Six years ago, I painted Roy Lichtenstein’s “Girl With Hair Ribbon” on my bedroom wall. Like a lot of his other work, Lichtenstein lifted this image from a comic book, so I kinda lifted it from him. I’ve been drawn to “Girl With Hair Ribbon” since I was in high school, mostly for the woman’s pose and expression. Not to get all artsy-fartsy here, but to me it always looked like she’s glancing over her shoulder and is intrigued by what she sees.
To recreate the painting, I enlarged and traced the image with a video projector, and I filled in the lines with acrylic paint. I had some trouble figuring out how to paint the hundreds of tiny, round pixels for her skin, but after exploring art-supply stores, I found a large, single-hole punch with a diameter slightly wider than a nickel. I used it to create a stencil, punching a row of holes in a manila folder. I then dabbed pink paint over the stencil with pieces of a sponge. The first paint was applied to the shoulder, which is a little darker in color because I hadn’t yet found the correct mix of pink. Things went pretty smoothly up until I reached the bridge of her nose. Somehow the dots stopped lining up correctly. But I fudged it a bit, and by the time I applied the black outlines, she was looking pretty legit.
Since 2003, I haven’t attempted any projects of this scale, but I think now is a good time to change that. I’m leaving for an extended-family vacation today, and Improv Is Good for You will be on hiatus until I get back. But when I return, I’m hoping to take the photoblog in new directions. Although I’m not really sure what those directions will be, I hope you will continue to visit. I am, as always, grateful for your patronage.
improv is good for you 