 In 1963 , Lichtenstein was parodying various types of sources such as commercial illustrations , comic imagery and even modern masterpieces . The masterpieces represented what could have been dubbed the " canon " of art and was thought of as " high art , " while the " low @-@ art " subject matter included comic strip images . His masterworks sources included the likes of Cézanne , Mondrian and Picasso . During this time in his career , Lichtenstein noted that " the things that I have apparently parodied I actually admire . " At the time , Lichtenstein was exploring the theme of " industrialization of emotion " . In Lichtenstein 's obituary , Los Angeles Times critic Christopher Knight said the work was " a witty rejoinder to De Kooning 's famously brushy paintings of women " . His comic romances often depicted stereotypical representations of thwarted passions . Although the Lichtenstein Foundation website claims that Lichtenstein did not begin using his opaque projector technique until the fall of 1963 , Lichtenstein described his process for producing comics based art , including Drowning Girl : 
