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Chris Kuchta

chriskChris Kuchta: Celebrating the Tall Man’s Victory with Horror Art’s Coolest Master. By Brian Kirst

https://bloodedemon.deviantart.com


https://www.kuchta-academy.com

Artist Chris Kuchta has one of the most uniquely successful ways of drawing (and breathing new, vibrant creativity into) our horror legends. Each Kuchta creation pops with moist life (or death as the case may be) and is truly an original experience. Taking a break from his regular stream of convention appearances, classes and latest projects, Kuchta recently answered some slick and bloody questions for this special Horror Society missive.

Brian: Who were your first artistic influences – Lon Chaney Jr. bemoaning his fate as the Wolf Man – Reggie Bannister rocking, rolling and gunning down the Tall Man – a bespectacled, widowed grade school art teacher with a wicked left hook?

Chris: The first art I was exposed to was a pile of ‘Creepy’, ‘Famous Monsters of Filmland’ mags, and ‘Tomb of Dracula’ comics.  The first artists I was influenced by were Frank Frazetta, Bernie Wrightson, Gene Colon and Basil Gogos.  As far as early characters that I drew, the very first one was Dracula. Some visual inspiration that influenced my style were Ray Harryhausen films, weird roadside attractions on road trips, flea markets, classic Universal monster flicks, Marvel comics, Jack Kirby in particular, Boris Karloff, Peter Cushing, and Bela Lugosi.

Brian: Excellent! You do create a lot of old school (Boris Karloff) and newer old school (Phantasm) art. Do you have a favorite period of filmdom to recreate or do they all hold equal balance to you?

Chris Kuchta Moonlight CurseChris: I like to do work from a lot of different eras in horror history. I love 1930’s/40’s black and whites, Hammer horror films, 70’s and 80’s grind house and slasher flicks amongst other things. But I am also interested in doing art from really current films if they have the proper atmosphere. Guillermo Del Toro films like ‘Hellboy’ and ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ would be awesome to do, ‘Trick ‘r Treat’ was bad ass, recent zombie films like ’28 Days Later’, ‘Planet Terror’ and ‘Quarantine’. ‘Let the Right One In’ was also a recent movie I saw that had some great atmospheric imagery that I would love to capture. A painting of Vinnie Jones from ‘Midnight Meat Train’ would be great too. – Some other pieces I’ve been wanting to do for a long time are John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ (although I’d also love to do the Howard Hawkes ‘Thing’ as well), Tar Zombie from ‘Return of the Living Dead’, the Eddie Romero films such as ‘Beast of Blood’, ‘Mad Doctor of Blood Island’, Clive Barker’s ‘Night Breed’, and definitely ‘Nosferatu’.

Brian: Klaus Kinski’s calling ya’!  – If the Tall Man and Jason had to bloody it down on the portrait field of life, whom would come out the winner in your book?

Chris Kuchta The Tall ManChris: Tall Man all day. I love Jason’s hock, but nothing beats Angus Scrimm’s squint! His face is an icon of horror. Both of those series are basically my two favorites.  I haven’t gotten around to a full colored Jason…that needs to happen.  I want to paint the Tall Man with some of his cronies-some demonic dwarves, gas mask grave diggers, a huge collage with Reg and the whole Phantasm gang. 

Brian: Awesome! Scrimm is the man in my book, as well!  – Has there been a particular horror icon that you’ve tried to attack but just haven’t gotten the true essence of as of yet?

Chris: Freddy. He’s a tough one. I love the first Elm Street movie. It has by far the best atmosphere, but you can barely see Freddy’s damn face. He’s in shadows all the time, so inventing good light and color is a stretch.  How do you add more color to his sweater when it’s already primary red and green? And, of course, it’s a challenge to capture Robert Englund’s unique likeness through all the makeup.  I’d love to do a full standing Freddy with his claws in the boiler room with some freaky girls skipping rope.

Brian: That was my great grandmother’s fantasy, as well. Weird… Anyhow, your portraits are deep and sumptuous feasts of color. Well, that’s in my (admittedly shaky) layman’s terms, but do you have a particular way of describing your specific style and/or artistic take on the world o’ terror?

Chris: I would describe my work as academically painted with a heavily saturated color pallet. I like to bring forth a lot of texture to capture the unique quality of the flesh of each character I’m depicting and the aesthetic of their environment. My brush strokes are expressive and the brushwork itself is apparent so as not to trick people into thinking its photography. I want to make a painting! -I’m utilizing the value of each hue and replacing them on the subject. In laymen’s terms, I amp up the color and beef up the shadows. I rely on my drawing skills to reinterpret the shape and contour of the subject matter.

Brian: Perfect!  – Lastly, any words of advice (IE: Never mix up the crayon boxes of Herbert West and the Creature of the Black Lagoon) or future projects that you’d like to tell us about? And thanks – this has been better than sinning like crazy while my painting wastes away in the attic any night of the month!

Chris Kuchta Family PortraitChris: My advice to up and coming horror artists is this: learn how to paint. Learn from every piece of material you can get your hands on. Not just the obvious horror references, but classical artists as well like Rembrandt, Titian, and Reubens.  Go to cons! Submit your work to publishers and editors every chance you can get and constantly update your portfolio.- I’ve got quite a few things lined up for the near future. I’m putting together a calendar of my own grind house movie posters. I’m illustrating them in pencil and then digitally rendering the colors.  I’m making them in the old-school exploitation style of horror posters from the 60’s and 70’s. They are all films I’ve always wanted to make! – I also have a couple comic book projects in the works. I’m doing a line of horror buttons as well.

Brian: We’ll definitely look forward to it all, Chris! You truly rule over the artistic gates of Hell and beyond, my man!!!

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