WELCOME TO ROY LICHTENSTEIN
INSPIRED MIXED MEDIA PORTRAITS!

If you brought an iPad, please
download the Comic Book Camera
app – It’s FREE!
If you brought a computer, please
download the Comic Life program
at http://plasq.com/downloads.
They offer a 30 day free trial
 WiFi password: Hilton930
 We will get started once we get the
technology figured out

MEETING COMMON CORE STANDARDS

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.1 Cite the textual
evidence that most strongly supports an analysis
of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
REST ASSURED!
 I don’t do a reading or common core integrated
activity for every project – more like one per
trimester for each grade
 It’s not THAT painful for students or teachers
and it helps provide more background for
students to understand the lesson better.

FINDING AGE APPROPRIATE TEXTS
I spent A LOT of time scouring books and articles
to find something about Lichtenstein and Pop Art
that is middle school level reading – I even paired
with the Reading Specialist for this one!
 The best one I found is: Pop Art (Art
Revolutions) Hardcover.
 by Linda Bolton published in 2000.
 This book is out of print, but can be found on
Amazon from used book sellers.
 I have provided a copy of the reading I used for
the “common core” activity.

READING THE ARTICLE…
I read to students the first page and we worked
together to brainstorm the main idea.
 We came up with something along the lines of
“Pop artists created art about everyday
objects as a way of celebrating the modern
way of life.”
 Student’s copied this down on their worksheet.
 Then we searched the article for TEXTUAL
EVIDENCE that supports this main idea.
 I had students copy the actual text and then
provide an explanation as to WHY that sentence
supports the main idea.
 I made them complete 4 (only 3 on their own)
 DONE!

PROVIDING MORE BACKGROUND…
Then I show students the following Powerpoint
presentation on Roy Lichtenstein.
 (I have also shown part of a DVD on Roy
SHOWING students his work process, but it
depends on time – could be interchangeable with
the powerpoint)

I want them to understand:
 A. Roy Lichtenstein was deemed a FAILURE
before he finally “made it” as an artist
 B. Roy Lichtenstein follows a strict process when
creating his art – much work takes place before
he actually makes the artwork.

ROY LICHTENSTEIN
Pop artist
ROY LICHTENSTEIN
Born in 1923
 Went to a private school in 8th grade where they
offered no art classes
 The next year, Roy started taking a watercolor
class on Saturday mornings.
 After graduating high school Roy went to Ohio
State University to study fine arts.
 Roy had to leave college early to serve in the
army during WWII, but returned after school was
done.
 After finishing his bachelor’s degree in art, Roy
started working on his MFA.

HISTORY CONTINUED
While working on his MFA Roy was hired as an
art instructor.
 Roy continued working as an instructor while
making works in cubist and expressionist styles.
 Roy stopped teaching for awhile and started a
family and worked on his art. He had to have
odd jobs to pay the bills when he wasn’t selling
work.
 In 1957 Roy moved back to New York and began
teaching again.

BATTLE SCENE, 1948-1949
PASTEL ON PAPER, 19 1/8 X 25 3/16 INCHES
A LADY (NO. 51175), 1975 OIL ON
CANVAS; 32 X 24 INCHES
HISTORY CONTINUED
Roy converted to the Abstract Expressionist style
of painting.
 In 1960 he began teaching at Rutgers where he
was influenced by fellow teacher and artist Allen
Kaprow.
 Kaprow is famous for his “happenings” which
took life and turned it into art.
 While working in his abstract style Roy’s son
challenged him that he couldn’t draw as good as
that – pointing to a Mickey Mouse Comic Book.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
Roy made a painting based on the drawing he did
for his son and hung it in his studio.
 He was continually drawn to this painting and
eventually abandoned all other work and began
making these “cartoon” works.
 Later he painted every day objects like sneakers,
hot dogs, and golf balls.

DESK CALENDAR, 1962 OIL ON CANVAS
48 ½ X 68 ¼ INCHES
BENDAY DOTS – HIS CLAIM TO FAME
FAILURE!
Roy’s new works were heavily criticized and he
was considered a TERRIBLE artist.
 Despite the criticism Roy continued to paint and
his paintings began to gain popularity.
 He took inspiration from everyday things such as
comic books and made them magnificent and
kept the “industrial manufactured” look.
 He also joined many art trends in his own way.
As abstract expressionists sought to bring art
back to being about the paint, Roy made his own
paintings of paint.

BRUSHSTROKE PAINTINGS
BRUSHSTROKE PAINTINGS
SUCCESS!
Eventually critics started to enjoy his work and
praise Roy as the great artist he is now known
as.
 Determination and hard work helped Roy become
the success that he is.

DETAIL OF WHAAM!, 1963
DROWNING GIRL, 1963
WHAAM!, 1963
USING ARTISTS AS INSPIRATION
BEDROOM AT ARLES (1992) COPY OF VAN
GOGH’S BEDROOM IN ARLES FROM 1888
HIS PROCESS
He ALWAYS starts with a sketch!
 Once he figures out a composition he likes, he
colors the sketch so it is all figured out before he
gets to the large work.
 Roy then uses his actual drawing and projects it
on the screen, moving it around on the canvas
until he finds it pleasing at the larger scale.
 Roy then traces and labels the colors he plans on
using.
 Then carefully Roy paints.

YOUR TASK
YOU will be the subject of this work of art!
 We will be taking a picture of your face (portrait)
 Ms. Zill will edit the background out of your
photo and put the photos in a folder under
TEACHER TEMPLATES – ZILL – in your
period!
 Using the COMIC LIFE program you will edit
your photo to “comicfy” yourself
 In COMIC LIFE you will also add several
‘Explosions’ & a phrase to create a Lichtenstein
inspired composition

YOUR TASK CONTINUED
We will print out each of the finished
compositions.
 Using the Photo Enlarger (the big white
machine) we will enlarge our images onto the big
Bristol board


REMEMBER – YOU GET ONE sheet of bristol
board, so if you mess up you have one more chance on
the other side and that is it!
All the lines will be traced with a black sharpie
marker
 Using markers and stencils, you will color in your
compositions with a variety of Benday dots and
solid areas.

TECHNOLOGY
It’s not perfect – since I don’t have access to a
class set of ipads OR computers…
 I run this project in stations along with screenprinting t-shirts and students rotate through the
different steps and projects.
 I have a small opaque projector I use to have kids
trace their compositions, and I use my classroom
projector – again, must keep kids running
through stations.
 YOU COULD HAVE THEM DRAW FROM THE
DIGITAL WORK IF YOU WANT…

FINISHING THE PROJECT…
I have students trace their compositions
 Outline in black sharpie
 Fill in a minimum of 2 areas with Ben-Day dots!
 Other areas can be solid
 Ben-Day dots HAVE to be colored with markers
 The rest can be colored with PAINT or Markers!
 I double mount projects for the final finishing
touch.

COMIC BOOK CAMERA
Advantages: Fast,
easy to make
compositions
 Disadvantages:
Not as many
options to
manipulate.

COMIC LIFE
Advantages:
Students can fully
play around with
creating a digital
comic composition.
More photo filter
options.
 Disadvantage: In
order to fully
appreciate, you
have to have a
transparent
background, which
means more
teacher work

YOUR TURN!
Using the provided handouts and a little plain
old experimentation, let’s try making our own
compositions.
 I have 2 ipads, and a computer if you need to
borrow one.
 If you don’t want to take the picture on your
computer, you can take one on your phone or the
ipad.
