Water Lilies - Blue Lily Pads

His early experiments in expressinistic and abstract painting were not successful, and in sheer desperation, Roy Lichtenstein decided to provoke the art world a little and started to paint popular comic figures such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. He used comics strips from chewing gum wrappers at the beginning, but quickly moved on to large scale paintings. The style of comic strips became a great success for the artist.
Roy Lichtenstein challenged traditions of painting concerning content and technique. Everybody knows the thick black lines and surfaces filled with vivid colours and polka dots. Instead of continuous colour fields, Lichtenstein applied dots on the canvas. He copied the cost-effective technique which was used by the printing industry, and this industrial style of the printed comic became the characteristic feature of his paintings.