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!

Arctic Summer

I created this painting when wildlife art was in high demand.  That wasn't the reason that I painted it, but  that market has fallen off drastically, so I paint much less wildlife now than I did then.  Art subjects are cyclical and like every business, you need to pay attention to what the market wants, at least some of the time.

The Arctic wolf lives in a tough environment, above the treeline.  Summers are very short there, and the tundra bursts into bloom for only a matter of weeks before temperatures begin to drop once more.  These pups are enjoying the mid-day sunshine while the mother wolf keeps a watchful eye on them.  There is little cover for them, should a predator happen by.

I painted this picture on stretched canvas using alkyd paints.  The painting measures 16 inches high by 22 inches wide.  I used a circular composition to direct the viewer's eye from the pup in the foreground, up to it's mates, and then to the mountain peak in the background before flowing to the she-wolf and back to the pups again.  The colour scheme is warm, which fortifies the feeling of mid-day sunshine.

You can find this painting and archival quality prints on paper or canvas at my web site www.richarddewolfe.com or my publisher's web site http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/richard-de-wolfe.html

Running Horse

This is something new I am experimenting with for art licensing.  I am working with computer software to create the entire illustration.  I bought a drawing tablet and got CorelPaint software with it.  I have been experimenting and here is one piece of art that I have created as a result.  I am using it in conjunction with PhotoShop software that I am more familiar with.  CorelPaint seems to be a really great tool, so I may decide to purchase a complete and more current version.  Both CorelPaint and Adobe PhotoShop are great tools both for creating art and manipulating digital files for today's graphic artists.  If you haven't tried CorelPaint, I highly recommend it.

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.

Painting Progression3 - Winter Really is a Blast!

I accentuate the shadowing on the scarf before adding a snowflake pattern to the material.  I continue to add detail, both light and shadow, on the fur, eyes and features of the polar bear's face.  More modelling is also added to the mitten.  The last thing that I do at this stage is to paint snowflakes in the air.  I add 'speedlines' to suggest a driving snow storm, in keeping with the title of the piece.  This also creates another illustion of animation in the painting.

Painting Progression2 - Winter Really is a Blast!

In this stage I continue to block in flat , local colours on the touque, scarf and mitten.  I add simple detail to the bear's fur, nose and eyes and create a little texture on the fuzzy edge of the touque.  I have just started to suggest a lighting scheme in the fur, with a warm cast on the upper right and a cool blue cast on the lower left.  The picture now has a loosly defined colour scheme to build on.  Any mistakes can easily be corrected as I move forward from here, since I haven't commited myself to much detail yet.