up close. From a distance, the eye blends all those individual marks into a coherent face. Start painting from the center and work outward. This keeps your reference point stable. If you paint from the edges inward, you risk misaligning cells as you move toward the middle. Each brushstroke or mark within a cell should correspond to a specific value or texture found in the source photograph. Pay attention to the directional flow of hair, skin, and fabric. Close carefully observed how light falls across Mapplestone's face and translated that into the orientation and density of his brushwork. Do not mix colors on the palette the way you might in a traditional portrait. Close often used pre-mixed tones that approximated the values in each cell rather than attempting to blend smoothly. This creates a slightly fractured, mosaic-like quality that is actually one of the defining characteristics of the style. If you blend too much, the piece loses that distinctive texture and becomes just another realistic painting without the grid-based interest.

Common Pitfalls to Watch For

The biggest mistake I see is treating each cell as an isolated puzzle piece instead of part of a unified whole. Paint one cell, step back, assess how it relates to its neighbors, then move on. Constant proximity checking keeps the overall composition coherent. Another issue is overworking the edges between cells. The grid lines are meant to dissolve under the paint. If every cell boundary remains sharply defined, the portrait will look mechanical and stiff rather than organically emerging from the structure. A less obvious problem occurs when the source photograph lacks sufficient detail in certain areas. A Grin Without A Cat works because the original photo of Mapplestone had strong definition in the eyes, nose, and mouth. If your reference image is soft or low resolution, the grid method will amplify those weaknesses. Every blurry area gets magnified across multiple cells, and the final result looks muddy. Always choose the highest quality source image you can find. Scan or photograph your reference at the highest resolution available.

Finishing and Varishing

Once all cells are painted and the work is completely dry, evaluate the overall composition against the source image. Look for areas where values are off, where proportions have drifted, or where certain cells feel visually disconnected from their neighbors. Make adjustments now. The painting is still malleable at this stage if you are using acrylics, since you can paint over mistakes relatively easily before the final varnish goes on. Apply a varnish once the paint has cured for at least forty-eight hours. A spray varnish like Gamvar or equivalent acrylic varnish gives an even, non-yellowing protective layer. Avoid brush-applied varnishes on highly textured surfaces because the brush bristles can catch on the raised paint and pull fibers into the finish. Spray application is faster and produces a more uniform coat.

Why This Method Matters Beyond the Visual Result

Working in the A Grin Without A Cat style teaches you to see photography and painting as fundamentally different systems of information. The photograph captures continuous tone. The painting constructs discrete units of meaning. Moving between the two requires a specific kind of analytical discipline that is useful regardless of whether you continue working in this exact style. Many painters find that this grid-based approach improves their ability to read values and simplify complex subjects in freehand work as well. The technique also reveals how much of our perception of realism is constructed by the brain. When you stand close to a Chuck Close painting, you see abstract marks. Step back two meters and the face appears. Your visual system does the interpolation. Understanding this mechanism can change how you think about your own work and how viewers will experience it at different distances. If you are just starting out, work at a manageable size first. A 16-by-20 inch canvas with a 6-by-8 grid is a reasonable introduction. Once you are comfortable with the process and understand how the cells relate to each other, you can scale up. The underlying methodology stays the same regardless of dimensions. The only thing that changes is the amount of time you spend in front of the canvas.