"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!