Portrait Commission

I completed this portrait about one week ago.  I don't do a lot of portraits, but occasionally it is fun to take one on and stretch my capabilities....hopefully at least!  This one was a commission for a previous collector of my art.  The painting measures 11 inches wide by 14 inches high.  I painted it on a canvas panel and mounted it in a simple, antique style dark walnut coloured frame that really suited the subject of older folks.  This was actually a portrait of the collector's parents who passed away some years ago, so my patron was delighted to have this painting done as a keepsake and family heirloom for future generations.  If you have a photo that you would like me to use to create a special work of art, please contact me and we can discuss the possibilites.

Traditional Figure Painting

Here is something I came across on Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Newsletter.  It was inspiring to me to learn of an artist who is determined to maintain tried and true, traditional methods of figure painting.  Jacob Collins is a New York artist and art teacher.  His self-proclaimed goal is to be "an old-fashioned painter".  Jacob works from life, be it nudes, still life or figures, in his dark but strategically lit studio.  He carefully draws his subjects by the time honoured method of draw, correct, refine, until he has captured the nature and character of his model.  Some may liken Jacob to a modern-day Rembrandt who stands out in contrast to many of the current avant-garde artists who surround us.  The following video attests to the skills of a modern-day master.  Enjoy!

Puppy Love - Step Five

I have resolved the dilemma of what to do with the bedding and cushions by using a colour scheme that is primarily purple with golden yellow accents. The purple is a restful, nocturnal colour and the gold is on the opposite side of the colour wheel, making it the complimentary in this case. It ties in nicely with the colour of the girl's hair, the puppy and the teddy bear, too.

I have created some dramatic, low lighting on the cushion in the background and deepened the dark brown behind them. There is now a distinct background, middle ground and foreground in the picture. This creates a feeling of depth in the picture and helps build a strong, interesting composition.

Detail and depth of colour are added throughout the painting, and finally, highlights are added at the very last as the finishing touch.

Puppy Love - Step Four

I continue to add detail, slowly building up colour and form primarily with thin washes and glazes using mat medium. I darken the background with a mixture of burnt umber and black to really punch out the foreground. Everything other than the bedding and pillows seems to really be coming together at this point. I am still undecided about what to do with the cushions in the background.

Puppy Love - Step Three

At this stage I begin introducing local colour throughout the painting. I wash in flesh tones on the face and arms of the sleeping girl. I begin accenting details on all three characters in the picture. Simple washes of colour are blocked in on the blanket and cushions behind the figure. I block in the hair with a wash of colour, then add initial detail with burnt sienna. I do the same with the puppy and the teddy bear, then concentrate on adding the most detail to the central character, the puppy.

The teddy bear leans into the picture and the girl's arm leads the eye to the puppy and then to the girl's face. The flow of the hair leads the viewer's eye to the cushions in the background. These cushions act as a 'backstop', leading the eye back to the teddy bear and the cycle is repeated, keeping the viewer's eye within the picture, always returning to the puppy and the girl's face.

Puppy Love - Step Two

Once the drawing is well fixed, I tone the entire surface with a thin wash of blue-gray acrylic paint, thinned heavily with mat medium and water. I add some slightly darker washes of the same colour, particularly in the bedding. Next, I begin building form and detail to the teddy bear, puppy and sleeping girl. The last thing I do at this stage is to block in the background with a heavier wash of burnt umber.

Puppy Love - Step One

I thought it time I posted another painting progression, since I haven't put one up for quite a while. This is a picture I am painting primarily for licensing. Companies pay me a fee to use this type of art to illustrate a product such as puzzles, calendars, greeting cards, soft goods, etc. for a specified period of time.

This piece is titled "Puppy Love". I started out by doing a detailed drawing on illustration board. Once I am happy with the drawing, I spray it with workable fixative, then seal it with acrylic mat medium. I also give the back of the illustration a quick application of mat medium to prevent serious warping as the picture dries. If you only paint on the face side of the board, it will often curl due to tension caused by shrinkage of the drying paint. An application on both sides of the sheet counter acts this tendency.

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

Toronto Illustrators

Another month has flown by and I have found little time to add a new post to my blog. My last few posts have been in reference to my previous career in illustration. The industry has changed a great deal in more recent years, and digital art, created with the use of computer graphics software predominates these days. You can view the work of a number of illustrators, such as the one I have posted here, by visiting www.torontoillustrators.com.

Auto Racing Montage

As I have mentioned before, throughout the 1970's, 80's and into the 1990's, I worked full-time in Advertising Illustration. Many of my clients were in the automotive field, such as Goodyear Tire. I produced a number of illustrations for Goodyear during that time period and this is one example of the work I did for them. What could be more fun to paint than a montage of racing machines diverging at dramatic angles?

I tried to create an interesting and exciting composition that sweeps from back to front in a dynamic and dramatic curve. The rakish angle of the Goodyear Racer in the foreground seems to suggest thrust and speed. A montage must be carefully designed to work as an interesting unit without confusing the viewer. Often it is done as a vignette, so positive and negative shapes must be considered as well. The colour scheme must work as a unit and the design should carry the viewer's eye into the picture and keep it there. A variety of shapes and sizes of the elements within a montage are required to create visual interest. The whole thing can be a lot more difficult than you might think, at first glance.

I painted this illustration on a very fine woven primed canvas, using acrylic paint. Before I began to paint much detail over the finished drawing, I loosely painted a thin wash of colour over the general area of each individual scene, using the local colour of each one. After I painted the various elements in detail, I back-painted around the illustration with white gesso to softly define the shapes.

Look Into My Big Brown Eyes

Christmas is over, so I want to move on beyond Santa to close out the year. Today is New Year's Eve, the last day of 2009. The winter is just begun, even though it always seems to be well established by this time each year!

This is an illustration that I did a few years ago as a piece of licensed art. For those who don't know, licensed art is designed to appeal to companies who need images to enhance or complete a product which they wish to bring to the market place. They pay a fee, or royalties or both, in exchange for the right to use the image in a prescribed manner on specific products and for a set period of time, usually three years. I do a fair amount of this type of work and I sometimes also license my more traditional paintings as well.

I call this piece "Look Into My Big Brown Eyes". It is a whimsical rendering of a polar bear character, especially appealing because of the "Elton John" sized glasses that he is sporting. This type of light-hearted image can be attractive to companies that produce such products as greeting cards or stitched products.

The illustration was done on illustration board using acrylic paint with a few touches of pencil crayons. The size of the original is 7 inches by 10.25 inches. You can find a complete selection of my licensed art images at www.porterfieldsfineart.com/RichardDeWolfe/richarddewolfemainpage.htm.

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.

500 Years of Female Portraits

This clever video by Philip Scott Johnson is titled ‘500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art’. The music which accompanies the captivating faces as they continuously change and evolve from one to the next, is Bach’s Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 performed beautifully by Yo-Yo Ma. The video was nominated as Most Creative Video, 2^nd Annual You Tube Awards.