Candidly Clyde: Ben-Day Dots

I was doing research for Stage Makeup earlier this week when I came across Roy Lichtenstein's work. If you don't know who he is, Lichtenstein was an American pop artist whose work was exhibited alongside his peers, Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. His artwork was inspired by old-fashioned comics, which resulted in parodied humor, primary colors, small dots and onomatopoeias.

New York: Guest of a Guest

The yellow hair is quite striking. It is the most noticeable; however, it is also evident that this woman's face, neck and shoulders are covered with small red dots. Old comic books were often pixel-ized like this. The dots themselves are called "Ben-Day" dots and, in comic books, were created using the overlay of process colors in order to create shading. The dots are notorious for being the same size and of an equal distribution. They give the image somewhat of an industrial look. Therefore, I was surprised when I found the images below.

Comix Connection

We Heart It

If you most know, many of the women in the images Lichtenstein created are crying. What I love are the bold black lines that create the outline of the face and lips. What makes the makeup, however, are the dots. I'm actually thinking of doing this for Halloween come fall. It would take some time, but the end result would be worth it.

Inspired by the Ben-Day dots, I found many more examples of things that reminded me of them.