I've been obsessing about art quite a bit lately, and one of the artists whose works I admire is
Roy Lichtenstein. You'd all know his work if you saw it, it's hard not to recognize it. He was responsible for some of the most fun American Pop Art from the 60's I've ever seen, using comic art in a highly ironic way.
Artchive.com has some samples of his work as well as a small biography, and there's always
Google Image Search.
I wanted to learn Photoshop techniques for creating Lichtenstein influenced artwork, using bold comic lines and halftone patterns to make the resulting drawing look like
Ben Day dots, an effect Lichtenstein used often which became something of a trademark
(not unlike irony) in his work and countless examples of comic art.
I love the whimsical attitude that comes across in this kind of stuff, it's very ordered and sophisticated but maintains it's sense of - I don't know, childlike abandon? Anyway, I wanted to draw something in Photoshop and then manipulate it digitally to give the final composition the look and feel of something reminiscent to a Roy Lichtenstein. It has taken me a couple of hours just to get the color balance right, let alone the rest. All of the lines I had to be careful with - especially the bold ones, to make them look somewhat imperfect. All of the color is random and painted in, based on suitable palettes for this composition. So here it is, my tribute to Roy Lichtenstein, the subject is
michaelnolan, based on a picture I took of him last month.
