So What’s the Point?
• Pointillism (pron.: /ˈpwɛntɨlɪzəm/) is a
technique of painting in which small, distinct
dots of pure color are applied in patterns to
form an image
• Pointillism is in sharp contrast to the traditional methods of
blending pigments on a palette. Pointillism is analogous to
the four-color CMYK printing process used by some color
printers and large presses that place dots of Cyan (blue),
Magenta (red), Yellow, and Key (black). Televisions and
computer monitors use a similar technique to represent
image colors using Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) colors.
• The painting technique used for pointillist color mixing is at
the expense of the traditional brushwork used to delineate
texture.
• The majority of pointillism is done in oil paints. Anything
may be used in its place, but oils are preferred for their
thickness and tendency not to run or bleed
Georges Seurat 1859-1891
• One of the first artists to
use this style. Post
impressionism George
Seurat used a series of dots
to create his works of art.
He lived a short life of
32years forever changing
the face of artistic works to
come. The cause of his
death is uncertain, and has
been variously attributed to
a form of meningitis,
pneumonia, infectious
angina, and diphtheria
• Next time we can visit Ben Day dots and Rob
Lichtenstein
http://www.creativebloq.com/graphicdesign/pointillism-examples-dot-art-11121135
• The Ben-Day Dots printing process, named after
illustrator and printer Benjamin Day, is similar to
Pointillism. Depending on the effect, color and
optical illusion needed, small colored dots are
closely-spaced, widely-spaced or overlapping.
Magenta dots, for example, are widely-spaced to
create pink. 1950s and 1960s pulp comic books
used Ben-Day dots in the four process colors
(cyan, magenta, yellow and black) to
inexpensively create shading and secondary
colors such as green, purple, orange and flesh
tones.
• Ben-Day dots differ from halftone dots in that the Ben-Day
dots are always of equal size and distribution in a specific
area. To apply the dots to a drawing the artist would
purchase transparent overlay sheets from a stationery
supplier. The sheets were available in a wide variety of dot
size and distribution, which gave the artist a range of tones
to use in the work. The overlay material was cut in the
shapes of the tonal areas desired—i.e. shadow or
background or surface treatment and rubbed onto the
specific areas of the drawing with a burnisher. When
photographically reproduced as a line cut for letterpress
printing, the areas of Ben-Day overlay provided tonal
shading to the printing plate.
• Ben-Day dots were considered the hallmark of
American artist Roy Lichtenstein, who
enlarged and exaggerated them in many of his
paintings and sculptures, especially his
interpretations of contemporary comicbook
and magazine images. Other illustrators and
graphic designers have used enlarged Ben-Day
dots in print media for a similar effect.
Roy Lichtenstein 1923-1997
One of Roy’s famous works on display
in Europe, “WHAM”
Onomonopia
• Defined as:
• The formation or use of words such as buzz or
murmur that imitate the sounds associated
with the objects or actions they refer to.
A link to an interview with Roy
• http://youtu.be/nPRmSAsq
YyQ
Mabey next time we can
explore…
• Around the same period of
time Andy Warhol was
becoming more popular and
took commercial artistry to
new heights