Andy Warhol Alcoholism

Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1928. He was one of the leaders of the Pop art movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Through his work, Warhol broke down the barrier between fine art, celebrity culture and American commercialism. Many of his works feature culture icons and name brand products. Some of his most famous works include his Marilyn Diptych and his Campbell’s Soup Cans and his Shot Marilyns.
The artwork that I emulated in my painting was Warhol’s collection of prints titled Marilyn Monroe. Warhol used screen printing to create this collection. The prints in this collection vary in color and scale but all bare the same iconic photograph of actress Marilyn Monroe. Warhol created a stencil and then pushed ink through the stencil to create an image. Warhol repeated this process with various colors on each print, with each color being a layer on the print. This created a layering effect in his prints. Because of the repeatability of the silkscreen, Warhol was able to make multiple prints of the

same picture using different colors. This allowed him to make many portfolios full of prints.
I did not have the time to make screen prints so I used acrylic paint to create my artwork, Harry Styles.

I used his iconic color-blocked look as a model for my painting. His prints also feature a culture icon at that time so I used a culture icon of our time: Harry Styles, former member of the British boy band, One Direction. Each portrait in my painting consists of either five or six colors as was similar to Warhol’s prints. I created portrait as a mini painting within a larger one. I traced a photograph of Harry Styles from his cover shoot of Vanity Fair magazine. I traced this photograph divided it into areas of similar colors and created a sort of color-by-number puzzle. I then traced this tracing onto the canvas on top of a piece of carbon paper. I traced over the carbon paper six times to fill up the area of the canvas. Once I had gotten the simplified tracing of the photograph, I began painting, using a different color for each

number.
An obvious difference is that my artwork is an acrylic painting, whereas Warhol’s were screen prints. I think most of the portraits on my painting capture the pop art look of a Warhol print. But they certainly do not look the same as Warhol’s. The portraits in my painting do not contain quite as much detail as Warhol’s screen prints, and Harry Styles is not wearing bright eyeshadow.
Overall, this is one of my favorite works I’ve ever done. I think the idea was solid and this result was also pretty solid. My favorite one is the top center with the pink background. I think this is the neatest one and the black highlights in the hair look really good with the rest of his purple hair. My only problem with the painting is that the ones I did later are noticeably sloppier than the earlier ones. Also, If Harry Styles bears any resemblance to Rosie the Riveter in the bottom right one, that was 100% unintentional. Overall, 9/10 would paint again.