Good bye, Facebook!

This week, I am saying good bye to my Facebook account, including my figure art fan page. There was no issue with Facebook, no crazy people anonymously reporting my nude artwork. This was strictly a personal decision, to honor a request made by my family to spend less time online and more time dealing with some issues.

I have mixed feelings about letting go of Facebook, yet I have to say that not being constantly tied to a keyboard & computer monitor will somewhat liberating.  Really, where have we come to in society where we can count hundreds of strangers as 'friends,' just because we all log into the same social network?  We used to be able to count our close friends on two hands, we would communicate with them by landline telephone, by writing notes or letters and dropping them into a mailbox, or by walking to their houses and chatting over coffee or tea.  Now, we send emails, or text messages, or pop into our social media accounts.  It all seems so ....impersonal.

I enjoyed reconnecting with old school friends and family on FB, but the time has come for me to reexamine many things in my life, and become more productive with my energy and time.  I have not given up creating artwork of beautiful women; the anchor image was taken just a week ago, and shows me working on the beautiful Playboy model Misty Dawn.   I hope to be finished in about a month (which will be about 8 years to the day when I started it). But my avenue for updating people about my art will be through this blog, my website on Fine Art America, and my occasional email newsletters (you can go to the top of my Fine Art America site, click on 'Subscribe,' and receive my emails).

Many thanks to all of your for following me over the years. God bless you all.

Good-bye, Norma Jean

On August 6, 1962, the lifeless body of Marilyn Monroe was found in her home.  It was assumed that she died of an overdose barbiturates, although no suicide note or glass were found near her.  A Hollywood star's bright light, troubled as it was, was snuffed out.



Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jean Mortenson) has been the source of inspiration for  artists and photographers for more than a half century. She was Playboy Magazine's very first Playmate of the Month.  She played to the camera like no one had in years, and she appealed to both men and women.  The breathy voice, the hourglass figure, she was truly one of a kind, and she inspired quite a few imitators in the years since (Anna Nicole Smith and Madonna to name a couple).  A film starring Michelle Williams was made about her in 2011, 49 yers after her passing.  that is real staying power!


So, here's to you, Marilyn Monroe...like the great song by Elton John and Bernie Taupin says, we never really knew you at all, but we're so glad for the time you did spend with us.

Glamourcon Special-50% Off

Glamourcon 2012 will be in Chicago the weekend of August 4 and 5, and even though I can't be there this year (previous engagement), I want to offer you Show Specials as if I was. 

From August 1 through August 17, anyone who orders any art from mypage at Fine Art America. gets 50% off my markup price. That's right, I'm giving up half my profit. This can really save you big on bulk purchases, or larger pieces (sorry, the discount does not apply to materials and shipping--FAA won't let me!). 

Say you want to order an 11" x 14" art print. You would save about $7 off the regular price, after processing and shipping. And the larger sizes will save you even more. The quality of the prints is unbelievable; I've seen them. 

The discount code is NGKHUP, but any purchase in the shopping cart during this time period is eligible for this great offer. This is an excellent way to get quality prints of my work at a much lower price than usual. 


Besides the prints, I also have some original pieces of art for sale at special rates too. Contact me directly at Fine Art America, and I'll send you some information. 

I'm also offering some special rates on custom commissions. 
11" x 14" ...........reg $300 .........now $250! 
14" x 17" .......... reg $350..........now $300! 

Requires 30% down to start, between August 1-August 17. Contact me for details, offer coincides with the print special. 

From Photo to Art--Dana Dicillo

I used to have a membership to the old Playboy Cyber Club, and met many, many models there.  One was a feisty, petite Italian girl named Dana Dicillo, a Special Editions model who had big aspirations to become the shortest Playmate in history.  Dana was direct, to the point, and just very, very cute.

Being the atypical Playboy model, I thought she would make a perfect subject.  I looked through a lot of her pictorials (harder to get online in those days), and finally found this image in the May/June 2004 Special Editions Lingerie issue, shot by Andrew Goldman.

Dana obviously has a wonderful figure; her petite frame and smaller breasts are so different than most Playboy models.  What drew me in was her dark, expressive eyes.  I felt like she was almost looking through me.

I chose a very, very toothy illustration board for this image, and cut in quarters.   I figured that the rougher surface would challenge me to create more shadows and contrasts, since the reference photo had flat lighting.

Since this was a lingerie issue, she, of course, was shown in various stages of undress in her pictorial.  I frankly wasn't interested in the bra hanging below her breasts in the reference photo; I wanted to make this a full frontal nude.  I loved the up do with her hair, and thought about how interesting that could be in the final drawing.

I did get a chance to send it to Dana after I finished, she wrote back, wow, that looks like me!  I took that as a compliment.

You can see a larger version of the art work here.

From Photo to Art--Carlotta Champagne (The Very First One!)

I just recently discovered that, in all the time that I've been doing this series "From Photo to Art," I have never featured one of my favorites---the very first drawing I did of popular Playboy model Carlotta Champagne.  it also represents one of the first drawings where I "removed" the model's clothing.





















I originally met Carlotta online though the modeling site OneModelPlace.com, and we met in person at Glamourcon Chicago 2006.  I remarked how much I liked this photo of her, and asked her permission to use it.  She said she co-owned the copyright with the photographer, Keith Seraphim, but if it was okay with him, she agree.  Keith gave his permission, and I set out to draw.

I absolutely loved Carlotta's hair and expression in this shot; she looked so relaxed and beautiful.  But since she is a nude model, I wanted to try something different, and what would be better than to place her naked in a hot tub?  It wouldn't be all that difficult, since she is wearing a string bikini in the reference photo, I really only had to recreate her breasts without the suit, and I had plenty of photo references for that.  The tricky part of this drawing was drawing the hot tub and the water, I was not familiar with the surfaces, and I had more trouble than I thought.

This art has proven to be one of my post popular pieces, and the original was purchased by a photographer not long after I completed it.  I've used it on my Erotic Pin-up & Illustrations business card, my Glamourcon placard, and frequently as an avatar.  It was also featured in Carrie Leigh's Nude (you can read about it here).   Since the original is now sold, I've often thought about redoing this piece, to correct some things that I believe could be improved.  Any feedback on that?


You can see Vincent Wolff's art on Fine Art America

From Photo to Art--Carlotta Champagne Nude, Part Three

If you regularly follow this blog space, you'll know that I like to write about how I transformed a photo reference into artwork.  This is the third drawing that I created from a photoshoot my friend Rob Domaschuk conducted in my home a few years ago of Playboy model Carlotta Champagne.  I have blogged about previous drawings of Carlotta before, and it's always fun to visit the "before and after" of the art.

As stated in my prior posts, Rob and I booked Carlotta to pose at my house, so I could have some reference shots for future artwork.  Carlotta was a true professional, happily posing nude on my pool table and next to my bar, wearing a tie, a fedora, and nothing else.  We got several great shots, and the first drawing I did was of Carlotta in a power pose next to the bar, removing the tie and giving her a whip for an Indiana Jones style drawing.  I chose a more whimsical photo from this set for the second drawing, which I started at Glamourcon 2007.

The following year, I wanted to do something different, and challenge myself.  I liked the photos with the hat and tie, but I wanted to take one of the images and capture Carlotta's unique beauty, and nothing else.  So I chose a head shot and decided the hat and tie would go.  This proved to be a bit problematic--not only did I have to draw her head with no hat, but also her left breast, which got cropped in the reference photo.   I also couldn't decide on a hairstyle; Carlotta's hair fit nicely with the fedora, but it wasn't to my liking for my drawing.

Truth be told, I have struggled with this drawing for over 3 years (off and on); it was almost abandoned at least 2 times, and as recently as a couple of months ago.  But I got excited about it again,  after finishing a commission, and forced myself to go darker in shaded areas, particularly the hair.  I tend to draw too lightly, and I tried some tricks to go darker, so I'd have more contrasts.  Considering where this drawing was at not too long ago, I'm happy with it.  You can see this and more art at Fine Art America.

WIshing I Had That One Back

Often, when you create art, you look back at a piece and realize that you could have done something a lot different to it to make it better.  Regret is always a part of the game in artwork; you look at a drawing or painting later on, and think, I should have done this.

I first joined Model Mayhem back in 2006, and met some great models immediately  One of them was a curvaceous lady known on MM as Iday.  I was drawn to her portfolio, not only because of her near-nude images and great figure, but her exotic Middle Eastern looks as well.  We messaged back and forth about me using one of her images as a reference, finally deciding on the photo to the right.

My challenge in this drawing was the rope skirt.  I frankly didn't know how I was going to pull it off, so, after thinking it over for a few days, I decided that I was going to ditch it and draw her wearing something sexy (she didn't want to be depicted nude at all).  I decided to leave it until after I completed most of the top portion.

I printed up my reference and got to work, and have to say, I was really happy with the direction that this drawing was taking.  When you are a pinup artist, you don't want to screw up something that God created so beautifully, and Iday's gorgeous form was emerging from the background nicely (see WIP below).

As I got to her hips and legs, I discovered that my original plan just wasn't going to be as simple as I thought.  I had enough of a sense of Iday's hips and legs through the macrame skirt to draw them, but I just wasn't happy with something about it.   I wound up putting a little thong thing on her, but I was disappointed in myself.  I had the drawing professionally shot when I finished, and sent Iday a print as a thank you.


I've had several years to review what I did on this drawing, and I concluded that I should have left the rope skirt on Iday, as they accentuated her hips quite nicely.  I realize now they would not have proved to be as troublesome as I originally thought, and I could have used a design element to make them look kind of cool.  As I said, Iday has a gorgeous, curvy figure, and great camera presence.  I know I could do this over, and perhaps one day I will.  See the full size version at me Fine Art America website.