SELF-EXPRESSION THROUGH POP ART

•  POP ART •  ANDY WARHOL •  SILK SCREENING •  BASIC COLOR THEORY

POP ART

The Pop Art movement emerged in Britain during

the mid 1950’s and late 1950’s in America. Commonly interpreted as a response to abstract expressionism, and contemporary industrial commercial culture.

The “Pop” in Pop Art stands for popular culture and bright explosive colors. Some of the most well known artist of this time include Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper johns, Richard Hamilton, and Andy Warhol.

“Pop artist did images that anybody could recognize…. All the great modern things that Abstract Expressionism tried so hard not to notice. ” - Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol’s work questioned the concept of originality and the traditional values of hand made art. In 1962 Warhol began to use a photo silkscreen process technique that allowed him to systematically eliminate traces of personal involvement. As part of his process he employed assistants to facilitate the mechanical process of repetition similar to an assembly line, his studio then became known as “The Factory.”

Andy Warhol stands out as one of the most recognizable Pop Artist of all time. He set himself apart from other artist by concentrating his work on subjects derived from everyday advertisements, commercial products, media images and celebrities.

He is best known for his repetition of consumer products such as Coca-Cola bottles, Campbell’s soup cans, Brillo cartons to American folk heroes such as Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marilyn Monroe.

WARHOL’S SILK SCREEN PRINTING PROCESS 1. IMAGE SOURCES 2. IMAGE PROCESSING 3. SILKSCREEN BURNING 4. TRACING 5. UNDER-PAINTING 6. SILKSCREEN PRINTING

1. Image sources – Warhol selected images from original photographs, movie stills, and advertisements newspaper and magazine clippings.

2. Image processing – Warhol would then select an area from the image, crop it and transform the cropped image into a positive film. Positive film is made up from high contrasted black and white transparent film.

3. Silk Screen Burning – Warhol lightly coated a silkscreen with a thin layer of sensitive emulsion. Once the emulsion dried he would proceeded by carefully placing the positive film over the silkscreen. Exposing the silkscreen to bright light created a photographic stencil by blocking out the negative space of the image. 4. Tracing – Warhol would then create a basic line drawing of the silkscreen’s stencil to create an outline beforehand on a desired canvas.

5. Under painting – Warhol then set up an outline guiding the colors to their proper place on the canvas. These colors would lie underneath the silkscreens’ design. He did not always follow the guides. 6. Silkscreen Printing – Once the canvas dried Warhol lined up the silkscreen design with the painted colors. Finally Warhol would drag ink with a squeegee across the silk screen. As a result the silkscreen’s design allowed ink to transfer through the positive space of the silk screen to the canvas.

BASIC COLOR THEORY PRIMARY, SECONDARY, TERTIARY COLORS WARM & COOL COLORS TINTS, SHADES AND TONES HARMONIES

The Primary colors are Red, Yellow, and Blue. Combining two Primary colors create the Secondary colors. The three secondary colors are Orange, Green and Violet. Combining both Primary and Secondary colors create Tertiary colors. The six tertiary colors are Red Orange, Yellow Orange, Yellow Green, Blue Green, Blue Violet and Red Violet.

The color wheel can be divided into two sections: Warm and Cool. Warm colors are associated with daytime. They create the illusion of advancing in space. These colors arouse and stimulate viewers. Warm colors are Red, Orange, and Yellow. Cool colors are associated with nighttime. They create the illusion of receding into space. These colors calm and relax viewers. Cool colors are Green, Blue and Violet.

Tints are made when a color is made lighter by adding white. Shades are made when adding black darkens a color. Tones are made when a color is changed by adding gray

(a combination of both black and white.)

Harmonies are basic color techniques for creating color schemes. A.  Colors that are opposite on the color wheel are Complimentary (ex.

Red/Green)

B.  Colors that are next to each other on the color wheel are Analogous (ex. Yellow-Green/Green/Blue Green.)

C.  Colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel are Triadic. (Ex. Violet/Orange/Green)

D.  A variation of complimentary colors is Split-Complementary. Split complementary occurs when a base colors and the two adjacent colors of its complimentary are used. (ex. Green/Red-Violet/Red-Orange)

A. B. C. D.