Lichtenstein worked by creating a small-scale line-drawing based on the Picasso reproduction. He then projected the drawing onto the canvas, using the projected outline-drawing as a template.[7] The artist deliberately avoided the easier option of projecting the reproduction itself. According to art scholar Michael Fitzgerald, this was because he wanted to be "true to his discipline of drawing".[7] Lichtenstein attached the reproduction to the wall of his studio next to the painting as he worked on it. A photograph of the artist with the work in progress can be seen in an article on Lichtenstein that appeared in Life magazine at the time.[7][9] Such evidence makes Woman with Flowered Hat "the most thoroughly documented of his variations after Picasso".[7] Discussing the painting with Richard Brown Baker, Lichtenstein commented,
There are some changes in this from the Picasso, obviously complete changes all over, but the more obvious ones: I've changed the face-color to the pink dots and the hair-color to the yellow, since all my girls have yellow hair, almost all of them do. And I was curious to see what it would look like with a more pseudo-realistic color, sort of correcting Picasso, as though he had made an error in painting the face blue. And one of the purposes of it is to make what looks like an insensitive reproduction of the Picasso, and changing the color of the face and hair to ones that would be more conventional would be part of that insensitivity, and there is a general change in the shape of the whole position of the head.[7][10]