[Basement bound]

Hi working on things for my portfolio and so I went and borrowed some books from the library. An assortment of artists and disciplines. One was Roy Lichtenstein, and I am planing a few paintings as a way of learning and understanding him and his painting style. Anyone have some opinions, or suggestions?

Sketches 1
Sketches 2
Sketches 3




[ June 08, 2002: Message edited by: Basement bound ]

[Basse_Ex]

It's hard too see how good of a Lichtenstein impersonation it really is, when it's done with colored pencils(?), but you've at least got the basics down.

What strikes me as most lacking, is his sense of dynamics. Perhaps it's because the lack of any real black, which he always uses exceptionally well.

In order to really understand his style, I think you need to look at his inspirations, mainly post-WW2 to 1960 romance and war comics, and modern art, and try to see the connection in some sense.

Don't know where to look for 1946-1960 comics though, since they've been deemed as inferior to the golden-age and silver-age stuff, and nobody seems interested in them anymore.

But there were some great artistry here and there in that period.

The whole romance comics thing was started by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, so that ought to be enough of a reason to look it up.

[ June 11, 2002: Message edited by: Basse_Ex ]

[Basement bound]

Actually Basse_ex, Coloured pencils were a popular medium that Lichtenstein used for sketching and planing out paintings(Large Red Barn Sketch)they were an easy medium to handle, produced the vibrant colours that he wanted and were fast. So please don't knock the my planning stages for that reason.

In the first still life, looking at it now I agree it is lacking in the Black department. What if I placed a light blue for the material an converted the shading stripes to black would that solve it?

The second one will be darker once painted, for the most part I am pretty satisfied with it, I have reworked it a few times already.

Thanks I will try and find some of books from that period, there is a book store around here that has alot of old hard to find kind wierd stuff. Thanks again will keep working hard.

[ June 11, 2002: Message edited by: Basement bound ]

[Basse_Ex]

Didn't intend to knock your planning. Just stated that it's difficult to see how well it works in that medium. Actually, from looking at Lichtensteins barn sketch, it's pretty difficult to tell how well that would turn out also.

Reading through my comments I think I must have forgot to put any positive comments in there, which makes the post sound way to negative. Sorry about that. It wasn't meant to be that way.

I think it's great that you're trying to learn his style. And so far it really looks good.

I don't feel like I know Lichtensteins work well enough to comments much more than that. I've really only "studied"(Or watched intesively) his comic-book panels and his brush-stroke paintings. His interpretations of modern art I've only barely seen.

About putting blue in the first picture... well... I don't know... It might make it too dark again. But I really can't tell.

I think I need to shut up now.

Anyway... good luck!

Looking forward to seing the finished paintings.

[Basement bound]

All cool man I really do appreciate the comments and not mad at all. I might have sounded retalitory(is that a word?) All I was say was that I was planning it, much like Lichtenstein had so that I knew colours, composition, and that the lines/printdots/reflective lines were working. I guess it just goes to show you, you never know until the final really is done.

Hope it all works. Thanks again.

[Basement bound]

*sigh* no one else want a stab at these.

[Torstein Nordstrand]

I'd like to help BB, but I'm afraid I don't know (and understand) Lichtenstein very well. I have seen some comic-like renditions of airplanes and such, and I seem to remember him approaching painting through making dots as if blown up from a magazine?

If you clarify somewhat more what you think is important about his art, and what your main focus is in reproducing them, I'd be glad to give you my biased opinions!

[ June 16, 2002: Message edited by: Torstein Nordstrand ]

[Basement bound]

Thanks Torstein,
Lichtensteins style is very crisp and usually based on a small selection of colours, black being in most cases the most used. They have a great simplicity, yet describing a complexity. Lines are a mixture of fluidity and rigidness, important in describing different objects.
As for lanscapes, he relyed on pure simplicity and shape to render well recognized locations.

Does that give you enough information? I am not sure myself. Anyone?