Digital Reproduction

Intention

I chose to make this project based on the original intentions of Roy Lichtenstien to have this piece be a popular culture parody. I decided to use the modern sort of pop culture parody art style called vaporwave art, which is a very modern art movement based on retro cultural aesthetics.

Work

This piece is a pop artwork which depicts Disney characters Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Roy Lichtenstein was an American artist who specialized in this pop art style, similar to Andy Warhol. This work caught my eye because of its comic-like style as well as its humor. The oil painting was a modification of another illustration made in a Mickey Mouse storybook.

Approach

I used GIMP for all of the editing required for this reproduction. I approached this the same way Lichtenstein may have approached his piece. By using the original as a baseline for my own artistic exploration. I tried to keep the theme of parody, and pop culture references, while also alluding to Lichtenstein's original colors.

Product

I created an altered version of Look Mickey by changing the colors, but keeping the consistency. For example blue in the original turned to teal, and yellow turned to purple. Some of the original colors still peak through the new ones, and this was initially because of the inconsistencies of the paint bucket tool in GIMP, but I will reflect on this in the next section. After some of the core colors of vaporwave were added I cut and pasted the image of a classical sculpture typically used in vaporwave art.

Reflection

I think I held Lichtenstein's themes throughout my work because I continued to edit it as a piece of parody art. I think the spots of the original piece's colors showing is actually similar to how Lichtenstein used the book illustration's design for his inspiration. I updated Roy Lichtenstein's work to be a reference to pop culture, and extremely modern art that is relevant today. If my photoshop skills were better I might have made it more smooth or even changed the characters depicted in the image from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck to something else. Overall, I think my reproduction of Look Mickey does a good job of expressing the artists original intentions, and has its own artistic merit for that reason.

3 comments · Latest by Almeda Beynon

An interesting compilation of ideas. Successful final product. I would have liked a little more research about all of the styles you were combining. Overall, a well-informed piece.

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Digital Reproduction

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62-150 Intro to Media Synthesis and Analysis

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New creative industries are empowering new modes of collaborative consumption, creation and reuse of media. This often relies on successful collaborations between cross-trained artists, designers a...more

About

I edited the original version of "Look Mickey" by Roy Lichtenstein to fit the theme of the "vaporwave" art style.