Norris Dalton, is finally complete!

© 2013 Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

About a year ago, I was talking to my neighbor Norris Dalton, while he was shoveling snow. I suddenly had an overwhelming desire to paint his worn, grizzled features. I ran inside the house, and came back with my camera. I shot some pictures and cranked out a couple of preliminary sketches. But with school and work, my cowboy portrait ended up on the back burner.


A year later, I have finally finished my cowboy portrait, and I'm actually quite happy with it. This is the first non abstracted portrait I've painted in a long time. My goal was pure realism. I wanted to portray the rugged, rustic quality of my model. A caricature wouldn't do him justice. Maybe I'll do a caricature of him for fun later.


Have a Fantastic New Year!


- Kyle

Portrait of Norris – Progress

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday time. I had a great time. But I have a cold now. :/ 

This is a progress shot of my cowboy portrait. The model is my neighbor Norris. I've blogged about him couple of times already. I was talking to him outside, when u had a sudden urge to paint him. I still a lot of work to go. Hopefully  I'll have it finished next week. 

Thanks for looking

Cheers!

—Kyle 

Keef!!!

In honor of Keith Richards birthday I started a painting. The hair is very sketchy because I'm not exactly sure how I want it to be. I'm basically making this up as I go along. 

Happy Holidays!

I'll post again next week. 

— Kyle 

"Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?" Christmas Card Complete!

© 2013 Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

Hello Friends! I know I am so late completing this. I've been really busy working on homework and finals the last couple of weeks. But my schooling is now complete, and so is my Christmas card. So here it is.

Thank you much

- Kyle

Perfect Christmas Gift!

If any of you are looking for the perfect Christmas present for me— which undoubtedly, all of you are. I have allways wanted a Great Big Electro-Who-Cardio-Shnoox!

“… Really, you shouldn't have!”

By the way I'm posting my painted Christmas card Tuesday. 

Cheers!

-Kyle

Preview II (I still ain't getting nuttin' for Christmas)

This is a second progress screenshot of my Christmas card. Since I've been in the month of school, work on it has been very slow. But after Monday I'm FREEEEE from school forever!!!

Any way, I worked on for about three hours tonight. I still have a lot to do. The biggest job is the wreath and the ribbon. During this weekend, I'm going to punch it out and finish it up. Hopefully ready to print and mail out Monday.

Check out the old post for more info on it:

http://gee-whiz-kyle.blogspot.com/2013/11/i-gettin-nuttin-for-christmas-detail.html?m=1

Thanks for looking!

Cheers

Star Wars/The Shining Mash-up (Speed Painting)

© 2013 Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

I normally don't do fan art. But, this is something I've thought about for years.This is my mad idea, the Death Star trench battle from Star Wars, combined with Danny riding his Big Wheel from The Shining. I've always thought combined, they would make a great painting. Because they both have the same unnerving, hovering feel, due to the Steadicam. 

The Steadicam was invented by Garrett Brown, in 1976. It's a portable camera with counter-weights, to keep it steady. With it you can get those eerie scenes of movement, without shot bouncing around. If you've seen Hunger Games or The Blair Witch Project. A Steadicam was NOT used in those pictures.

This is a really quick painting, a little more than an hour. Just to get the idea out. I may do something a little more evolved with it in the future. . . or maybe not.

Thanks for looking!
Cheers!

-- Kyle 

I'm gettin' nuttin' for Christmas! (Detail)

This is a sneak peek of my Christmas card. Hopefully with everything I have to do, including homework, I'll have it finished next week. It was inspired by a Saturday Evening Post cover painted by J.C. Leyendecker.

I don't want to give too much away. So I'm not going to say too much about it. The model is my son Emmett, plus Buster Brown curls. I'm using a 1930s inspired color palette, like Leyendecker would have used. When I post the finished painting, maybe a post before, I'm planning on posting a little tutorial/progress.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was great, other than wrecking my car on the way to dinner. Luckily my turkey didn't go through the windshield. If it had, I just would have brushed it off, and warned everyone to watch for broken glass.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers

– Kyle

A little narcissism goes a long way…

I'm always posting my artwork, but rarely anything about myself. So after playing a silly Facebook trivia game. I decided to post it here.  So here are 7 mild to moderately interesting facts about me. 

1) I absolutely hate Facebook games. I  hate playing them, and I hate being invited to play. This includes surveys and being tricked into using a giraffe as my profile pic. That said, every once in awhile, I'll find one that looks fun. Hence this. 

2) I have a severe revulsion to purple flavoring. I didn't say grape. I said purple flavoring… grapes don't taste like that, brother!  I had a lot of Dimetapp as a kid. If you were chewing grape gum 50 feet away, I would feel instantly nauseated. 

3) … I used to feel the same way about popcorn. It's only been within the last ten years that I've been able tolerate even smelling it. That stems from eating an entire economy size bucket of popcorn, while watching The Empire Strikes Back in 1980…

4) Speaking of really really really old… I love old music. I have a serious music addiction. I listen to everything from ABBA to Zappa.  I love classical, Cab Calloway, Carmen Miranda, Cat Stevens, and Captain Beefheart. Whenever I play Beatles or Pink Floyd at work, some customer will come in and say, "You're too young to listen to this!" Mister, l own music you're too young to listen to. 

5) … but for some reason — this usually brings angry phone calls. I don't like bands that evoke traveling or locations. It's actually 1970's stadium rock, bands like Boston, Foreigner, Journey, Kansas, America. The song Horse With No Name, angers me to no end. If it's bothering you enough to write a song about it, name the damned horse. 

6) I love to cook! I'm a classically trained chef, and I'm good at restaurant work. But I hate cooking professionally. I like cooking for friends, family, and the occasional wedding. But I leave it at that. Maybe I should host a cooking blog. 

7) I can't watch a classic Disney movie without bothering my friends. I'm always pointing out the great moments of animation. For an example– all the backgrounds in 101 Dalmatians are monochromatic 2D line drawings. The furniture appears as though it were drawn on the wall with a pen. 

Thanks for looking, and have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Cheers

-Kyle 

"It Ain't Cool Being a Jive Turkey" Happy Thanksgiving!

"Mother, the bird's a bit tough this year. You reckon?"

I was asked to do another holiday comic for Utah Valley University's newspaper, The UVU Review. It depicts one of the many uses of the greatest invention of the 20th century. . . The Rubber Chicken. 

"Run free dear turkey, run free!"

The history* of the rubber chicken is quite fascinating. The first rubber chicken was invented by Klaus Schäfer, a German watch maker in New York City, 1907. Originally meant as a food product to stave off world hunger. But through the conspiring of man and irate poultry farmers, this was not meant to be. In 1933, while touring the zoology department at Harvard, Albert Einstein saw one of the first prototypes of the rubber chicken. He found it to be one of the funniest things he had ever seen. 

Dr. Einstein brought it back to New York and suggested its use to his dear friends, The Marx Brothers. Although Harpo and Gummo were skeptical, Groucho, Chico, and Zeppo loved the galvanized pullet. Harpo eventually recognized its appeal. But Gummo could not be persuaded, and ultimately left the group. 

The Marx Brothers routinely used it in their act. But they never forgot Albert Einstein, who collected royalties for every laugh the rubber chicken  received.

Thanks for looking
Cheers!

"Run free pretty bird, run free!"

*I may have fudged most of the facts in this history. . . 

Edgar Allan Poe's worst nightmare…

This is a screen shot of a painting I'm working on. It's Edgar Allan Poe being haunted by the movies of his stories: Vincent Price from 'The Pit and the Pendulum', Boris Karloff from 'The Black Cat', and Peter Lorre from The Raven. Although I love these movies, they are nothing like the stories. I'm thinking about adding a couple more characters. We'll see…

I'm still several hours from finishing the BW stage of the painting. Then I'm going to add color, which will take a few hours as well. I'll post another update later. 

Thanks for looking!

Cheers 

I Would Never Want To Belong To A Club, That Would Have Me As A Member. . .

© 2013 Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

I am a big Woody Allen fan. . . especially if I don't think of his personal life. Obviously, Woody Allen isn't going to sit for me, for a painting. I use eight different photo references to get the expression, age, hairstyle, and clothing that I wanted for the piece.

Thanks for looking!

  

Coming Attractions!!!

I'm shivering with anticipation… New blog post tomorrow! Obviously, I'm really excited about this picture! Stay tuned folks…

… because I'm pointing a gub at you

It's been lightly snowing outside, and I'm inside, working on my Woody Allen painting, and listening to Parliament-Funkadelic. Which as far as I'm concerned, makes for a great afternoon indoors.  

My plan is to to have him finished, tomorrow or Wednesday. Have a fantastic day. 

Until next time. 

Cheers 

"It's Pronounced Fronk-en-steen!"

© 2013 Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

This is the post I intended to publish, before I found out about the passing of Lou Reed. I "try" to post once a week. But if I were to wait until next week, this picture would be seasonally inappropriate. We wouldn't want to have that.

This is a painting of Frankenstein's Monster from The Bride of Frankenstein. I drew the original sketch a few years ago, and found it in my sketchbook a couple of months ago. The style and color palette was influenced by the horror painter Basil Gogos. His artwork for Filmland, Famous Monsters, Fangoria, and Aurora Monster model hobby kits in 60s and 70s, brought the Universal Monsters back from the dead, so to speak.

I painted it digitally in Photoshop and Corel Painter. It was really fun emulating his style, which is very hard, and his palette. . . which is even harder! I basically commandeered the colors from another painting. But as I painted it, I was able to slowly pick up what he was doing.

Thanks for looking, and have a fantastic Halloween!

Cheers!

Rock and Roll Animal: Lou Reed

© Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

My Favorite Musician passed away today, the amazing Lou Reed. I did this speed painting today in his memory. His music and lyrics have always been an inspiration to me. Thank you Lou Reed

Cheers!

Monsters Should Be Able to Celebrate Halloween Too

© 2013 Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

This is a Halloween comic I did for the UVU Review. A little background on it. My younger son and I are dressing as Mario for Halloween. . . Big Mario and Little Mario. My older son is dressing as Iron Man. I joked that he should dress as Iron Man with a Mario hat and Mustache. Then I thought it would be really funny to see Frankenstein's Monster and Dracula dressed up for Halloween. It is also inspired by the art of Charles Addams, the creator of the Addams Family.

I slipped in two references to other horror films. Find them and post in the comment section below.

Happy Halloween!

Thanks

Mark Twain - Complete

© 2013 Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

I finished this a month ago, or so, and had never posted it. I was showing a friend my blog, and couldn't find Mark Twain… oh well. Here he is now. Mr. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910)

“Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company”  — Mark Twain

Fun with watercolors

© 2013 Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

These days I mainly paint digitally. I haven't touched tradional media in a year or so. The other day I really wanted to do a watercolor. I just wanted to have fun, without any pressure to make an amazing piece. 

It's not anything massively important, but it was fun to do, and I think it came out pretty good. So here it is. My reference was a photo of an Italian villa. I used pencil, ink washes, watercolor, and a crows quill with ink.

Have a great week and thanks for looking!

London After Midnight - Complete

© 2013 Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

Here is the complete painting of Lon Chaney, and my submission to 'The Gallery of Terror'. I'm actually quite happy with it.

If you didn't read my last post, this is Lon Chaney from 'London After Midnight'. It was directed by Tod Browning ('Dracula' and 'Freaks') and was released in 1927. Unfortunately, the film doesn't exist anymore. The last known print perished in a 1967 MGM vault fire. I've always found  'the man in the beaver-skin hat' (as he was known in the film) to be a thoroughly creepy character, and a great icon from the silent film era. 

I painted it in Adobe Photoshop without an under-drawing. I normally do a pencil drawing first. But this time, I painted it straight. Then I add filters and effects to make it resemble an 1860's daguerreotype. 

Until next time 

Cheers!

London After Midnite

© 2013 Kyle Wiggins, All rights reserved.

This is a great post title. It's 2:40 am, and I'm ready for bed. Happy October! Time for Halloween paintings. It's Lon Chaney from "London After Midnight" (1927). It was directed by Tod Browning (the director of 'Dracula'-1931 and 'Freaks' 1932) Unfortunately the last known copy of the film was destroyed in the 1967 MGM Vault fire. 

Maybe I'll add color to it later, but I'm submitting this painting into a Halloween show tomorrow.

Thanks again

Cheers!

Less Than Zero. . .

Here's a quick Elvis Costello sketch, I did while watching him in Austin Powers. It's funny the things you notice while drawing someone's face, you've never seen before. Like Mr. Costello's caddy wampus, reversed crossed eyes. Well I am super-tired. So have a fantastic night.

Thanks for looking. . .

Cheers

A Frankensteined, Bride of Frankenstein. . .

I was going through some scans of old sketches, and found a Boris Karloff I did couple of years ago. I'm expanding the sketch into a full illustration. I normally prefer to draw on paper. But since I'm sort of Frankenstein-ing this (forgive the pun), I've decided to do the whole thing digitally. . .

When it comes to painting it. I'm planning on using a wild color palette similar to the 1970's Pop-Horror Artist Basil Gogos. I've been wanting to mimic his style, for a few years now. With Halloween coming up, I now have a perfect excuse.

Until next time,

Cheers!

That really ugmo face, on the top left. That would be me. . . 

My Original Sketch

Here are a few examples of the amazing color schemes of Basil Gogos. I am not the artist, nor do I own the rights to the following pieces.

Lon Chaney from  The Phantom of the Opera

Bela Lugosi from Dracula

Lon Chaney from London After Midnight

Christopher Lee, from the Hammer Film's Dracula franchise

 Ingrid Pitt from Countess Dracula

Frederic March from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Sketch of Tiny

Sorry it's been so long, since my last post. I've been busy with a lot of sudden changes in my life. But, I'm back… Hey-Na, Hey-Na, Kyle is back… 

This is my cousin, Tiny. We were outside, having a nice conversation.  When I was suddenly struck with the desire to paint him. The  overwhelming desire to paint somebody, doesn't happen often… But, it's been more frequent, recently. 

These are a couple of preliminary sketches, before I start the portrait. I'm still deciding on whether I'm going to do a straight portrait, or a caricature, what type of background, and color scheme. Decisions, decisions… 

Have a great weekend

Kyle

SOS!!! Send Help!!!

Send me your ideas. You request it, and I'll paint it! Look at this face. It's the look of a desperate man, with nothing to do. . . OK, I'm kidding about that. But I think it'll be fun to paint someone else's ideas.

Post them here I'll be glad to hear from you. . .

Thanks

I Need Your Help!!! Send Me Ideas!!!

I can't find my brain. . . 

I need your help, my friends. I am fresh out of ideas. . . Well actually, I'm not. I just thought it might be fun to sketch or paint fan requests.

There are so many interesting faces in in this world. I couldn't possibly recall every single one of them. Post some comments on this site. Send some ideas of people I can paint. I'm sure you can give a few that never would have occurred to me. Then come back and see the final result. . .

Thank you much,

Cheers

"When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear." Mark Twain

I thought it would be fun to do a Mark Twain speed painting. Normally, I'll paint for an hour and stop. . .  But I was having so much  fun with it. . . This is 2 hours. I like this one much better than my original Mark Twain painting. . . Which is a sight to behold, and a complete embarrassment. 

If anyone has a request, feel free to post them here. I'll see what I can do…

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt"

"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way."

Moroccan Me 2: Beginning Color

After I finished the black and white under-painting, I filled the canvas with transparent layer of magenta. Now I've started to block in color. The color on top combines with the magenta underneath, to give it a cohesive feel. It helps the all the colors to fit in, and not stick out like a sore thumb. (now you see why I paint, and not write literature ;)

I've only worked on the color, for about an hour. I have many hours left, before I can declare this finished. So all I can do, move on and sally forth. Will post again soon. 

Cheers 

Moroccan Me… B/W

This is inspired by a portrait of a Bedouin, by John Singer Sargent. So this is me in a keffiyeh. The rock formation in the back was inspired by N.C. Wyeth. 

 

The value underpainting is basically done. I'll start dropping in color tomorrow.

 

"I've got blisters on me fingers!"

Here is my attempt at drawing a Beatle. I took the photo on my phone. So, sorry about the quality. Once I finish the sketch, I'll post Ringo in all of his Liverpudlian glory. (Not waxing egocentric. I just wanted to say Liverpudlian glory;)

Norris Dalton - Part 1

A few months ago I posted an early sketch of the cowboy painting I am working on. In homage to one of the great illustrators of the 20th Century - James Bama. His realistic cowboy paintings depict the old west combined with elements of the modern world. The model is my old cowboy neighbor Norris Dalton.

I've never posted anything about my process. So this is the first stage: The value under-painting. I still have several more hours work to go before I start adding color. I start with a large brush, working from general to specific shapes, light to dark, and getting my lighting situated.

Thank You Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen

June 29, 1920 - May 7, 2013

Study for Rip. . .

This is the philosopher Herbert Spencer. He has the most amazing chops, skullett, and neck-beard. After seeing his daguerreotype, I realized that he is the perfect model for my upcoming Rip Van Winkle illustration.

. . . So it goes: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

I have been reading a lot of Kurt Vonnegut recently. I thought it would be fun to do a quick sketch of him.

"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion.

 I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do." 
~Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Keef

Working on a Keith Richards painting.

Alchemy Sketch 1: The Sheik Yerbouti

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. School has started back up again.

This afternoon I downloaded a brainstorming sketch/doodle program called Alchemy. I love this program!!! I have it set to "mirror," so I everything a sketch mirrors on the opposite side. The program does not have undo, so it forces you to commit with your marks. Start sketching and go with the flow. It is serendipity at its finest. 

This is my first sketch with it. . .

If you go to Alchemy's website they have a great gallery section, with art made with the program.

Until next time,
Cheers!