Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein is one of the founders of American Pop art. He was born October 27 1923, in New York, the son of a real estate agent and homemaker and studied in Ohio State University. He was part of the generation where his young adulthood experiences were impacted by World War 2 -thus his early work was influenced by American mythologies and frequently referred to images of early American history taken from genre painting.

His interest in the comic-strip cartoon as an art theme probably began with a painting of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck he made in 1960 for his children.

Although he was initially dissatisfied with his technique and uncomfortable with direct appropriation, he took great enjoyment in presenting well-known comic-strip figures in a fine art format. In the style of comic strips, he used words to express sound effects. He developed a detached, mass-produced effect by outlining areas of primary colour with thick black lines and by using a technique that simulated a dotting pattern.

I've attempted to create my own inspired portrait in his style.

This was some of the building work I did, that was created of little squares and triangles to form the Petronas Twin Towers of Malaysia. The lighting was done by lightly colouring in all grey then adding yellow and blue to each side respectively to create shape.

I soon realised that I did not make the towers to the right shape and the bottom base would look awkward by itself, therefore I created the national flower of Malaysia, the Hibiscus. I learnt to form the folds of the flower by adding different shades of red in thin strips.

Here you can see my own spin on the portrait as I added a sense of realism by using different shades of skin tone and blush to form the roundness of my facial features.

Some zip work:

Isolated person with out the background.

This was the portrait before I added any shading.

I worked on the tiny details of inside the flower, creating small stalks and different coloured pollen particles.

Finally: the overall piece.

I am happy with the way it turned out. I think the clouds could've been more cartoonish but I like how the buildings look. I believe the overall colour scheme mixed well and a sense of balance was achieved with attention to the background without taking away from the main focus of the artwork.