Painter, printmaker, and writer Richard B. "Ricky" Lyttle was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1927, to a ranching family. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II in 1944-45, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend UC Berkeley, majoring in English. There he met his future wife, Jean, and after graduation they moved to Lyttle's family ranch in Southern California where Lyttle continued to work while pursuing art. In addition to ranching, Lyttle found work as freelance writer and reporter. In the 1950s he was introduced to printmaking and began working first in woodcuts and then intaglio, which would become his primary art medium, and when they settled in Inverness in Marin County, California in 1962 he opened a studio where he would work and teach etching. 

Lyttle took courses at Indian Valley College in Novato and Sonoma State University just north in Rohnert Park, Sonoma County. Among his teachers were Shane Weare, Kate Delos, Bud Gralapp, Walt Kuhlman, Mark Perlman, Ted Greer, and others. Meanwhile, Lyttle wrote prolifically, publishing books on historical politics and political figures, sports, and luminaries such as Pablo Picasso, Mark Twain, and Ernest Hemingway. Lyttle exhibited in more than 100 juried shows, and is a member of the California Society of Printmakers. He continues to live in Inverness.