ARTFINDER: An Old Fashioned Christmas by Richard De Wolfe - At the turn of the century, the main mode of wi...

ARTFINDER: An Old Fashioned Christmas by Richard De Wolfe - At the turn of the century, the main mode of wi...

 "An Old Fashioned Christmas" by Richard De Wolfe 30" x 48" alkyd on canvas

At the turn of the century, the main mode of winter
transportation was by horse drawn sleigh or “cutter” as depicted here.  The scene is typical of many
communities in Eastern Canada and the North Eastern United States.  It is dawn on Christmas morning, and
people are gathering at the church for an early Christmas service.

 Many modern day Amish and Mennonite families still travel in horse drawn vehicles and sleighs in winter, though the type that they favour are much less flambouyant than this one.

Winterlude Part 3

"Winterlude" almost there!

I keep adding colour and detail throughout the entire scene.  I want to maintain a balance so that I can judge each new brush stroke against the overall look of the painting.  If you concentrate too much on one area you may find that it doesn't work so well after the rest of the painting is completed.  You also run the risk of 'falling in love' with how that particular area of your work looks and you may not want to make necessary changes as you go forward.  By working more or less equally across the painting, you can maintain a healthier and more impartial perspective on your work.

Here I have painted in the distant trees using a mixture of sap green, ultramarine blue and titanium white.  Ultramarine blue dominates to create an illustion of distance.  Now the local colour of the barn is introduced.  I decided on a soft yellow to promote the feeling of bright sunlight on a cold winter day. I add snow to the branches of the spruce tree in front of the barn and generally add more detail to everything.  I introduce a slight hint of warmth in the sky on the right side of the painting, again to establish a feeling of bright sunlight coming from that direction.  Now I embellish the soft shadows in the snow and on the snowy branches in the foreground using a mixture of ultramarine blue and titanium white.

"Winterlude" 9 X 12 inches acrylic on board

I work fairly consistently over the entire painting as I go along, so everything comes together quite nicely as I near the finish.  I add small details and highlights as necessary, such as brightening the snow on the barn roof, spruce tree, fence and middle ground to suggest bright light in these areas.  I add bits of snow in the forks of tree branches beside the barn and I strengthen the blue shadow areas.

The last area to concentrate on is the foreground.  Layers of detail and colour are added to the birds to make them appear close to the viewer.  The pine needles are finished off with darker and more detailed brush strokes using a combination of sap green and lamp black,  The tree branches are painted in quickly with burnt sienna and lamp black in the shadows.

In order to increase the contrast between the sunny background and the shadowed foreground, I add a glaze of ultramarine blue and mat medium over most of the pine branches and the birds until I see a clear division between the two areas.  Once the signature is added, the painting is finished!

Winterlude

"Winterlude" sketch

I thought I would do a demo of how I paint this Christmas image for licensing.  I do a fair amount of illustrative art for licensing through Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing.  A winter scene is the perfect choice, since the art that is most in demand for licensing is usually a Christmas theme.  These images are often used for greeting cards, puzzles, gift ware and paper products as well as many other possibilites.  A prospective client will review the work I have available for licensing in a given catagory, choose what suits their project and purchase limited rights to use the image for a specific purpose and for a specific period of time.

The first thing I do when producing this type of art is to brainstorm an idea that will appeal to a maximum number of buyers.  Quite often, as in this case, the idea includes a number of similar images that may evolve into a series of finished pieces, all on the same theme.  Once I feel I have enough inspiration to proceed I come up with reference material for my idea.  I file all types of reference and I take digital photos everywhere I go, so I have a lot of material to draw from.  Now I create sketches to work out my design and create any additional parts of my picture from a combination of memory and imagination.  When this is done  I proceed to do a finished sketch on board or canvas to begin my painting.

"Winterlude"

The next step begins by spraying my drawing with a workable fixative to seal the graphite and prevent smearing.  Now I cover the drawing with matt medium that contains a small amount of acrylic pigment to tone the board.  Usually I will mix one muted colour and cover the entire surface evenly to provide a ground instead of glaring white.  Warm earth tones are my usual choice, but blue-gray is an alternative for a cooler, more subdued look.  

This time I wanted to suggest an extreme contrast between the extreme sunlight on the right and the cool shade on the left of my painting, so I toned the matt medium with cadmium yellow on the right and cerulean blue on the left.  I hope to create the illusion of a winter day warmed by the sun.  These colours will influence the paint that I lay over top as I continue to work.

Surtex Licensing Show 2012

I do a lot of artwork for licensed products.  There is a huge demand for artistic images created to decorate or embellish many types of products that people buy and enjoy every day.  My work often appears on such things as puzzles, calanders, greeting cards, ornaments, stationary products, gift packaging, mugs and many more.  The work is often light hearted in nature and can be a lot of fun to create!

My agent, Lance Klass, of Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing will be at the Surtex Art Licensing Show at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City, New York on May 20, 21 and 22nd., 2012.  Show hours are from 9am to 6pm daily.  Registration for this show is required.  If you are in the art licensing business, drop by and Lance will be happy to show you my artwork as well as the great work of all the Porterfield's artists.

Across the Miles - Step 5

I have now blocked in the entire canvas with colour.  Finishing the snow-cover changes the mood and the look of the painting quite drastically. This gives me a really good idea of how the finished painting will look.  The contours, light and shadows in the snow requires a subtle touch.  It is important to create the illusion of an undulating plane, falling away from the foreground to the mountains in the distance.  The roadway must also appear to 'sit' into the snow rather than on top of it.  The fence now appears to stand up from the snow, three dimensionally.

Painting and refining the white lettering on the side of the postman's sleigh is meticulous work and requires patience.  There is more work in this painting than I expected!

Across the Miles - Step 4

I continue the process of painting from back to front.  I render the barn in the distance, then proceed to the farm house in the middle ground.  Once again, I am choosing warm colours to keep this winter picture from becoming too 'cold'.

The next thing I tackle is the horse pulling the mail sleigh.   This is a critical element in the painting, essentially the center of interest so I must take great care in how I paint it.   I choose to make the horse black to create a high contrast with the white snow around it.

At this stage, I have left out the snow in the middle ground and started blocking in basic colour and detail on the rail fence in the foreground.  This helps me to keep a visual balance throughout the painting.  I have included the rail fence in the composition in order to add 'weight' to the lower portion and to guide the eye back toward the center of interest.

Across the Miles - Step 3

Usually I like to do a quick underpainting with acrylics on top of my toned canvas, but occasionally I will start to paint directly on a toned and shaded drawing.  I have decided to take the latter approach this time, starting from the sky at the top (furthest away from the viewer) and working my way down and progressively closer to the viewer as I go.  This allows me to build an illusion of depth into the work.

To keep the work from being too 'cold', I add warm yellows and pinks to the clouds, suggesting late-day lighting from the left.  I block in the snow-covered hills and move forward through the heavily laden spruce trees.  The last thing I do at this stage is to begin adding more form and colour to the mailman's sleigh and the mailbox where he has just made a Christmas delivery.

Across the Miles - Step 2

Now I start my under painting by priming the canvas with a mixture of acrylic made up of burnt sienna, cadmium red and a generous amount of mat medium to make it very transparent.  I apply this evenly over the entire canvas to give it a warm ground for me to paint on.

Once that is dry, I use a mixture of the same colours, but with less medium and I wash in some tonal areas to establish some basic form.  I work up some darker areas using the same colours and I delineate some details, such as the rail fence, sleigh, the horse and the buildings.  I place dark tones on the fir trees to establish a pattern of snow on the upper side of the branches.  Things are starting to take shape!

Across the Miles

Here is the beginning of another new 'horse and sleigh' painting.  These pictures are especially popular with my clients for such things as Christmas cards and puzzles.  This one is called "Across the Miles".  It is a depiction of the mailman making his delivery rounds by horse drawn sleigh.  The scene is a snowy landscape in rural America, just before Christmas.

This canvas measures 16 inches high by 20 inches wide.  Once I have worked out my initial drawing, I transfer it to stretched canvas, then spray it with workable fixative.   Once that is done, I'm ready to start painting!

Painting Progression4 - Winter Really is a Blast!

In the final stage of this illustration, I add a sprig of holly to give it a Christmas feel, which is important for licensing.  I apply a glaze over the entire painting to unify all of the colours and to create a tonal cast upon which I will paint my final highlights.  The glaze is a weak mixture of ultramarine blue made extremely transparent by combining with a large proportion of mat acrylic medium.  I mix them together well, and then apply this evenly over the entire surface of the picture.  Once it is dry, I repaint some of the snowflakes and the highlights on the main subject with pure white to make them stand out.  A signature is added and the picture is finished.

Snow Day!

One of the great things about living in Canada when you are a child is winter. Adults may dread it, often finding the cold and snow a hardship to deal with, but children look forward to it all year long. The great thing about a northern winter to a child is lots of snow! When the weather gets stormy, most school buses do not venture out and many schools close for the day entirely. This creates an unscheduled holiday that kids really appreciate.

I created this painting as an illustration for art licensing. I wanted it to be colourful and dramatic in order to convey the excitement of the children. I used my granddaughter Ashley as a model for both the boy and the girl. My work boots fit Frosty perfectly! I added the glow of the sun to warm up an otherwise cool setting. The painting is 9 inches by 12 inches, painted in alkyd on board.

Sleigh Ride!

This painting has been very popular for my collectors and also licensing clients. It is the perfect Christmas image, both nostalgic and exciting! The horses are galloping briskly along the roadway with a frisky dog leading the way. The period dress of the sleigh's occupants suggest Victorian times, when horse and sleigh were the main mode of winter transportation. You might also notice a buffalo skin rug in their laps, which was used to keep travellers warm. The old wooden pump in the lower right corner is now a thing of the past. These pumps were carved entirely out of wood by skilled craftsmen!

The limestone house in the background was once owned by my wife and I. The beautiful blue spruce tree stands just as I have painted it, beside the house in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The historic stone church in the background actually exists in Barriefield, just across the Rideau River.

I chose to paint a colourful winter sky in keeping with the animated feeling of the overall painting. This gave me the opportunity to reflect all of these colours in the snow and gives the picture additional life. The painting measures 18 inches high by 24 inches wide. It is painted in alkyd paint on a canvas support. The original is not for sale, but prints are available at: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/richard-de-wolfe.html Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Fallen Angel

I like to do art photography as well as painting. This is a shot I took of a cement cast angel that usually resides on a raised portion of a bird bath in our back yard. I also like to write, and I am currently working on my first novel. I am considering this photo as the basis for the cover design, should it ever make it into print. I also offer this photo as an art print on Fine Art America. You can find many more of my photos and art prints at: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/richard-de-wolfe.html

An Old Fashioned Christmas

I thought it was time to post a real Christmas painting. I call this one "An Old Fashioned Christmas". Plenty of nostalgia depicted here, about a much slower and innocent time, when most people lived in the country or at least very small towns and villages across Canada and the United States. In those days the main mode of winter transportation was by horse drawn sleigh or 'cutter'. The scene is typical of many communities in Easter Canada and the North- eastern United States. It is dawn on Christmas morning, and people are gathering at the church for an Early Christmas service.

My composition is based on an "S" pattern. The eye enters from the lower left following the direction of the horse and sleigh, over the bridge to where the figures in front of the church are congregated, and finally the church itself. The stone mill beside the church and the mail boxes in the lower right corner lead the eye back to the horse and sleigh approaching the bridge and the whole process is repeated. The snow covered spruce tree acts as a visual stop and keeps the eye from wandering off to the left.

The painting measures 48 inches wide by 30 inches high. It is painted on stretched canvas, and as I usually do, I worked in alkyd paint. I found this cutter in a Sotheby's auction catalogue and I loved the ornate style. It is being pulled smartly by a high stepping Hackney Horse.

Painterly Illustration

During the 1980's, I shared studio space with several other artists and a photographer. One of these artists (we were all illustrators in those days) was Stewart Sherwood, one of the most talented and prolific artists I know. Stewart has produced paintings and illustrations based on a wide range of subject matter. He is also amazingly fast, often producing a number of finished pieces in one sitting.

Stewart handles any subject with warmth and humour. Today, Stewart paints primarily for the art licensing market and is one of the most successful artists in this field today. As I mentioned, his subject matter is broad, including Christmas, nostalgia, portraits, sports, animals, landscapes and so much more. I particularly love the many paintings of children that he has produced over the years, many for the Bradford Exchange, as collector plates. For more information on Stewart Sherwood and many more examples of his wonderful art, visit his web site at: www.stewartsherwood.ca

Jolly Old Saint Nick

It's Christmas Eve and I just realized I haven't posted anything for Christmas! I decided to go with this one, an illustration I did some years ago, of the Jolly Old Elf himself. At one time, I worked full time as a freelance illustrator, creating realistic images like this for advertising, editorial, posters, etc.

It is painted on hot press illustration board using acrylic paint, applied with relatively fine sable brushes. The speckles of 'snow' on the wreath were created using a stiff tooth brush to splatter the paint with a flick of my thumb. The ribbon and some of the finishing highlights are done with airbrush, something I used often in illustration during the 1970's and 1980's. The lettering is hand done in acrylic, predating computer fonts.

Painting Progression-Seasons Greetings-Step 6

The sky in the background is finished off and the afternoon setting sun is highlighted a bit more.  It is positioned near the snowman's carrot nose and sparkling eyes, helping to attract the viewer's eye to the center of interest of the painting.  The snow-laden tree branch, which also points at Frosty's face, also thrusts into the picture, drawing the viewer's eye back in.  The Cardinal is finished in with more color and detail.  The bird is positioned to keep the viewer's eye going back and forth between these two characters.  The Christmas tree and ornaments are painted in and white highlights are added to create a reflective shine.  I add darks and highlights to Frosty's mittens and make small adjustments throughout the painting, where needed.  A light scattering of new snow falling adds greatly to the feeling of depth and a sense of animation.  The signature goes on and the painting is complete!

Painting Progression-Seasons Greetings-Step 5

With all of the basic color decisions made, I can now work up detail in every area of the picture.  It is a simple matter to decide where adjustments need to be made once the picture has a complete color map.  The snowman's face is the main focal point, so I try to accentuate his kind, lovable expression. I add soft blue to his coal black eyes to create a luminous shine. Next, I add a sparkle to them with a white highlight.  A strong, bright red on the scarf and ear muffs give him a dashing, festive look.  I use warm yellow highlights on the mittens and a healthy bright orange on his carrot nose.

In order to liven up the snowman's body, I add strong blue-purple in the shadow areas, and I build a texture over the highlighted surfaces with a dry brush effect of heavy pigment.  Frosty is rapidly coming to life as the paint steadily goes on! 

Painting Progression-Seasons Greetings-Step 4

Now I begin to paint over the initial blocked-in areas of color.  The sky is refined and painted more heavily, blending the tones together.  The background trees are worked up a bit more, adding some detail and texture.  The old fedora on Frosty's head is painted in and the sprig of holly is added, too.  His features, carrot nose and colorful scarf get more hue, texture and detail added to them, and the picture begins to take on more life and a feeling of depth.  More color and contours are added to the woollen mittens and an initial layer is added to the tree decorations.  Each step taken is another building block in the structure of the painting.  The work is evolving as a whole, rather than one part at a time.  In this way, I always know how all the elements in the picture relate to one another.  My goal is to avoid painting myself into a "corner" along the way.

Painting Progression-Seasons Greetings-Step 3

Now I paint in all of the basic areas using simple colors.  I am working with acrylic paint thinned with water.  For the background sky, I create a  wash of soft blue which I bleed into the yellow of the late afternoon winter sun.  Care must be taken to avoid creating a sickly green where the yellow and blue tones meet.  Each area I add helps to create a map of what the finished piece should look like.  With the basic colors laid in, it is easy to decide what adjustments to make and to which areas in order to create the look that I want.  If I painted one area completely before working on another, I would probably need to change it later, in relation to other areas in the picture.  It is best to work over the entire picture, building a solid foundation first.