Roy Lichtenstein: An Artists’ Creative Process

The idea of an artist’s process has always fascinated me. Everyone thinks and works in a way unique to them. The steps an artist takes that lead to a finished painting is incredibly interesting and telling. Every artist can paint a line on a canvas but none of these lines will look the same and it is who they are and what they bring to the making of that line that makes each artist and each painting unique.

In the 1960’s Roy Lichtenstein brought his unique voice to the art world. His hard-edged precise compositions have been said to have defined the pop art movement. This summer the Art Institute of Chicago has brought together the largest group of Roy Lichtenstein’s work, including drawings, paintings and sculptures, to show the scope of his process and interests in the exhibition Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective. I was most taken by the portion of the exhibition entitled Works on Paper. Here a collection of preliminary drawings that were made as precursors to finished paintings reveal the process behind so many of the art included in the rest of the exhibit.

Roy Lichtenstein once said “It’s all thought up in the drawings and all accomplished in the paintings.” Sketching the beginnings of a painting on paper was an important part of his creative process. It allowed him to rearrange elements until he reached the narrative end he wanted. By jotting down notes on these works on paper he was able to record the thoughts he had on the painting or direct his studio assistants with directions on color, etc. Sometimes, he would enlarge an image to work out some of the compositional details. These studies were often superimposed onto canvas through the use of a projector.

Over time as Lichtenstein’s palette expanded, collage became a part of his process, allowing him to arrange the elements of the painting by combining cut and painted pieces of paper. This process resulted in a complex, multilayered final composition.

It is fascinating to see the many steps that Roy Lichtenstein made throughout his creative process; the many changes that went on in between the initial idea and the final painting.



In my next post I will explore my own process through a step by step look at one of my newest encaustic and fiber sculptures.